YA, the Mass Media, and White America: What’s Wrong, Why It’s Wrong, and How to Fix it
Megan Note: This was written by my amazing co-blogger River, so before you thank me on Twitter, all I did was facilitate her posting this! You can follow her on Twitter @riverthebrat
Author/blogger Kate Hart recently posted a survey on her blog entitled “Uncovering YA Covers: 2011” where she looked at 624 YA titles, and broke down their covers under a multitude of categories (including things like color schemes) but the most prevalent message was a lack of racial diversity. She found that a whopping 90% of covers featured white models, in a wider variety of poses.
The Huffington Post, did a small recap of her article along with the graphs, and linked to the rest. That was in turn was posted on ONTD where it got my attention.
I found many comments on the HuffPo article that fell into very disturbing trends about the issue of diversity in YA covers. If this were an isolated incident I would shrug it off, and carry on about my day. However, I have seen many of these insensitive, dismissive, and downright derailing comments across the web, and even encounter them in real life.
I hope to shed light on this topic from a minority perspective of how publishers not only perpetuate a system of beliefs to the average American consumer that isn’t necessarily true, but also why the industry does this, and how they might be able to fix it. I also wish to break down a few common arguments that are counter-productive to the cause. I know this topic has been discussed many times (and should be) but I wish to put in my proverbial 2 cents in the TL;DR format.
Though I am mostly discussing the publishing industry, I do believe that many of my points reflect issues within mass media as a whole. Substitute publishers for studios, book covers for magazines and movie posters, protagonists with actress/actor, authors with directors, etc.
Three things to preface this article.
1) When I say white people/white America I mean that in the general sense. I am well aware that all white people are not the same. It’s just easier to use to get my point across.
2) I am a 20 something American, Multiracial woman (though I identify as black). I am from a middle class family, and I was college educated. I give this information so that you can understand my particular view point on this topic.
3) There are two terms that you need to know the definition of to understand this essay.
The first is PoC, which means person or people of color (anyone non-white).
The second is the term white-privilege.
From Wiki: “white privilege is a way of conceptualizing racial inequalities that focuses as much on the advantages that white people accrue from society as on the disadvantages that people of color experience. White privilege may be defined as the “unearned advantages of being White in a racially stratified society”, and has been characterized as an expression of institutional power that is largely unacknowledged by most White individuals.”
Why are there so few PoC on YA covers? The answer is both simple, and complicated. Most people within the industry are under the assumption that minorities don’t read (at the very least don’t have the purchasing power of white teens), and that white readers will not be able to identify with PoC protagonists. I’ve read many interviews with agents, and when writers, and characters of color are brought up one can usually find a similar response: It is much harder to get works that feature leads of color published.
The main reason for that is not because it is not being written nor written well, but the belief that PoC are not a profitable commodity, and that if you go with white, everyone can identify with them, thus making the book more sellable across all demographics.
The industry is about art, and entertainment at the core, but it is a core of a business. Businesses have a bottom line, and that is profit.
If Stephanie Meyer wrote Twilight with a black Bella, a Japanese Edward, along with the Native Jacob, and left everything else exactly the same (with the only mention of race via skin tone once), I don’t know if the series’ runaway success would be the same. And I hate to say it but the marketing campaign most likely would have been completely different. I know this is big assumption, but I swear I have reasoning for why I think so.
When a book first comes out, or an author first gets signed where does the hype start? It’s usually in a few key places. Huge million dollar multi-book deals, early movie rights sales, and massive initial printings for 1st time authors.
Recent popular titles also have the advantage of enormous marketing pushes that get the attention of potential readers, which exacerbates the hype. If books aren’t mass marketed, and mass printed they are far less likely to become huge successes, and thus less likely to be heard about aka less read aka “people don’t like it because it is not selling.” I rarely see books with PoC leads get the marketing push that works with white protagonists receive.
If PoC fronted books aren’t privy to huge marketing strategies(expensive), and don’t get 100,000+ copies out into circulation (expensive) at nearly every retailer then how can they even prove they can sell without being a dark horse and becoming successful despite a lack of visibility. Even then it would be considered an anomaly, not proof that PoC can sell.
Since publishing has a bottom line, many won’t take a risk by overspending on a PoC fronted work because they don’t sell, yet without the financial input that other titles receive they won’t sell. Starting to see a pattern here?
