Ok, this post might be a little incoherent because my head feels kind of full these days. I’m still reading Sarah Schulman’s Ties That Bind, and I’m still taking my time as I navigate her many profound ideas. Today I want to talk about interventions, because yesterday I received an email from the NYPL in response to my complaint about the lack of diversity in the NYC Teen Author Festival. Now, it seems that the NYPL is only hosting some of this festival’s events, but I rely on public institutions to get it right—and that leads me to question #1: should we have different expectations of public and private institutions? I didn’t send a letter of complaint to the other hosts, Barnes & Noble and Books of Wonder—should I have? I wasn’t really trying to launch a campaign, and if I’m honest, I have to say that I’m not as concerned with goings-on at those privately-owned bookstores. But I take it personally when a public library lets me down, perhaps because I grew up (and continue to be) dependent on libraries for books and access to information. I never met a black author as a child, and had graduated from college before I even saw a real live black author (Maya Angelou here in NYC). I want things to be different for today’s kids, and so my expectations of the public library are quite high.
The public/private split is a major issue in Schulman’s book. Often times well-intending people will refuse to intervene on behalf of a victim for fear of crossing some invisible boundary that separates the public from the private. But why should privacy be used to shield a victimizer from justice? Schulman writes:
In fact, people evoke the word “privacy” as justification for refusing to negotiate. They don’t have to negotiate; it’s their right to privacy. The “private” family doesn’t have to account for their treatment of gay people; the “private” citizen doesn’t have to account for her treatment of gay people…Industries like book publishing, theater, film, and television production, religion, and education are all private endeavors that have no public accountability to gay people. Even the Saint Patrick’s Day parade is legally a private event and is permitted to shun Irish gays and lesbians annually.
Sometimes we use privacy as an excuse not to intervene, even when we know something’s wrong—and the wrongdoers hide behind this veil of privacy, knowing those on the outside are loathe to tear it down. What really strikes me, however, is Schulman’s suggestion that the community has an obligation to intervene on behalf of its least powerful members. Or rather, what strikes me is that even though I totally agree with that idea, I don’t really expect certain people to stand up for me. If our experiences inform our expectations, then I’d have to say that in terms of anti-racist discourse, I don’t “expect” white people to do the right thing. I hope they will, and some times I demand it…but for the most part, my life lessons have taught me that the majority of whites don’t care that much about people of color—or not enough to do what’s right.
Now, obviously, there have been many moments in history when many white people have stood up, rejected white supremacy, and aligned themselves with PoC. But there have also been many moments when those with privilege simply said or did nothing while PoC were shoved to the margins and silenced. Now—here’s question #2: is it reasonable to expect white authors to align themselves with authors of color? I wrote to the NYPL and offered to provide a list of authors of color in NYC so that future festivals aren’t 90% white. But what if a group of white authors—let’s say half of the 60 invited participants—wrote the festival organizer and said, “We’re not going to participate because we don’t want to support the marginalization of PoC—especially in a city as diverse as New York.” Can you really see that happening? I can’t. Because as Schulman pointed out earlier in her book, there’s very little incentive for those with privilege to give up some of their power. Are white authors likely to remove themselves from the festival so that authors of color can share the stage? Should they be pressured to do something they didn’t offer to do voluntarily?
Many of the authors are white women. Women, as a group, have been marginalized forever. Should I, as a woman of color, expect my “white sisters” to rush to my side and stand in solidarity on this issue that doesn’t negatively affect them? When the whitewashing scandal hit the blogosphere, some white women bloggers immediately spoke out—but others threw a hissy fit and resented the expectation that they should issue a public response. Schulman writes:
Frankly, I often find that the myth of the angry lesbian/angry woman/angry black man [or angry black woman!] is really the rage of the dominant culture person at being asked to look at themselves. They are so furious that they see other people’s productive positive actions for change as threatening.
