No Race Cards Here
My writer bud, Neesha Meminger, re-introduced a word to my lexicon a few weeks ago as we watched American Idol, "cultural affiliator."
As Anoop Desai sang his heart out, Neesha, who is also of Indian descent wished him well. Just as she'd wished a few other Idol contestants she was rooting for. But rooting for Anoop was different. No matter what, she couldn't help but identify with him as another person of the same ethnic descent and for that one but ultimately complex bond, she wanted him to hit it out of the park. Get a home run for the "home team."
And she admitted as much with a very simple "at the risk of being a cultural affiliator..."
And I immediately thought - yes, that's me. That's what my work with The Brown Bookshelf is about. I just hadn't really thought about it in those terms. Or at least, I'd never vocalized them.
People of color are cultural affiliators for their race and ethnicities, not because we want to be but because we simply are. Every day we relate to people because of a million other things - from the same neighborhood, went to the same high school or college, share the same publisher, write in the same genre...but there always comes a time when we identify with someone simply because of a shared cultural background.
Yes, religion, political ties...all those count too. But those are things you can choose not to share. Race and ethnicity...not so much. Race you wear on the outside. You're affiliating even when you're not saying a word. So sometimes it feels like someone is pulling the race card if they verbalize their cultural aff.
Everytime I find myself wearing the Hi, My Name is the Black Writer hat I'm always a teeny bit uncomfortable.
Will I remember my notes from the last "Black" meeting? Will I get our talking points right?
And when those worries creep, I then get a teeny bit frustrated because were the playing field totally level, there'd be little need to slap on that name tag at all. Well...Hi, I'm The Black Writer is in the building...
On Friday, a few lists from the Oprah Book Club were circulating. And boy was I disappointed to see that her YA list was totally and utterly devoid of any African American authors.
Wait. Stop.
I don't feel nor have I ever felt that Oprah should wave the banner for all things African American. However, I am constantly amazed and disappointed when I see any pop culture list of "great" booksmoviestvshowsCDs and they don't list one, not ONE item by someone of color.
How are such vehicles consistently overpassed when these generic lists are being compiled?
So, my annoyance with the Oprah YA list being color-less has very little to do with her race. If the list had been compiled by Martha Stewart I would raise the same exact issue. Because I find it hard to believe that whoever put the list together hadn't heard of any books by a person of color or felt that there were none worthy.
Please, let's immediately get rid of the "none worthy" argument, because it's trash!
The Brown Bookshelf was started because when books for African American children are mentioned they tend to be by our trailblazers Myers, Draper, Flake. We wanted to make sure that readers knew there were more than three Black authors writing for children.
But when even the vanguards/award winners are overlooked, it's a sucker punch in my cultural affiliated gut.
*oof!*
As Anoop Desai sang his heart out, Neesha, who is also of Indian descent wished him well. Just as she'd wished a few other Idol contestants she was rooting for. But rooting for Anoop was different. No matter what, she couldn't help but identify with him as another person of the same ethnic descent and for that one but ultimately complex bond, she wanted him to hit it out of the park. Get a home run for the "home team."
And she admitted as much with a very simple "at the risk of being a cultural affiliator..."
And I immediately thought - yes, that's me. That's what my work with The Brown Bookshelf is about. I just hadn't really thought about it in those terms. Or at least, I'd never vocalized them.
People of color are cultural affiliators for their race and ethnicities, not because we want to be but because we simply are. Every day we relate to people because of a million other things - from the same neighborhood, went to the same high school or college, share the same publisher, write in the same genre...but there always comes a time when we identify with someone simply because of a shared cultural background.
Yes, religion, political ties...all those count too. But those are things you can choose not to share. Race and ethnicity...not so much. Race you wear on the outside. You're affiliating even when you're not saying a word. So sometimes it feels like someone is pulling the race card if they verbalize their cultural aff.
Everytime I find myself wearing the Hi, My Name is the Black Writer hat I'm always a teeny bit uncomfortable.
Will I remember my notes from the last "Black" meeting? Will I get our talking points right?
And when those worries creep, I then get a teeny bit frustrated because were the playing field totally level, there'd be little need to slap on that name tag at all. Well...Hi, I'm The Black Writer is in the building...
On Friday, a few lists from the Oprah Book Club were circulating. And boy was I disappointed to see that her YA list was totally and utterly devoid of any African American authors.
Wait. Stop.
I don't feel nor have I ever felt that Oprah should wave the banner for all things African American. However, I am constantly amazed and disappointed when I see any pop culture list of "great" booksmoviestvshowsCDs and they don't list one, not ONE item by someone of color.
How are such vehicles consistently overpassed when these generic lists are being compiled?
So, my annoyance with the Oprah YA list being color-less has very little to do with her race. If the list had been compiled by Martha Stewart I would raise the same exact issue. Because I find it hard to believe that whoever put the list together hadn't heard of any books by a person of color or felt that there were none worthy.
Please, let's immediately get rid of the "none worthy" argument, because it's trash!
The Brown Bookshelf was started because when books for African American children are mentioned they tend to be by our trailblazers Myers, Draper, Flake. We wanted to make sure that readers knew there were more than three Black authors writing for children.
But when even the vanguards/award winners are overlooked, it's a sucker punch in my cultural affiliated gut.
*oof!*
posted by Paula at 12:00 AM
2 Comments:
cultural affliator-- that's something I need to add to my vocabulary. Hey, firefox says it's not a word! haha.
Your worries are definitely shared. It's an interesting thing to think about. Not something you want to talk about out loud sometimes because it can make you look bad for some reason.
Hopefully, as you and the other authors get the word about black YA lit more out there Oprah will have some black writers on there next time!
Also, go Anoop!
Not something you want to talk about out loud sometimes because it can make you look bad for some reason.We disagree there. I think it's absolutely something that should be talked about as long as the talk is kept positive.
Although Oprah is what got me thinking about this, lots of lists are guilty of not making their pop culture lists more inclusive. People's Sexiest Man/Woman lists usually is relatively vanilla. Entertaintment Weekly's vast number of lists usually are very mainstream.
I think more media outlets need to take it upon themselves to dig deeper to make more lists inclusive.
::off my soap box::
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