June 2013
25 posts
“White-supremacist policy is older than this country. It begins with the slave codes in mid-17th-century colonial Virginia. It proceeds through the the 18th century, inscribing itself into our Constitution. It moves into the 19th century with such force that slaves alone were worth more than all the productive capacity of the country put together. War was waged to assure slavery’s continuance. The war was lost. We had a chance to do the right thing. We didn’t. So white supremacist policy endured. Even American liberalism’s proudest moment — the New Deal — would be unimaginable without its aid. This era of policy did not close until the late 1960s, well within the living memory of many Americans.”
—A Rising Tide Lifts All Yachts - Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic
Eleanor,
I thought it was the sun and air too.
Aborginal Art to be returned back to Australia →
nytimes.com
You should click on the link above and look at some of the artworks. They were absolutely beautiful. But they cannot erase the history of abuse, injustice, racism, and bigotry that Aboriginal Australian children and their families faced.
In a homecoming sweetened with poetic justice, a collection of drawings and paintings by Aboriginal children living in a settlement camp in the 1940s and 1950s will be returned to Australia.
The trove of more than 100 pieces is to be formally transferred on Wednesday from Colgate University, in Hamilton, N.Y., to Curtin University in Perth, officials said.
The young artists were confined at the Carrolup River Native Settlement, a government institution in Western Australia. The children there produced art so distinctive and so technically sophisticated that it received considerable acclaim when it toured Europe in the 1950s.
But they also represent a tragic chapter in Australian history: from the 1910s to the early 1970s, as many as 100,000 mostly mixed-race Aboriginal children were taken from their families under government programs meant to assimilate them. Most children were badly fed and housed in the internment camps, which were eventually condemned as racist and destructive.
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3. I didn’t learn how to write diverse characters. I wrote a book about people of different races, religions, and ethnicities. You can say I did it for the noble reasons everyone else has, like to make the world a better place for the children or whatever, and I guess that’s somewhat accurate. Mostly I did it because I wanted to write a book set in Spain in 1492, and Spain in 1492 was Diversity Central.
So now I’m one of those “good white people” who write about diverse characters—or one of those bad white people who appropriate cultures not their own. Or both, or neither. Not my place to say. Regardless, people keep asking me to write blog posts on the topic. “Shana, what’s the best way to write about racially diverse characters?” Dude. I don’t know. I’m a new writer. I’m white. As much as I try to get rid of them, I still have my blind spots of privilege. I did the research, I talked to the experts, I talked to friends. But I’m sure I screwed up in some way. I’m sorry about that. Truly. I will try to be better. I am not an authority on this subject. I’m just a person trying to understand the world better and write stories about it to the best of her ability. These are both two steps forward, one step back processes.
” —Shana Mlawski, author of Hammer of Witches,Diversity in YA
Obviously I enjoyed this blog post. It’s called 5 Things Shana Mlawski Didn’t Learn While Writing HAMMER OF WITCHES, by the way.
“Life is short. Write what you want. Most writers don’t make any money anyway. What’s the difference between making almost nothing and making less than almost nothing? Almost nothing, is the answer to that question. Write what you want. Write what’s true. This book lover, at least, will thank you for it. And who knows? Maybe you’ll write the next Fifty Shades of Harry Potter Twilight Games. It could happen!”
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Shawna Mlawski, author of Hammer of Witches
“The best thing I learned is not to take the advice of other writers very seriously. In the past, if a well-known author said, “You must write X number of words every day or YOU ARE NOT A WRITER ROAR,” I would have crumbled under the anxiety and the writer’s block would hit me like a truck. Nowadays, if I don’t write a certain number of words on a given day, I shrug and say, “Whatever, man. It’s, like, My Process.”
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Shana Mlawski, author of Hammer of Witches
You never forget your first “faggot.” Where you were when the word first came hurtling at you, who sent it flying in your direction, and what happened when it finally hit you. You never forget if a fist or baseball bat came swinging right behind it, or if the word was whispered, or spray-painted, if it came costumed in another word’s clothes: sissy, punk, different, queer, pansy. You never forget your first “faggot” because the memory makes you.
“The Teenage Brain Is A Work-In-Progress. Their brains ain’t done cooking yet. They’re these unfinished masterpieces that are pliable in some ways, rigid in others, and whose emotional and intellectual development is driven by a drunken chimpanzee whacked-out on a cocktail of high-octane hormones. The teenage brain is like, NOW IT’S TIME TO KNOW SHIT AND DO SHIT AND HAVE SEX WITH STUFF AND KICK THINGS AND POUR YOUR HEART OUT AND DRIVE FAST AND AAAAAAAAAAAH. I’m not saying a teen protagonist has to act like a coked-up ferret, but it is important to recognize that the teen psyche is a really strange thing.”
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25 Things You Should Know About Young Adult Fiction « terribleminds: chuck wendig
Chuck Wendig is amazing, and someday I’m going to knock him out and siphon a bit of that comedic genius from his brain and take it for my own.
(via laurenmorrill)
Every time you don't save the bacon grease ...
We need a lot more Thomas Builds-the-Fire around here.
A snippet from chaperoning my son's K/1 class field trip to a nearby mountain preserve in the Bay Area
- Imagine four boys walking all in a row.
- Boy 1: Hey, we're all holding hands.
- Boy 2: Yeah, that's cuz we're friends.
