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So the Cooperative Children's Book Center has released its "diversity count" for 2019, & ... we need to talk, US Publishing.
Last year, you published 3,716 books for kids and teens.
Only 225 were written by Latinx folks. A measly 6%.
White folks? 3091. 288 more than 2018.
1/ https://twitter.com/CCBCwisc/status/1272997178429014023
Last year, you published 3,716 books for kids and teens.
Only 225 were written by Latinx folks. A measly 6%.
White folks? 3091. 288 more than 2018.
1/ https://twitter.com/CCBCwisc/status/1272997178429014023
Black folks are even LESS represented, with 212 books. Asian-Americans wrote 379 books you published, but Native Americans only 28. And Pasifika? 4 books.
AGAIN. You've known about this lack of equity for years, and ONCE MORE you have failed us.
But here's another hitch:
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AGAIN. You've known about this lack of equity for years, and ONCE MORE you have failed us.
But here's another hitch:
2/
WAY TOO MANY books are being written ABOUT underrepresented groups ... by White folks. 452 books about Black lives ... with only 212 by Black authors. Same ratio with Native American stories. Finally, less of that with Latinx folks, but that's small comfort.
Why?
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Why?
3/
Why are you so unwilling to make the deep structural change needed so that all communities in this country are represented in equitable ways in the books you publish?
Don't answer. It's a rhetorical question. I already know.
It's too hard. Too painful. Requires investment.
4/
Don't answer. It's a rhetorical question. I already know.
It's too hard. Too painful. Requires investment.
4/
It means some people, maybe many, need to go.
It means White authors make a little less money.
It means rich editors and executives have to admit they are not the great, progressive, big-hearted saviors they imagine.
You're regressive. You contribute to oppression.
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It means White authors make a little less money.
It means rich editors and executives have to admit they are not the great, progressive, big-hearted saviors they imagine.
You're regressive. You contribute to oppression.
5/
THESE ARE THE BOOKS OUR CHILDREN READ.
Shame on you for distorting the world for them.
Shame on you for making the child of color think they don't matter, that they don't exist in literature.
Shame on you for erasing children of color from the White child's experiences.
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Shame on you for distorting the world for them.
Shame on you for making the child of color think they don't matter, that they don't exist in literature.
Shame on you for erasing children of color from the White child's experiences.
6/
You are COMPLICIT.
I point my finger at you, US Publishing, and I cry "guilty!"
You have created a literary world that reflects White supremacy, White power, White wealth.
You have created a literary world silent about dignity, humanity, deep-rooted culture of POC.
7/
I point my finger at you, US Publishing, and I cry "guilty!"
You have created a literary world that reflects White supremacy, White power, White wealth.
You have created a literary world silent about dignity, humanity, deep-rooted culture of POC.
7/
You deserve to be dismantled.
You deserve to fall.
Do better, NOW.
Or we will find the levers, somewhere, that will topple your supercilious towers, that will pry your tyrannical hold from our children's minds.
8/8
You deserve to fall.
Do better, NOW.
Or we will find the levers, somewhere, that will topple your supercilious towers, that will pry your tyrannical hold from our children's minds.
8/8