PoC protagonists tend to get heir faces obscured, or minimized on their already limited covers.
Even when PoC are the main characters in YA novels the 1.2% of covers that black models do get according to Kate Hart “black characters/models are not only fewest in number, they’re barely even on their own covers.” The 1.4 % each of Asian, and Latin covers “characters/models do slightly better– not much increase in numbers, but at least they’re allowed to look at the camera.”
My what pretty, expensive dresses on these covers. And the white leads are the focus of attention!
That is a completely different strategy for selecting a book cover than white lead works. We all know that a pretty girl in a dress, and beauty shots, are what is hot right now. When (some) readers complain about the stagnant development in art direction of covers, the rationale is “that is what sells the most.”
Such elegant designs, and beautiful face shots that appeal to teenaged girls!
If pretty prom dresses, and beauty shots are what are “in, ” and “sellable,” then why don’t minority cover stars get the same treatment? Maybe the approach to marketing PoC fronted novels, is apart of the problem of the titles not selling? Just a thought.
Roughly 5,000 YA books were published in 2010 (excluding children’s books), and if 90% of them in 2011 have white protagonists/cover models, and taking into account the amount of non-descript covers (which could also have white leads), that means that somewhere around 6 or 7% of books have PoC main characters.
These aren’t hard numbers of course, just a guesstimate, but the point remains: if so many titles get published every year, then why is it such a gigantic risk to not assume that minorities don’t read, and white people don’t want to read about non-white people?
I am not ignorant to the fact that the publishing industry is having tough times right now, but you can’t claim that the system (marketing to whites almost exclusively) is working, and in the same breath say the industry is suffering major losses. If the system was working, there would be no major losses.
Not to mention that YA is arguably the most profitable genre in the game at the moment, and thus creates a perfect opportunity to take financial risks, and reap the rewards.
Really, every deal signed, every advance paid, every dollar spent on marketing any book, is a financial risk. If that is the case (and it is) then why is taking the chance on something different somehow unmanageable?
The answer is it’s not. It’s just not a safe bet, and therefore, not in the forefront of the industries’ minds.
Now I know what some of you might be thinking: “So River, like, why are you so worked up over this? I mean is it really that big of a deal?” Yes, yes it is and I will gladly tell you exactly why.
White people make up an arbitrary 90% of what you see and read in the entertainment industry. That causes many issues.
Katniss, Hermione, Bella: Successful YA series and their movie counterparts.
Many white people develop the privilege of being the dominant race in our county in the same way that males have a certain privilege because we live in a patriarchal society.
This causes two things in white consumers. The first is that they don’t have to, nor bother an attempt to relate to characters not of their race if they don’t want to. Most things are made for them, from their perspective. Now this isn’t a problem on the individual basis. However, this leaves the impression (to both readers, and publishers) that white people somehow can’t identify with other races, which is just not true.
Why can’t white America read books that happen to have people of color protagonists, or love interests? Are they less than people to the white audience? I don’t know, but this ideology certainly suggests something similar.
The second is that since white Americans have more than their fair share of representation, it makes it easier to pay little attention to the issue at hand. Sometimes, certain people can be completely dismissive that there is even an issue at all.
This is where white privilege comes from.
As a black woman, if I only identified with PoC, I couldn’t/wouldn’t read nor watch the vast majority of entertainment. Nearly the entire industry would be inconsumable for me and other PoC alike.
A lack of diversity plays a major factor in PoC’s self worth, and position in our society. Considering the amount of books being optioned for movies that affects not only novel covers, but what type of actresses get their break in major roles and franchises. That leads to a lack of PoC in film, and television, on the cover of magazines, and in mass media in general.
Considering the epic amount of media saturation in this technological, and Internet age, this is no small issue, and should no longer be treated as such. Period. We get our standard of beauty, and many of our social queues from the media. No one should, nor could argue that our media consumption doesn’t have a significant impact on Americans and how they view our world.
Of course this is not limited to PoC, Females lack representation in most mass medias though they are 50% of the country.
So to recap, in a more succinct way this is what I am trying to say.
The two reasons why you see less PoC in books/media:
“White people don’t want to read books about minorities, even if race issues are not brought up in the novel, and the character just happens to be a PoC.”