And, of course, people who have been oppressed or marginalized can easily reproduce that oppression and marginalization—yet still only see themselves as the victim, not the victimizer. This particular festival actually has 10% involvement by writers of color, yet the overall children’s publishing industry only has 5%. So perhaps objecting to the festival would require white authors to similiarly object to the racial imbalance in the industry…it’s a slippery slope. Best to keep quiet and hope the troublemaker goes away…Ok, so here’s the letter I wrote to the NYPL:
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my concerns. Below is the list you requested; to my knowledge, all authors are from the tri-state area (some may be upstate NY). To be clear, is the festival arranged around authors who live in NYC, write about NYC, or originally hail from NYC? Also, is Scholastic the primary or sole sponsor? If so, they certainly have the right to promote their own authors, but when so many events are hosted at public library branches, one expects the invited authors to reflect the incredible diversity of NYC’s many communities (including languages other than English). Is there no budget for bringing in authors from out of town? If not, you might consider having fewer authors overall so that there’s greater balance among the participants.
Also, may I ask who was on the festival’s coordinating committee? Did authors apply to participate, or were they selected? Again, what were the criteria for being selected? A while ago Kathy Ishizuka shared this great link to a site that outlines ways event organizers can ensure diversity.
Philana Marie Boles
Joe Bruchac
Marina Budhos
Veronica Chambers (roots in NYC)
Sheela Chari
Zetta Elliott
M. Sindy Felin (roots)
Danilo Figueredo
Rigoberto Gonzalez
Tonya Hegamin
Sheba Karim (roots)
Juleyka Lantigua
Kekla Magoon
Torrey Maldonado
Elisha Miranda
Nicholasa Mohr
Walter Dean Myers
Sophia Quintero
Bushra Rehman
Nelly Rosario
Ishle Yi Park
Linda Sue Park
Jaira Placide
Sergio Troncoso
Rita Williams-Garcia
Sung J. Woo
Lyn Miller-Lachmann (author of Gringolandia and editor of MultiCultural Review) also had this suggestion: “contact La Casa Azul Bookstore and Javier Molea at McNally-Jackson Bookstore, since they’d know authors who publish in Spanish and can present programs in Spanish.”
I often do school visits here in the city, and the overwhelming majority of my students are black and Latino—many hail from the Caribbean, Africa, and South & Central America. It would be wonderful if all NYC children could go to their local public library and see themselves reflected on the stage you’ve created for young adult authors. Thanks again for taking the time to consider my concerns.
Zetta, how much more magnificently brilliant could you be?! I just so appreciate how you model community engagement. Thank you for writing to NYPL. I agree with you 110% that an event should encourage inclusion are all public patrons. Speaking truth…
Today my friend Norma was sharing a set of note cards she made regarding privilege and discomfort of white people when discussing race to facilitate dialogues. While the ignorant and intentional/obvious book white-washing is one thing, the “I don’t see color” card seems to be my hunch around things like this festival. I think some people genuinely don’t get it, don’t even think. It doesn’t feel malicious. That doesn’t make it okay but institutionalized blindness and ignorance seems to be the “I don’t see color” thing.
~Martine
Thanks, Martine. Your comment reminds me of the film, Life & Debt, where white tourists arrive in Jamaica but never SEE just how Jamaicans are living…Jamaica Kincaid’s narration: “You see yourself, you see yourself, you see yourself…” Or like the show Friends…it was lily white b/c that really was their world view and they only saw others who were like themselves…even in such an incredibly diverse city.
Exactly.
And my great enthusiasm upon your writing topics this week, despite the frustration, was that I spent all day yesterday running into the handful of black people I know here in Boulder and we talked so much about this. I hit a wall again where I’m so frustrated at the lack of diversity and the great enthusiasm of all my white friends saying what a wonderful, perfect, ideal place Boulder is…for them.
Last weekend a woman I did not know came up to me at a party and said the only reason I did succeeded in my small university was because and was commencement speaker was because “you’re one of, like, three minorities, so that’s probably why you did so well and they liked you.” Yea. Not because I’m smart or likeable for other reasons.
So, you’re making me feel sane. And patient. And able to just know one dialogue at time, one letter, can make a difference. Maybe not always for the intended audience, but for oneself.
