Talking to your children about the books they read is one of the best ways to support your child’s literacy development. Your child needs to engage in critical thinking to discuss a book — a key skill for success in school as well as life. Here are some tips on how to start and sustain a book discussion with your child:
White nationalism is on the rise in the US and nativism is in the ascendant across the globe. What role can literature for children play in teaching the next generation to be more empathetic, to respect difference, and to reject hatred? How do we find children’s books that promote these values? And what do we do with classics that offend? Here are some suggestions.
1. What does this book present as normal? You might follow up with these more specific questions borrowed (and slightly modified) from Nathalie Wooldridge:
2. Does the book have non-white characters?
The absence of non-white characters can be as hurtful as overt discrimination because when when so many children’s books omit characters of color, non-white children learn that their stories are not worth telling.
3. Are the non-white characters central to the plot or just tokens?
A character’s prominence in the story is a marker of her or his importance. The protagonist is more important than the best friend, and the best friend more important than a secondary or background character. “Token” characters offer a superficial presence, but they do not truly represent that group.
4. How well does the author know the group she or he is representing?
Is he or she a member of that group? If not, how successful has the author’s research been? This, incidentally, is debated. Many contend that, to fully understand the group you’re writing about, you need to be a member of that group. Others suggest that research can help bridge the gap between your experience and your characters’ experiences. And still others note that everyone needs to do research, irrespective of group membership. However you answer this question, remember that the quality of representation is important.
And when a book is accused of promoting discrimination, you might also ask…
5. Who is “they”?
When defending a book with racist or sexist content, people often say “That’s how they thought back then.” This defense should prompt you to ask just who this anonymous “they” might be. Did all girls enjoy seeing themselves mocked in Dr. Seuss’s “The Glunk That Got Thunk” (from I Can Lick Thirty Tigers Today and Other Stories, 1969)? Did all people of African descent enjoy seeing themselves portrayed as simple-minded fools in Hugh Lofting’s Doctor Dolittle (1920)? In any given time period at any given place, all people do not think alike. As Robin Bernstein notes, “in the United States, the range of racial beliefs has changed relatively little from the nineteenth century to the present.” The “array of thinkable thoughts” has not changed, but the proportion of people who hold those thoughts has. Think about it: How do people think right now? Do all of us agree on important issues? Claiming “That’s how they thought back then” is not only an oversimplification. It also excuses ignorance by normalizing it, and fails to acknowledge the real harm done to real people in both past and present.
6. Why are people objecting to this book? And what prevents me from hearing their objections?
As Robin DiAngelo notes, many whites are afflicted with “White Fragility”: unaccustomed to racial discomfort, white people often respond to “even a minimum amount of racial stress” with denial, deflection, or anger. They are trying to end an uncomfortable conversation. These responses are not helpful; they merely work to hold racism in place.
So, whites and non-whites should remember: discomfort is not a defense. Nostalgia is not a defense. Affection for the book is not a defense. Assumptions about children’s intelligence (“oh, they won’t see that!”) are not a defense.
The belief in your own goodness or niceness is also not a defense. Being nice and harboring racist assumptions are not mutually exclusive. The kindest, most well-intentioned people often act in ways that uphold racist ideas — without meaning to do so, and without being aware that they are doing so. It is impossible to grow up in a racist culture and not have its ideas infect your thinking. We absorb racist assumptions unconsciously, and are thus often unaware of how these assumptions influence us.
Finally, white people who think that a person of color is overly sensitive about race should remember that non-white people face racism regularly, and should ask themselves: how would I feel if I faced racism every day? And then they should take responsibility by asking themselves: how is my action or inaction creating pain? How am I responsible? What can I do? In other words, failing to act helps sustain a racist status quo. Silence is complicity.
7. Where can I learn more? There are many resources, and so this is not a comprehensive list. But here are five web resources to get you started.
Featured image credit: “Children, book” by Sasin Tipchai, Public Domain via Pixabay.