“Minorities are a smaller market, thus aren’t profitable. ”
Those rationales are behind the marketing/buying side of publishing that leads to 90% white protagonists/covers, which in turn leads everyday people to believe the statistics generated by a flawed, self-perpetuating system to be a fact of life. This creates the illusion that there is nothing wrong with the system, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
With less than 10% of stories being told coming from a PoC perspective is it really too much to ask to have just a bit more? Hell no!
Common misconceptions, and arguments that are not helpful:
PoC should write more books, if they want representation.
Do people really think that people of color don’t write too? This is an issue because the gatekeepers AKA the agents, and publishers are less likely to sign writers of color.
Not having accurate representation can make PoC less likely to create their own stories when they are being constantly bombarded with the message that you can read it if you like (which is ~doubtable), but this form of media is not made for you.
I know many minority writers that feel trying to get published is nearly impossible. They look at the numbers, they see that most writers are white, and they see that what is being bought, and sold is white stories, from white perspectives. Considering the industry is highly competitive to begin with, regardless of race, it can be viewed as a daunting task.
This is the same mentality in women trying to enter screenwriting. Males make up the majority of screenwriters, which write mostly male-driven stories, and females quickly become disillusioned that they will never make it.
If there are more non-clichéd, PoC driven stories, maybe more PoC will have the confidence to seek out this profession in the same way that female-driven movies can break the mold, and let females know that their ideas do in fact matter.
Most writers are white, and that is the reason why most fictional characters are white as well. It is too much to ask to write what they don’t know, and it is not right to force them to!
I’ve read several books in recent months that were written by white women that have PoC as protagonists, and these books were done well. That automatically makes this particular argument invalid.
The term “write what you know“ is often used as an excuse for not having diverse populations in fictional works. If an author writes about book set in say modern day Los Angeles, or New York City, and has zero minorities, then their story is flawed.
Write what you know doesn’t mean write only about you. It’s about taking things that have happened to you in your life, and weaving that into your story. If you’ve experienced heartbreak, the death of a parent, lived through a war, or experienced the love of raising a child, you can use those feelings as a writer to make your stories more true to life. That is write what you know.
It isn’t an issue of the obligation to fill the void- nor for the sake of pleasing minorities- it an obligation to make their works remotely true to life. Even fantasies, and sci-fi have to be grounded in some sort of reality for suspension of disbelief to be upheld. Most of these YA protagonists live in completely white, hetero-normative pockets of society.
On their own, this may not seem like a big deal, and on their own it’s not. But the fact of the matter is that the majority of YA novels as of late have these issues. That, in my opinion, falls on the authors, if only in part.
It is not just about white writers writing about themselves and what they experience as the default race of our society. I must reiterate the fact that white people are conditioned to see works with PoC as “not for them.” PoC can feel “othered” in return.
It’s gotten to the point where even the very few covers and roles available for PoC are white washed for the sake of money, and marketing.
The Last Airbender: Sorry for the whitewashing! But it’s OK you can have the villain and all the extras as PoC!
Liar cover controversy. The black protagonist had a white model on the cover only in America until outcry had it changed.
The protagonist in the book Starship Troopers, Juan “Johnny” Rico, is Filipino. In the movie he is played by Casper Van Dien. Seems legit.
Here are two PoC titles released this month that have the “in” covers, The Immortal Rules has a big marketing push. But wait these girls are supposed to be Japanese(which I didn’t even know though I head a lot about the book), and brown skinned! Hrmm.
Maybe if people experience new things through literature (and the rest of the media) they’d be more open to seek out friendships of those that aren’t exactly like them. Maybe they can eventually expand their horizons, and finally accept their fellow (wo)man to be truly one of the fold.
And maybe, just maybe, that will allow writers of the future to write PoC into their scripts out of nature, and not out of some ill-convinced notion that “they have to.”
You want to talk about diversity, and other issues of race in the media? RACISM!
Discussing the lack of diversity in anything doesn’t automatically mean that someone is claiming straight out racism. They are (or at least I am) pointing out that there is something that needs to be addressed.
I’ve just noticed (again IMO) that whenever this topic, and similar ones are brought up some white people get immediately offended, and defensive. It is as if they are being accused of being racists, just because they have white-privilege.
Do white people have privilege in American society? Hell yes they do.
Does that make them racists? NO! And no one is claiming that so I would really like to see this argument never brought up again.
It’s not up to white writers. People of Color just aren’t trying hard enough to get their work published.
