Editor's Note: Today's blog post is by Naomi Bishop. She received her MLIS from the University of Washington iSchool in 2010. She is an American Indian Youth Literature Awards committee member, the American Indian Library Association secretary, and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community (Akimel-O’odham/Pima). She lives in Tucson, Arizona.
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Publishing and Diversity
by Naomi Bishop
The face of American children has changed.
In 2012, the Children’s Book Council (CBC) established a
committee to push “diversity” in children’s literature. They presented a panel
on their diversity initiative at ALA Midwinter Conference in Seattle in January
of 2013. I attended it, after having read Debbie Reese’s blog post that says several
books on their Good Reads shelf for Native Americans are stereotypical.
According to the CBC “Diversity” website,
CBC Diversity is dedicated to increasing the diversity of voices and experiences contributing to children's and young adult literature -- encouraging diversity of race, gender, geographical origin, sexual orientation, and class among both the creators of and the topics addressed by kid lit.
While this is a noble initiative, there are flaws in its
implementation. First, the initiative is only pushing books by members of the association
and not supporting great books of non-member publishers. Second, considering
the presence of stereotypes in some of their books about American Indians, the association
has a non-critical viewpoint and method for evaluating the content of the children’s
literature it promotes. Third, the CBC does not consult with ALA ethnic
caucuses on the books selected.
After attending the panel session presented at ALA Midwinter,
I did more investigation into CBC. Here are more statements from the CBC
webpage:
The Children’s Book Council is a national nonprofit trade association of children’s book publishers. The CBC offers children’s publishers the opportunity to work together on issues of importance to the industry at large, including educational programming, literacy advocacy, and collaborations with other national organizations.
And,
Membership in the CBC is open to all children's book publishers, packagers, and related companies in the United States. Personal memberships are not available.
At the presentation I listened attentively and actively
participated in the discussion. I asked the panelist three questions about the
“diversity” initiatives.
- What does the CBC diversity group have as qualifications to recommend books and what is the personal background on each member?
- What process does CBC use to vet the books on the Good Reads shelf?
- If books on the Good Reads shelf are not representative of a particular group will the CBC take them off the list?
My questions were answered with mixed responses, but the
overall message was that the CBC only promotes books by its members.
My overall reaction is that CBC is an economic publishing
organization that does not care about the quality of the books published. This
was particularly evident in their response to my third question. The CBC, I was
told, does not say that the books are good or bad, they are just “diverse.”
As a Native American (Pima) librarian getting started in my
career, I am upset with the CBC initiative, and disappointed that the American
Library Association would allow such an economically driven “diversity” panel.
The session would have been far better if other ALA affiliate groups and
children’s awards committees were on the panel, too.
Within ALA and nationwide, conversations about multicultural
youth literature are happening, but I think CBC Diversity is taking advantage
of libraries and librarians. If libraries want to embrace diversity, they need
to know about all the people writing and illustrating books about people of
color. Librarians, me included, need to understand the economics of publishing
and get to know editors, publishers, and authors. Small independent publishers
like Cinco Puntos Press are a great example to the publishing world. They
publish excellent, well-written stories for children by authors and
illustrators of diverse backgrounds. We need to know about their books.
While at ALA we celebrated the Newberry, Caldecott, and
other awards for outstanding youth literature, and we may have thought that the
CBC was another means for us to celebrate diversity in children’s books. In
reality, I think the CBC’s exclusivity is a disruption to inclusivity in children’s
and youth librarianship, and I question ALA’s sponsorship of the panel. The
American Indian Youth Literature Awards are recognizing the value and quality
of books about American Indians, yet they are not a part of the ALA Youth Media
Awards. I would like to see the American Indian Youth Literature Awards become
a part of the big announcements in Children’s Literature alongside other awards
committee.
If libraries want to high quality children’s literature
about people of color on their shelves, librarians must take a look at what is
being selected by APALA, AILA, REFORMA and other affiliates. It is not ok for
stereotypical books to be part of a “diversity” Good Reads virtual bookshelf,
or on any public library bookshelf or lists of books about diversity.
It is 2013! In order for our libraries to be truly
inclusive, we need to start thinking critically. We need to think about information
literacy! We need to think critically about accuracy, currency, definitions, and
how we evaluate of characters, place, and time. We need to think about the
people writing our stories! Are groups being represented as they wish to be
represented? Are we promoting literature for the new faces of America? Are we
selecting high quality books and supporting small independent publishers?
The children and librarians of the future deserve the best
and it is our responsibility to educate, speak up, and participate in the
discussions that are happening.
Naomi Bishop
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You may be interested in these publications by the American Indian Library Association:
Here's the American Indian Library Association's page about its literature awards:
American Indian Youth Literature Award
And here's two previous posts to AICL about the CBC Diversity Committee:
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You may be interested in these publications by the American Indian Library Association:
- "I" is not for Indian, compiled by Naomi Caldwell-Wood and Lisa A. Mitten, 1991
- "I" is for Inclusion, compiled by Naomi Caldwell, Gabriella Kaye, and Lisa A. Mitten, 2007
Here's the American Indian Library Association's page about its literature awards:
American Indian Youth Literature Award
And here's two previous posts to AICL about the CBC Diversity Committee:
- Thumbs down to some titles on CBC Diversity's Goodreads Bookshelf, January 4, 2013
- Thumbs up to some titles on CBD Diversity's Goodreads Bookshelf, January 7, 2013
