If you don't already know, one of my main goals for 2016 was to write even more discussion posts as I do enjoy them. Today I am going to be talking about racial diversity in YA and how we are extremely lacking in the racial diversity section of things. It's kind of sad in a way that in my 14 years of living and 10 years of reading, I haven't been seeing enough characters from backgrounds of an ethnic minority and that really does annoy me. Even if a character from an ethnic minority is in a book, they are always taking the backseat and dying in vain of white characters. The only reason I'm writing this is that I'm sick of seeing the same character's regurgitated throughout books and I'm sick and tired of not seeing strong lead characters from different ethnic backgrounds. It gets extremely boring and to be honest it is pushing me away from the YA genre.
My problem is that young people grow up idolising characters which just don't represent them and they will long for the long straight hair or the green eyes or the fact that these white characters in books are getting all the attention. Also, I am not here to bash white people as I'm not racist but I'm just saying things how they are. Let's face it, YA is literally being white washed and I hate that. I thought that now we are in the 10's and we are reaching such great milestones that racial diversity in literature shouldn't be a problem. I'm not here to ask for all white characters to be exiled but I'm asking for more of a balance. Sometimes I do want to read a book about characters who are Indian or African or Middle Eastern or Eastern European or Latina or Aborigines or Native American or Vietnamese or South American or Caribbean. The list of culture is endless yet books decide to stay on one side of the spectrum. I want to read a book about a badass black girl because that would be awesome!
I don't blame authors though. They have to write books which they think publishers will be pick out to keep a roof over their heads and to pursue their dream of writing for a living
I think that publishing houses need to pick out more titles with characters from ethnic minorities and cultural difference. I think that we as a community can come together and fight for YA books to represent the world and its beauty. I feel as though blatant racism is being covered up too but that is for a later topic. I know that we have started to discuss these kind of things and I love that but not enough people are joining in on the conversation and we do welcome you with open arms.
If you visit and school in London, you will see people from every where. Everybody has a different culture and we talk about our differences and I think that this should be discussed. I'm lucky enough to grow up in a city where I've met people from all over the world with different parts in them, learnt a bit of their language and just be friends with people who are the so different to me. I think that this should be represented more and I'd love to see the day this happens.
Feel free to debate with me and be a bit of a devils advocate. Also please remember I am 14 years old, I wasn't alive for the milleniium, I can't name many tv shows pre 1999, I was using WiFi to play CBeebies games before I could read and I do love to jam to a bit of One Direction once in a while. I'm basically trying to say that I don't know a lot and I have a whole load of years to learn more!
Keep Reading,
Naomi...xxx
YES! YES! YES! I agree with you 100%. Another thing is that I'm not white, I'm Mexican, so when I read a book with a white character (which most books have) sometimes it's hard for me to connect with them. I'm not racist at all, but there's just so many differences between my culture and American culture so sometimes I just wish there were more books with characters like me. I also really want books with characters of other cultures because, I mean, other cultures seem really cool and interesting too and I'd love to learn about them.
ReplyDeleteLoved this post!
-Cari @ My Addiction:Books