It is not a PoC’s fault that they lack representation, and it is not up to them. In the end the individual author has little sway over the industry as a whole. It’s agents, publishers, and marketing teams that wield the real power.
So no, people of color do not need to simply “work harder” to publish their works. People of color need their works to be bought, and seen by the masses, and the only way for that to happen would be for the industry to change their model.
We are in a post racial society. We even have a black president!
I have ended racism just by existing!
Maybe if people didn’t try to automatically shut down the discussion at hand by saying it’s inconsequential, because we live in a “post race” society, their eyes just might be opened to how we can fix things.
A short, true story: I was outside a coffee shop in (supposedly very liberal) Hollywood, CA minding my own business reading George R.R. Martin’s A Storm of Swords. Out of nowhere a 40-something white male approached me. He said to my face that quote “niggers are ruining this country,” and that I should “go back where you came from,” along with some other unkind words.
This isn’t the distant past, this happened within the last year, and was completely unprovoked. We are not in a post racial society. The sooner people admit that to themselves, the sooner we can actually tackle the race issues in America.
A post race society would not have people so up in arms over Idris Elba being cast as an Asgardian in Thor (which is a minor role btw). See also: Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Furry of Avengers/Marvel Universe movies fame, and the casting of Nonso Anozie as Xaro on HBO’s Game of Thrones. The excuse is that they are only being book/comic book purists.
OK time to retcon for a moment here. I cannot stress enough that there is a HUGE difference between giving a PoC a role originally written as white (especially non starring roles) and taking away from the limited pool of PoC characters because white actors are “right for the part.”
POP QUIZ!
Without using Google, try to name 10 black actress under 30. How about 5 Asian actresses? 3 Latina/Hispanic actresses? Now 15 white actresses under 30. Think about which categories you thought of with the most ease, and I bet it was the white ones.
Hint: Halle Berry, Gabriel Union, Lucy Liu, Eva Mendes, J-LO, and Zoe Saldena are all over 30.
In a post race society YA novel The Hunger Games fans wouldn’t take it to Twitter and other places to complain about a half African American/half Danish actress being cast as Rue (a character described in the narrative and confirmed by the author as black) in the movie adaption. When something terrible, and heartbreaking happens to Rue in the movie it “wasn’t as sad” because the actress didn’t look like the “little innocent blonde girl [Prim 2.0],” they’d imagined. Apparently being half white isn’t enough for fandom.
The THIRTEEN YEAR OLD actress is very aware of this racial controversy
Amandla Stenberg and Willow Shields: Rue and Prim from The Hunger Games. Obviously the one on the left isn’t as “innocent” looking right???
Don’t forget THG’s sequel Catching Fire casting controversy. Finnick Odair is a character never explicitly stated as any race only being described as “Extremely handsome, tall, muscular, and athletic, with tan skin, bronze-colored hair, and ‘incredible’ sea green eyes.” Once again there was an outcry because the half white Jesse Williams is a contender for the role, and Finnick is allegedly Caucasian according to fans . The role has yet to be cast.
Hair dye and being a good actress was enough for the pale, tall, blonde, blue-eyed, curvy, Jennifer Lawrence to play racially ambiguous (casting calls asked specifically for white actresses) small, under-fed, olive-skinned Katniss.
It should be enough for Jessie Williams who actually fits the physical description for Finnick.
White fandom cries to high heavens about PoC being cast in white, and racially ambiguous roles, and they complain when a PoC is cast in roles written for PoC? Yet somehow they still manage to excuse white actors being cast as PoC because they were right for the role. Well, that is a little strange isn’t it?
It’s the lack of diversity, exposure, and visibility of PoC in the media that cause such strong reactions. If we were a truly post race society peppering in a few PoC wouldn’t even be an issue to begin with people!
Do you know the reason why Eva Mendes was cast opposite Will Smith in Hitch? Because the studio feared America would be offended by a black/white couple, but if they cast a black actress it would put off audiences. So they opted for a Cuban actress. This is according to Will Smith himself, the most bankable star in the world.
America is ~sew post racial it hurts.
America is mostly white, so aren’t the statistics true to life? Why should it matter how many minorities are represented in YA/the media? They are such small problems, and really not a big deal.
The most obvious, and easiest way to debunk this is the fact that America is not 90% white. 58% of people in the country under the age of 1 are PoC. It is projected that by 2050 non-Hispanic whites will be the minority (including Hispanic whites, they would still be in the majority, but not by much). This country really is a “melting pot,” and there are more and more mixed race children being born every day.
