Exhume Those Stories: Understanding Diversity & the Need for Diverse Books Beyond Struggle into Thriving
Sarah Ackerman wrote the NYT Op-Ed ‘Mirrors for My Daughter’s Bookshelf’ on Feb. 3rd, 2017. It was a personal account of the frustration parents face when they want to immerse their children in fiction and non-fiction stories of diverse people from all over the world.
Over a year later I have noticed walking into book stores and searching online that more diverse books are slowly being published and reaching the hands of thirsty readers. But as a same sex, bilingual, parent of color the need to find relevant, positive, stories of diverse people beyond struggle into thriving is still there.
Defining Diverse Books
After studying world literature for twenty-three years and teaching world literature for twelve years in public and private schools, I define diverse books as books where protagonists represent characters of all races, genders, abilities, ethnicities, beliefs, sexualities, etc. in both non-fiction and fiction stories.
Diverse books allow full representation of life experiences and are NOT limited to discussions of race, struggle, or difference but are witness to everything that happens between birth and death.
There are many writers who write captivating diverse stories but major publishers have not caught up with reality. Readers have been ready. This has opened the door for groundbreaking books by independent publishers like: BLF Press, an independent Black feminist press dedicated to amplifying the work of women of color and its forthcoming children’s imprint Imani Press; Timbuktu Labs, the indie press in charge of the viral Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls series. Self published writers have also seen great success with their diverse stories like James Suriano’s science and historical fiction books, and Urmilla Khana’s, Boundaries of the Wind, beautiful narrative of family life and her medical career in India and the U.S.
I define the first wave of diverse books during the 60s-80s, these books rose out of the demand to diversify textbooks. Books about Black history, Latino history, and Asian history, began to surface along with ‘inclusive’ textbook sidebars. The literature focused mainly on the attainment of equal rights or the lack there of. The second during the 90’s-2010, brought books by diverse authors with diverse protagonists usually dealing with the effects of poverty, abusive governments, institutionalized racism, homophobia, poor schools, drugs, abandonment, and violence. The third wave, from 2011 to the present, is marked by the slow but poignant publishing of books that firmly place diverse characters as protagonists but show a life where diverse people explore, have fun, create and contribute.
Hiding Our Past & Limiting Our Future
The danger in the lack of diverse books is that it hides our past and limits our future. It freezes history and denies a very real present. People like Martin Luther King, June Jordan, Cesar Chavez, Harvey Milk, Gandhi, and Yuri Kochiyama, etc., become stock characters in a movement stuck on repeat. We are left to believe that our heroes did not have families, friends, relationships, careers, or dare I say — fun. It refuses the experience of future generations who were and are able to access a higher quality of education, work, and social life because of their actions and also buries any achievements and joys prior to civil rights movements.
Viola Davis said it beautifully when she accepted her Oscar in 2017 for Fences, “We must exhume these stories.”
That is the case for most non-fiction, realistic and historical fiction. If we venture to look at science fiction, fantasy, romance, drama, horror, humor, and short stories, diverse characters seem almost completely absent or if represented they are always struggling.
Readers must accept the void or this make believe world of literary minoritism, where white characters co-opt fun, adventure, imagination, creativity, exploration, friendships, stable families, falling in love and its bi-products like economic prosperity, scientific discoveries, academic accolades, and technological and artistic breakthroughs throughout centuries.
It sounds absurd because it is. Jingu was a Japanese Empress and heroic warrior who lived circa 169–269. Raye Montague, a native of Little Rock, Arkansas, made history in the U.S Navy as the first person to design a ship using computers and was the first female program manager of ships in the history of the Navy. She is African American and is still alive. Mathew Henson was the first person to reach the North Pole in 1909. He traveled the world before that. He was African American.
If you are an adult, you can scavenge for books. But if you are a child in search of inspiration that mirror’s your likeness, at best, you will see the gap, question it, scour for diverse stories and/or create something of your own. That is how I found the greatness of Mathew Henson and what led to my life as a writer. However, others run the risk of assuming that the absence of diverse books reflects real life, deleting possibilities even before being exposed to them.
Writing the Literature of Possibilities
Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo understand this so deeply that they created Timbuktu Labs and published the brilliant, Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Tales of Extraordinary Women. Here is an entire volume of international women’s history lest we allow our lack of representation in government and book stores as a sign that women have not always forged their own path and in many times their nation’s path. This is where I found Jingu.
This is also why the book and movie Hidden Figures was so important. The acknowledgement of extraordinary achievement by Black women in high level careers, in the middle of the Civil Rights movement displays for all what diverse communities have known all along- Si Se Puede. We don’t just get our strength from claiming our rights but from journeying into the impossible, believing in the inevitable success of an unknown future and — succeeding. I would have thought twice about switching my major from Computer Science to Cultural Anthropology had I known this story.
It is the same reason why Heather Has Two Mommies is a nightly request by my seven year old. It is still is one of the few books that shows the joy, diversity, and richness of her life with her two mommies, one who is a doctor and one who is a creative, with the focus on being a family full of love not an issue.
There is the absolute pleasure of reading Large Fears, the children’s book written by Myles E. Johnson and illustrated by Kendrick Daye. It tells the story of Jeremiah Nebula — a Black boy who loves pink things and longs to travel to Mars where he thinks he will find people and things that accept him. This book alone opens the beautiful world of what it’s like to be seen different and uses that as a reason to dream and seek adventure not to despair.
How about the informative and yes — fun, Grace for President by By Kelly DiPucchio and illustrated by LeUyen Pham. A story about the electoral process.I don’t think Michelle Obama is going to run but I think Grace was inspired by her.
What better time than now to write and read the real diverse past, present and future than after we said goodbye to our first Black President and slammed the door on the possibility of having a first female president.
Like President Barak Obama said, “Believe, not in my ability to create change — but in yours.”
