Sigh, there is so much on the topic right now. A lot of good points but I feel like there's a few things not being said, so here's my take... and it is probably not going to make me popular. :/ Sorry, I'm not sorry.
This is mostly from personal experiences, academic background and my experience of working in higher education. I can only represent myself because we are all unique regardless of our diversity/identity makeup.
There's more to being diverse then ethnic and racial make-up.
There's so many elements that define diversity. SO MANY. My pigmentation is not the end all and be all to what makes me diverse or anyone else for that matter. A disability, an illness, a culture, an upbringing, family dynamics, a job, etc. could all be classified as an element of diversity. Some of these may seem "tokenish" but I guarantee you at 14 years old all I could think about was how wearing glasses made me feel different. I wasn't normal so at that moment I became part of a minority. As YAs and Adults many of us hide our diversities through a number of ways (contacts, heels, makeup, etc.) and we identify with the characters written in black and white because we see ourselves and the people we love.
Being a minority does not make you an expert in being said minority. It makes you an expert in being you.
On a personal note, I'm Latina and more specifically Mexican-American, born and raised in Texas. I can only tell you what my experience was growing up. I most definitely am NOT an expert on what it means to be Mexican-American. Culturally I would identify with being uhh... Country-American? Yes, I laugh during George Lopez standup and chuckle while reading Aristotle and Dante but it's not because I had similar experiences. It's because it's funny and I've seen the situations unfold in other families.
What I know is that I grew up in an all white neighborhood, my family does not speak Spanish and the average Texan can speak more than I can. I tell you all of this to demonstrate that I'm not an expert in my own ethnicity, I have scores of stories about people telling me just how un-Mexican-American I am. ;) I'm just me and it doesn't make me any more or less Mexican-American.
I'm also deaf. It's hereditary but didn't set in until after I learned to speak. Resulting in a fully speaking deaf me. I do not know ASL and have not been involved in deaf culture. Despite this it doesn't make me any more or less deaf. I have audiology exams to prove it. ;)
I have a lot more identities which make me a minority but that still does not make me an expert in an any of those either. On the daily I ponder what it means to be a woman...
Identity development in general is not what it seems...
Identity development is tricky. The ideas of nature versus nurture come into play and whole bunch of elements. There's loads of good literature on this topic and if it interests you I would recommend starting with some Chickering and then you can move into topics on sexual orientation identity development or racial identity development or a whole lot of specific theories on a number of different identities.
So I tell you this to share with you an example... I work at a historically black university. 95% of the students are Black and they are all different kinds of Black. Some are African-American, some are Caribbean, some are from the North and some from the South. Some students prefer to identify as African-American, some just Black and some identify in totally different ways. Specifically I work with a student who is "white" but was adopted at a young age by a Black family and identifies as being Black, it's all she knows. So if "T" were to write a book about slavery in the 1800s would her account be any more or less authentic than that of her mother's? or mine? or any other Black persons? Even a voice like Soloman Northup's is unique and specific to his situation in which he did not identify in the same ways as slaves from the South and had an understandably hard time adjusting during his horrible injustice.
Own your privileges, because we all have them.
White Privilege, and what that means, is well documented along with Male Privilege and a bunch of other privileges. Everyone has at least one privilege. The privilege may seem simple to you, but it could mean a big difference if bestowed upon someone who does not have the same privilege. This maybe a privilege of socioeconomic, education, age, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, employment, benefits, religion/creed, nationality, etc.
The hardest thing to do is recognize and accept our privileges especially in the midst of our injustices. However, in order to move forward and become an ally we must. I may not get paid the same as my male counterpart, I may get asked twice a day what are you?, but at the end of the day I identify as being heterosexual. I have to own that. I have a responsibility, or moral obligation if you will, to acknowledge that I instantly receive a plethora of benefits just for being straight that my non-heterosexual friends do not. I didn't have to do anything special to get these benefits, all I had to do was take that first breath. Now I must work on becoming a better ally, for myself and others.
What this has to do with BEA and BookCon.
Readers, writers and many more in the community are up in arms about the perceived lack of diversity during the BookCon portion of the event. BookCon is being coordinated by ReedPOP for the first time this year. Yes, the panels are a bit... monotone? Some with single gender representation and a cat. Poor Grumpy Cat outnumbers the number of people of color at BookCon. This is bad, and for a number of reasons. There is some non-racial/ethnic diversity at the event, most notably Jewish religion/culture. Does this excuse the lack of racial and ethnic diversity? No, because there are notable best-selling authors of color. Does this excuse the lack of female representation on the YA panel? No, because there are best-selling female authors in YA who will be there!
This will be my first year attending both BEA and BookCon. I look forward to it for a number of reasons and this debate has peaked my interest further. I will not be sitting out in protest, because my presence as a woman of color is needed. I need publishers, retailers, authors and event organizers to know that colored girls read, that we buy books, that we write blogs and that we matter. I need to start with being my own ally.
You can read more opinions on this topic over at Book Riot and Diversity in YA. Great reads to get the wheels turning.
Last but not least I see various forms of this question keep popping up...
Writing/Reading for specific identities which you do not identify with, or seem to identify with.
Writing/Reading for specific identities which you do not identify with, or seem to identify with.
Ahh, so here's where things get tricky. Can I write about being deaf simply because I'm deaf? Do I have a magical deaf card? No. I would need to do some extensive research on deaf culture before I could even attempt such a project. Can I write about being a woman of color? Sure, possibly, however if my character is experiencing an injustice because she's a WoC then I would still be doing a lot of research. You don't get a pass to write a specific identity and speak for the entire identity with said pass.
I firmly believe that education and research is key here. While there are countless horrible examples of "writing outside what you know," there are some good ones as well. I was privileged to hear Marcus Sedgwick speak about his research with students who are blind when writing his latest book She is Not Invisible. The amount of research, care and fact-checking that went into his work seems thorough and gave a voice of authenticity to the story. Did he need to be blind to lend that same voice to his character or a female? No, Sedgwick only had to be dedicated to his craft and respect the characters he wrote.
As a reader never assume the author does or does not know who their character's are. That being said, as a reader, know that what you read is one viewpoint on the subject. How one character may handle abuse, a mental disorder, coping with illness or disability, growing up in a biracial family, etc. is not the only experience out there. You owe it to yourself to fact check and explore topics that peak your curiosity.
If I wrote a story about a group of Black friends at a historically black college that served fried chicken on Wednesdays and fish on Fridays, and the cafeteria resembled a club more than a traditional dining hall, people would be crying foul that I've managed to stereotype an entire race and possibly accuse me of not knowing what it's like to be "Black". Unfortunately, it wouldn't make the story any less true. Is every HBCU like this? No. Would every friendship group be like this one? I hope not. Could I do research to round out my characters and flush out the culture? Definitely.
Should White People Write About People of Color? by Melinda Lo
Sorry that was so long. Feel free to leave comments to continue civilized discourse. I'll answer them as I can. Let me know your thoughts about attending or not attending BookCon.
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