The times are changing but PoC representation is actually getting worse even though our percentage of the population is rising.
Let’s look at some statistics of America. Bless Google, Wikipedia, and the Untied States Census.
The non-Hispanic white percentage of America is 66%. Including white-Hispanics, white Americans are 72.4% of the population at roughly 223.5M.
People of color in America vary with 37.6M black(14%), 13.4M Asian (4%), 7M multiracial (2.3%), 2.4M Native Americans and Alaska Natives (0.8%), and last but not least 47M Americans with Hispanic or Latino origin (16.3%).
Now let’s put that into context.
Pretending that America segregated itself based on racial makeup, where would our new nations rank population wise out of 242 countries?
White America: Ranked #6 excluding, and #5 including Hispanic whites both between Argentina, and Brazil.
Hispanic/Latino America: Ranked #26 in the world below South Korea, and above Columbia.
Black America: Ranked #34 in the world tied with Algeria, just below Poland, and above Canada.
Asian America: Ranked #69 in the world tied with Cambodia, below Ecuador and above Zambia.
Together, as one nation as the United States of America, we are ranked #3 in the world, the largest Western nation.
Canada and Australia are two easily recognizable 1st world countries between Hispanic/Latino America, and Asian America that have their own media that we publish, and broadcast in the United States.
Since we are not separate countries, we have one entertainment industry, one publishing industry, one media, and one social class system. We are supposed to be a nation of immigrants, who worked together to build their own culture.
Like I’ve noted, media saturation is at an all time high. The images, and messages that we are constantly bombarded with are where we get our standards of beauty (whether from book covers, models, or movie stars), among many other aspects of our American culture.
If we deny over 100 million of American citizens what kind of country are we to not care? How can patriotic Americans treat their fellow countrymen this way, and still call themselves good people? I for one, cannot comprehend how anyone would consider this issue “not a big deal.”
America is the self-proclaimed “best country in the world.” Somehow this great nation has glossed over the fact that a population bigger than nations like The United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and France (that all have their own fully fledged mass media) are being vastly ignored within our own borders.
To wrap up my tome that no one will read…
This essay is not about racism(well mostly); it is about privilege, and diversity. The terms are not interchangeable.
The only way to change things for the better is to work together as people, as a nation, to help mold a broken system, and flawed ideologies into something that reflects us all, and the world we live in. One cannot advance to the future if they ignore the past, and turn a blind eye to the present.
You can follow me, River, on Twitter and Goodreads. My fellow Book Brat Megan can be found on Twitter and Goodreads as well.
Related posts:
Reviewing Blogging for Aspiring Authors: Why It’s A Good Idea
Bucking the Trend: Why New Is Cool
Orange Is The New Black by Piper Kerman
The Shadow Society by Marie Rutkowski
This post is GENIUS. This is a topic I’m very interested in, both personally and academically. I actually just wrote my seminar paper for one of my graduate classes on the whitewashing of covers in YA literature. I’m SO glad you took the time to write such a well thought-out, educated post! I really think more people need to realize that racial inequality ISN’T just a thing of the past. It still happens on a regular basis all over our country, unfortunately.
I’m off to Twitter to tweet the hell out of this post. Seriously? Fantastic job!
Omg you think this post is genius? ::strokes ego::
Seriously this comment warms my icy heart. Thank you.
Well done. The actual percentages of people living in the states is really helpful! I didn’t know.
I would love, love, love to read books with MCs who are multi racial/cultural. That’s me, and I know a lot of people like me. Unfortunately, next to none exist.
I’m curious, what do you think of “African American” sections of the bookstore? I’ve never been able to understand whether they highlight PoC or hurt sales by marginalizing.
Sarah Ockler’s post on white authors writing people of color is one that I love: http://sarahockler.com/2012/04/30/race-in-ya-lit-wake-up-smell-the-coffee-colored-skin-white-authors/
I think labeling and segreating fiction as African American or Asian is just feeding into the problem. It’s giving off that “this is not for you” vibe to white readers. I personally think they should be in the normal book labels whether YA, fantasy, what have you.
I totally agree! As a white woman when I’m in the general fiction section of the store (or a genre fiction section) I don’t hesitate to pick up something by a “PoC” author such as Amy Tan or Lisa See, etc. But I’m not sure I’d venture into the “Asian American Literature” section of the store to seek them out. I’d feel like I was crossing that “this isn’t for you” line. So definately, good point!