May 2013
30 posts
Reasons I Feel Like a Cranky Queer, pt. 2
If I could ban the word “slash” from the English language, I would. Why do folks use it to refer to regular lesbian or gay fiction? Why are gay or lesbian romance novels referred to as f/f or m/m? No one specifies “heterosexual romance novel.”
I hate ittttt.
Play
Hey Teen Books Hey: Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Characters in YA Fiction →
heyteenbookshey.tumblr.com
By Dena Little
Originally posted at YALSA’s The Hub
YA books with characters who are deaf or hard of hearing, or live with family members who are deaf, are few and far between, but they’re out there! These books have all the good stuff: first love, heartbreak, peer pressure, growing pains … but with the added perspective of teens who experience life in a diverse community.
Read My Lips by Teri Brown
Serena will do just about anything to fit in at her new high school, so when some popular girls find out that she is crazy good at reading lips, they befriend her hoping she can snoop out all the good gossip. But how far is Serena willing to go to reach the top of the school food-chain?Of Sound Mind by Jean Ferris
Theo has grown up as the only hearing member of his deaf family, and from a young age he was tasked with interpreting between his signing parents and the speaking world. As he comes of age, Theo recognizes his growing resentment of his family — especially his demanding and off-balance mom — but when his father has a stroke, the responsibilities of the family land on Theo’s shoulders.Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John
High school senior Piper is hit with the news that her parents have used her college funds to help pay for her little sister’s cochlear implants, so she strikes out to find a way to replenish her money and her self-worth. When the opportunity to become the manager of popular teen rock band, Dumb, is offered to her she grabs it and runs, soon finding out that her role as manager isn’t just about getting gigs for the band, but to referee the members and provide some needed leadership. However, her role as manager comes into question when Piper’s own deafness appears to be a barrier to her potential success in the music industry.Strong Deaf by Lynn McElfresh
Strong Deaf captures the dichotomous relationship between two sisters who live in the same house but different worlds: Jade, the only hearing member of a deaf family, and her sister Marla, who antagonizes and shuts Jade out for not “fitting in” to the deaf community. These sisters have some serious sibling rivalry going on!Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby
13-year-old Joey Willis feels isolated as she struggles to communicate with everyone around her. Deaf since she was a young child, Joey never learned sign language because her mother insists that Joey “listens” by reading lips. When Joey’s chance meeting with an elderly neighbor and his signing Chimpanzee, Sukari, leads her to begin learning American Sign Language, Joey is finally able to communicate and experience friendship. When Sukari’s life is threatened, Joey has to find the courage to stand up for Sakuri’s rights, as well as her own.
Authors of Color: Dismantling White as the Default →
authorsofcolor.tumblr.com
“Hither came Azka, like dark iron.” And later on “As she passed, Kelechi saw locks like a mane turned all to feathers.”
In describing…
YA!flash: COVERFLIP: WHAT NOW? →
yaflash.tumblr.com
Remember Coverflip? I hope so, because it just happened. But if you don’t know what I’m talking about, click the link or Google it or just make something up in your head.
It got a lot of coverage. First in the United States, the article went slightly supernova on
I am so torn between wanting to start writing book reviews and wanting to spend that time reading more books.
This is what’s happened at my blog too. Reading more books has won out for the time being.
“Students of color are allowed to enter the classroom but never on an equal footing. When they walk in, they are subject to the same racial stereotypes and expectations that exist in the larger society. Students of color do not have the advantage of walking into a classroom as individuals; they walk in as black, brown, or red persons with all the connotations such racialization raises in the classroom. They do not walk into a classroom where the curriculum embraces their histories. They walk into a classroom where their histories and cultures are distorted, where they feel confused about their own identities, vulnerabilities, and oppressions. There is no level of liberal reforms that can alter these experiences for students of color without directly challenging the larger systems in society.”
—Critical Race Theory Matters: Education and Ideology | Margaret Zamudio, Caskey Russell, Francisco Rios & Jacquelyn Bridgeman (via yasodhara)
“
If a YA book features a white, female protagonist (and this accounts for a not insignificant portion of YA released each year), it seems inevitable that the book cover will display an idealized and airbrushed masterpiece of her on the cover. And when a YA book actually does have a protagonist of color, too often one of three things seems to happen:
1. The cover is “whitewashed” and shows a Caucasian model instead of a person of color;
2. The cover depicts someone whose race seems purposefully ambiguous or difficult to discern; or
3. The character is shown in silhouette
These forms of racism on the part of publishers are unacceptable. And the fact that it is so rampant within the young adult publishing industry seems particularly despicable. The first step toward change is awareness, and so below I’ve tried to pull together a collection of examples of these forms of subtle and not-so-subtle racism.
” —It Matters If You’re Black or White: The Racism of YA Book Covers | The Hub
The Cherokee Nation’s Baby Girl Goes on Trial - COLORLINES →
colorlines.com
The [Indian Child Welfare Act] makes clear a crucial distinction: State courts lack jurisdiction over the adoption of Native children. It recognizes instead that tribal governments hold that jurisdiction, and are best suited to decide Native children’s adoption, regardless of whether the child in question is born on or off reservation land. ICWA has been challenged unsuccessfully in the past 35 years, but a ruling that denies Brown’s parental rights in this case could signal the start of the historic law’s dismantling.
Malinda Lo: What's your favorite YA novel about the Asian American experience? →
malindalo.tumblr.com
May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and to celebrate, we at Diversity in YA are going to be featuring some Asian American YA authors and books. But we’d also like to invite you to participate! Do you have a favorite YA novel about the Asian American experience?…
Hmmm… let me think on that one.
