Diversity Roll Call

Mitali Perkins' article, Straight Talk on Race, is making a lot of folks think.

As you know, I recently committed to diversifying my own reading habits.

Yes, thank you. Thank you. Just doing my part.

Worducopia is asking folks to take Mitali up on her request to look at the books they're reading (have read) and assess how they avoid or (knowingly or unknowingly) embrace stereotypes.

Many times authors of color are purposely writing about a character of color, simply because those characters are missing in mainstream fiction. But that doesn't mean we're not guilty of stereotyping. Mitali confesses to some of her own, in the article.

Usually when someone says diversity, immediately the white writers are ducking for cover. But writers of color should be just as aware of embracing diversity and challenging stereotypes in our writing.

Have I?

Have the authors in books I've read lately?

Using Mitali's five questions, I took a look at Jumped by Rita Williams Garcia, Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson and my series:

1. Are the nonwhite characters too good to be true? The point of this question is to encourage us to pay attention to how and why the race of characters is conveyed in a story.

In Jumped, most of the characters are African American or Latino. However, early in the book, the female bully confronts a white, male teacher who is clearly afraid of her. Not only does she know it, she takes pride in being able to have this sort of power over him.

One could argue that this plays on the stereotype that white people are intimidated and/or threatened by Black people. But, in the context of the book, it's a very realistic portrayal of a kid living on the edge and a teacher wary of this type of kid which he probably runs across too often.

But I have asked myself, anew, had the teacher Dominique was confronting been a black woman, might there have been a different outcome? Assuming she has daddy issues, what if he'd been a black man?

Usually black teachers are portrayed as not taking any guff from students, while white teachers are portrayed (when dealing with black students, at least) of being more timid. Williams Garcia portrayal rings true to me, but I'm tempted to ask her personally about the flip side.

In Wintergirls, that I recall, there are no characters of color, token or otherwise. Everyone is white. In the realm of the story, it mattered little.

In my own books, I chose to make Lizzie, Mina's best friend who is white, the more grade-conscious, practical one who is not interested in losing her virginity. It never came to mind that this might feed into the stereotype that too often teens of color are the faces of declining grades and teen pregnancy. Out of context, it can be seen that way.

But in the context of the entire book, Lizzie is one of six characters. Nearly all of them get good grades, Lizzie just happens to be more of a straight-A type. And Lizzie isn't alone in her abstinence pact, the Latina character, Kelly, also takes it. So I think the traits are well-spread out. However, had I made Lizzie the rich character (instead of Kelly) then I would agree that Lizzie was made too perfect an ideal.

2. How and why does the author define race. (Does it need to be defined? Is their race crucial to the plot?)

In Jumped, the characters' race is defined by physical descriptions and dialect. I believe race is crucial to the plot because at its heart, it's a portrayal of an inner city school.

Because it, like most books, doesn't dwell on desciptors, it's easy to assume the characters in Wintergirls are supposed to be white. There are a few small hair and skin tone references which solidify the implication. However, the face on the cover is white, which also makes it easy for the reader to assume, early on, that everyone within is as well. I don't believe race is crucial to the plot.

In my books, I very obviously state race via descriptions of hair, skin tone and body types (Lizzie is the more straight up and down and curveless while Mina and Jacinta have more junk in their trunk).

I also use dialect and slang to show the different economic backgrounds of the characters. Could that be stereotyping? Yeah. But the point of the first book is that some of the characters are coming from a different mentality and economic place than Mina. So it was necessary. Race is crucial to the plot in So Not The Drama. Not so much the preceding books.

3. Is the cover art true to the story? (Mitali cites as an example the cover of Cynthia Kadohata’s novel Weedflower, in which the Japanese American main character is wearing a kimono, even though she's never described as wearing one in the text)

In both Jumped and Wintergirls, definitely. Jumped's cover is a desolate, dim hallway that foreshadows the ominous nature of being at this school. Wintergirls has a face peering through a web of ice.

My first cover is graphic and was meant to convey a vibe (light, teen read) and I think it delivers. However, when the covers went photo, they were meant to convey that the cast was multi-culti. And it delivers there as well.

I actually like covers like Jumped and Wintergirls where a single shot captures the essence of the story. I'm not sure, for the type of books my series are, what single shot would have done it quite as well.

None of these covers are stereotypical unless you want to count that Wintergirls implies that anorexia is primarily a disease among white females. But that's correct, statistically. I don't see it as a stereotype.

4. Who solves the problem in the story? (Would "Dances With Wolves" have been as popular with theater-goers without the white hero?)

The white person as the hero can grate, especially when it's done so often. And it is!

But none of the books I'm assessing suffer from this. Without going spoiler-rific, I don't know that the problem is solved in Jumped. Had a white teacher jumped in and made everything peachy, then yeah. You almost wish that would happen as you read.

In Wintergirls, the protag is her own hero.

In my books, there aren't any true "someone saved the day" moments, though someone did call me on the teacher character in So Not The Drama being a stereotypical white idealistic teacher who wants to save the world.

Maybe she is. But I had a teacher like her in high school. When a character is based on someone does that lessen its stereotypicalness?

5. How is beauty defined?

The girl who is ultimately Jumped is Latino. Her beauty is implied in her actions, the way she carries herself and for the most part, the reason she's jumped in the first place. Williams Garcia doesn't necessary give her a tangible mark of beauty. The character believes she's all that and carries herself that way.

In Wintergirls, beauty is defined by the character's mission to be ever thinner. It's an American ideal that crosses all racial bounderies.

In my books...hmm...well I tried to keep it more along the lines of how Williams Garcia did it and convey it via attitude. However, I'll admit I probably used way more "outer" beauty landmarks - describing someone's size or hair, than I should have. I'll take the hand slap on that. I think I veered way into the stereotype lane, in that respect.

So...how does what you're reading or writing fare against the questions?