Great post! I would love to read more books featuring diverse characters. If the main character in the book is of a different ethinicity, then I believe that ethinicty should be represented on the cover.
As a writer, I try to include a variety of characters in my stories. However, usually my main character is white because I’m white. They’re also girls. It’s not to say I couldn’t write a story from the POV of a PoC or a male. If I wanted to write a story from a PoC’s POV, I would have to do research like I would anything else. If I were writing a story set during Medival England — which I’ve, obviously, never experienced — I would have to do research. Sure, I can’t draw on my personal feelings or experiences as a PoC, but I think it’s do-able for any writer if they set their mind to it and would like to explore race, religion, sexual orientation or disablities. I’m writing about a Jewish character during the Holocaust in one of my screenplays and I’m not Jewish nor did I live during WWII.
One thing that really irks me more than white-washing is when a PoC character is described in a story as simply black or Asian, for example. Why isn’t their physical appearance fleshed out? If white characters are fully described why is a black character described as black. I want to know what they look like, so I can see them in my head.
As for movies, it’s probably the same deal. However, I’m writing a screenplay with no characters of diversity because there aren’t any in my story. It’s not that I don’t want a PoC in my film. It’s just that it doesn’t work for the type of story I’m writing. For instance, a movie set during Imperial China isn’t going to necessarily have a white character in the story. Yet, I think it’s certainly justifiable to use an African-American character in the Hunger Games. It’s a dystopian society. Another example is TVD. In the book, Bonnie isn’t African-American. She’s white. But I like that the producers selected Kat Graham. Plus, Nina Dobrev is of Bulgarian descent. I’m glad there’s diversity in books, TV shows and films. There definitely needs to be more! And writers shouldn’t be afraid to explore topics and issues outside their world.
I’m currently writing a book where there are several PoV characters, that are minorities, mixed raced, and white, and are both male and female. I think it can be done, but I would be a liar to say that it wasn’t more difficult.
Oh I should clarify that I am not saying that ALL works should be racially (and gender) diverse. If a movie is set in a camp with cowboys in the wild west there probably won’t be any females around who could be well rounded enough to be a MC or a strong supporting role. The same for finding PoC at court in Tudor England, it is just unrealistic.
Wow, what a fantastic post. I think it’s to the publishing industry’s detriment that they are not willing to step out of their little boxes. I think there is a HUGH market for indie authors to fill the void of PoC characters.
Within the last few months I have been watching a lot of Korean dramas (and when I say a lot I mean it’s pretty much all I watch now). I am a 26-year-old white American female, and I have no trouble identifying with the characters on the shows. Yes, there are some cultural differences, but underneath the cultural difference they are people just like me. Plus, I *like* that there are cultural differences. It’s breaks a little bit of the stereotypes I can fall into, and gives me a different perspective.
I don’t understand why the YA industry doesn’t think there is a market for diversity. K-dramas are becoming increasingly popular in the US, particularly with the teenage girl crowd it seems. I definitely think there is a market for PoC characters in books as well. I wonder what the YA publishing industry thinks of the popularity of Mangas for teens, whose characters are (mostly) all Asian? Teens and young adults eat these for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Why should a “regular” YA book get different (white) treatment?
I agree with you that we do not live in a post race world. We like to pretend that we do, but we don’t. I really, really hope we will start to see more PoC characters in the YA world.
(BTW, I’m working on a YA fantasy with a mixed race protagonist. Didn’t plan it that way, just happened.)
Thank you again for such an insightful and thought provoking post!
Thank you for the lovely comment!
Yes I agree so much with being able to identify with the broken heart of unrequited love, the sparks of a new relationship, getting a bad grade, or losing a parent regardless of that character’s race.
I’m glad you are doing your part to help things be more diverse, it is always appreciated.
This is a fantastic post! I teach English in a very diverse district and am always on the lookout for racially diverse novels, especially those that have multiple PoC characters and, preferably, PoC main characters. Sadly, they’re hard to find. Very, very sadly. Of course, I have some go-to authors but I want–and need–more so I can recommend them to my students. I firmly believe our media and entertainment should match our diverse population. We’d all be better for it.
I’ve heard several people in the last few weeks say that they are looking for more diverse works for their students, and have been having issues in it.
