“
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
(via L.A. Food Culture Offers a Glimpse Into ‘The New America’ - COLORLINES)
Think American cuts of meat—pork rib tips, beef short ribs, tri-tip, quartered chicken—smoke-roasted after they’ve been marinated with classic Filipino combinations of garlic, onions and peppers. Bautista and his friends opened their doors last January as a way of giving back. Making barbecue saved them from the streets, so the story goes, and they want to be a positive hub for the community’s youth now.
The food is as noble and down-to-earth as their mission. In the tradition of Filipino home-cooking, there are bottles of a vinegar-based sawsawam sauce and tomato-based coconut pineapple barbecue sauce on every table. You can douse your meat in these flavors then soak up the remaining sauce with cornbread bibingka, a soul food take on the steamed Filipino rice cake.
“There’s really no fusion about it,” says Bautista, who was born and bred in L.A. “When it comes down to it, all of us here, we’re American to the bone. These are the flavors we grew up with.”
The Cherokee Nation’s Baby Girl Goes on Trial - COLORLINES -
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? -
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.
“If you spend your time raging at the weakest arguments, or your most hysterical opponents, expect your own intellect to suffer. The intellect is a muscle; it must be exercised.” — How to Be a Political-Opinion Journalist - Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic
Reading List - The Ghetto Is Public Policy - Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic -
For the past few months I’ve been exploring the wealth gap through New Deal-era policy with a particular focus on housing.
…For those keeping count, the current exploration involves the following books:
1.) Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns
2.) Tom Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty
3.) Arnold Hirsch, Making the Second Ghetto
4.) Beryl Satter, Family Properties
5.) Antony Beevor, The Second World War (I didn’t feel like I could really understand New Deal policy without understanding World War II)
6.) Ira Katznelson, Fear Itself
7.) Douglass Massey and Nancy Denton, American Apartheid (just started on the plane out here)
For those new to this I would start with Wilkerson’s book. And I’d add two more that I read a few years back: Thomas Sugrue’s The Origins of the Urban Crisis, and Ira Katznelson’s When Affirmative Action Was White.
“Never be deceived that that rich will allow you to vote their wealth away.” —
—Lucy Parsons, the Haymarket Square widow who internationalized the struggle for the eight-hour day and whose work led to the May Day rallies held around the world. Happy May Day!
Check this out for more on the Haymarket Martyrs, the origins of May Day, and Lucy Parsons: Lucy Parsons: An American Revolutionary
(via thepeoplesrecord)[video]
(Source: patoney)
June Bookswap is pride-themed!
Special guests: MICHELLE TEA & ALI LIEBGOTT
Michelle Tea is the author of four memoirs, a novel, a book of poetry and the young adult fantasy tale, A Mermaid in Chelsea Creek new from McSweeney’s. She has edited anthologies about class, fashion and literature, and is Editor of the City Lights/Sister Spit series. Michelle is founder and Executive Director of RADAR Productions, a literary non-profit that oversees the Sister Spit international performance tours, the monthly RADAR Reading Series in San Francisco, the annual Radar LAB Retreat, and other programs.
Ali Liebegott is the author of the award-winning books The Beautifully Worthless and The IHOP Papers. In 2010 she took a train trip across America interviewing female poets for a project titled, The Heart Has Many Doors; excerpts from these interviews are posted monthly on The Believer Logger. Along with a reprint of her road classic The Beautifully Worthless, her newest novel Cha-Ching! is the latest release from City Lights/Sister Spit. In addition, she is the founding editor at Writers Among Artists whose first publication, Faggot Dinosaur, was released in 2012.