~martine
right–their success is based on merit, whereas you’re just “lucky.” I’m glad my posts help, though I’m not all that optimistic about change…forcing people to do what’s right isn’t very satisfying, b/c you always wish they *wanted* to do what’s right…but silence doesn’t serve us, so…
I agree with Martine, I really admire how you stand up and speak out – when lots of people just let things go with the status quo. New York is an incredibly diverse city, and certainly library-based events should reflect this. It should be a requirement, really. Good luck with pushing for a bit of change, and I’ll try to take some inspiration to speak out more, even when it’s in private space. This makes me think of the cards that Anna Adrian Piper produced: http://www.iub.edu/~iuam/online_modules/aaa/artists/piper.html
Thanks for that link, Laura–Piper came to my mind, too. So the library did respond right away, with their own list of authors of color, strangely enough…so why the festival’s so white, I don’t know. But will find out when I go in to meet with them in early April…
Good points that you bring up and good for you for writing to the NYPL. The same thing happens in Chicago; for all its diversity, there are relatively few author events that feature authors of color, especially in the world of children’s literature. I think we do expect more from our libraries, I expect them to introduce me to all kinds of wonderful, diverse worlds because they are not for profit. I’ve come to expect very little from the publishing industry because all they do is for profit (which is ok to some degree but not when they think a certain group of people will not make a profit), but libraries have nothing to lose. So why not invite authors of color to speak/present and why not have more books about POC on your shelves?
I can’t see white authors boycotting the NYC Teen festival either. In a way, it wouldn’t be fair but it owuld be the right thing to do. The “color blind” people wouldn’t understand it, but the young POC readers would understand and they would be appreciative. But it would be nice if white authors protested about the huge racial imbalance in the publishing industry and MANY of them do (especially the ones online. I think that the more authors interact with readers and vice versa, the more we learn from each other and grow in tolerance).
This reminds me of the whole black feminists vs. white feminists. White suffragists were told to “wait for it is the Negro’s hour” after African American males got the right to vote. I personally think AA women should have protested for the right to vote as well. However, it brings up the question of which should you side with as a woman of color? Your fellow sisters? or the people with the same cultural background as you?
Hey, Ari. I often think of those first wave feminists, too…black women were fighting for the right to vote, but what split them was the virulent racism of the white women who felt their whiteness made them superior to black men…white women in that era often asked their black sisters to step back or stay silent in order not to offend Southern white women who were also mobilizing around temperance and voting issues…so even with the men left out of the picture, true solidarity just never worked out…
Wow. So happy to have found your site. As I query agents I’m so surprised that my published writer friends (all white) have the impression that my book will be ‘so easy’ to sell because I’m black and my book is about black people. Some have even told me that agents wait around for black clients.
Once I was sitting at a restaurant with a white friend and she lamented over her plate of fries that her younger brother’s application to Cornell would probably be rejected because, “You know, he’s a rich white guy.”
I explained, as calmly as I could (didn’t want to become too scary of a black woman) that she was misinformed. And that most of the students at Cornell were white, and I assume pretty rich if they can gather up the $45K tuition each year. The next time we met for a meal her brother was a junior in college– at which school? Yup, Cornell.
I refuse to become a cynic. I think activism like yours helps. Change, even in the ‘progressive world of publishing’ has always been a fight. The powerful have no incentive to help the powerless. Your post reminded me of that. Thanks for that.
Opening the Teen Book Festival to PoC authors would also involve inviting authors who don’t publish with the major houses. Dafina Books has a thriving YA line, and the publisher is located in NYC. And there’s Just Us Books in East Orange, NJ. These publishers should be a part of the organizing process for the festival, with their authors invited to take part.
Great point, Lyn–I’ll bring that up tomorrow.
Zetta, I’m so glad to have found your thoughtful and thought-provoking website. I hope if you’re in DC for a literary event that I’ll get to see you speak/present!
Welcome, Carrie! I bet the cherry blossoms are just gorgeous right now…I’d love to come to DC and will definitely announce any future visits!
[…] young people and hear about their strategies for creating change. During the Q&A session we revisited the issue of David Levithan’s Teen Author Festival, which continues to be overwhelmingly […]