“Do white people have privilege in American society? Hell yes they do.”
I agree with this. I think many white Americans don’t realize they have it, because it’s not something they actively seek out. It’s the kind of attitude that, “I don’t hate minorities — heck, I even voted for Obama — and I don’t treat them any differently than my white counterparts, therefore I’m not receiving any privileges.” And I say this as a white American, and that until I took a graduate course in a Critical Literacy class, I didn’t have the vocabulary or understanding of what “gatekeepers” are. But there are gatekeepers, and there are privileges. And in reality, much of popular society is set up to ensure that these gatekeepers and privileges stay firmly in place (wrongfully so, though).
One example used in our class in regards to the media was the movie The Lion King. Even in our Disney movies there is white-washing (the “good guys” are light furred and the “bad guy” is darker). Think of the message that sends to children. It is an embedded belief that light = good and dark = bad when that is not the case. I think the important thing here is that it goes beyond simply having PoC characters on book covers or in movies — we must change the way PoC are represented in those books and movies.
Thank you for this post. It is something that needs to be said, and said loud.
Wow, that is very good point about The Lion King. I hadn’t even thought about that, but now that it is pointed out I cannot unsee.
And your point about “I don’t treat them any differently than my white counterparts, therefore I’m not receiving any privileges,” rings true. I think that white people who don’t discriminate themselves assume that they don’t receive privileges, they assume that the privileges are not there.
You really need a standing ovation for this post. Very well-written and I couldn’t agree more.
I stand up and applaud you because everything you have pointed out is true. We need more diversity in books, movies and television show, which I believe is happening.
Good point about Twilight. It does make you wonder if Edward and Bella weren’t “white” characters, would the book be so popular?
I think if Edward were a PoC the book would probably be less popular than if Bella were a PoC. It’s the white teenaged girls that the book is reaching for, and even if he was described as smoking hot, they want a white guy.
Amazing article. Nicely put together and I agree with everything you said. I pretty much agree with everything everyone else has said in their comments. We do need to see PoC on covers and as leads in books.
I recently read The Good Braider by Terry Farish. The author is a white woman who wrote this amazing story about a refugee from Sudan. The cover is beautiful. Well, beautiful to me. It is a PoC with braids. I am running a giveaway on my blog and not one person has signed up to win this beautiful read. I am not sure if it’s because it is a PoC’s story, or too realistic of a story or what really…but no one is jumping at a chance to win a free book.
I’ve been feeling the sentiments of your article for a while now and decided that I would start a challenge where I will read books either written by PoC or features PoC. It will be my way to promote these books and promote awareness to the fact that these kinds of books don’t necessarily get the same kind of push.
I wanted to also mention that imagination’s greatest quality is the ability to just be. Meaning, when I or my son or nieces read a book, the characters take on the features we want them to have. Yes, the author helps a bit but being Puerto Rican where so many of my people look so different, the characters in my head and in their head can look like anyone, not necessarily white.
We all read The Hunger Games and we all felt that the Rue in the movie was exactly what we pictured in our heads. Suzanne Collins did not really describe Rue racially which I thought was done well. Simply put she was dark with dark hair who reminded Katniss of her sister Prue because of her age not because they looked alike. I was appalled by what I read in regards to Prue being black on Twitter which leads me to believe that it has to start at home. As parents we need to be more accepting…but that is just a whole other can of worms…
Thank you for the comment!
Oh yes I agree. Even though many do follow the description of a character in a book, you are free as a reader to image what you will
. That’s why I said on an individual basis it is not a problem.
But as a whole, the message is that white is right, white is beautiful, white is what you want to be. That’s why when black children were given a lineup of dolls from dark to pale in 5 shades 80+ percent of them picked the white doll when asked what is beautiful, smart, and good. It’s just the sad reality of the world we live in.
While I think racism mostly comes from parents white privilege is something garnered from society, and that can’t be changed on the individual basis. But I agree that parents could educate their children about these things, so they don’t view the world through their lens of privilege.
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Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore is another book that had a cover issue. It was originally published with a light skinned girl with light brown-ish hair. It was gorgeous. Not because of the white girl, but I loved her dress and the glow under the glass. You can see it here.
http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266974526l/7779042.jpg
But it was republished with a new cover (shown below) because the girl on the cover didn’t fit the girl described in the book. She’s described as a dark-skinned girl, and it’s unusual because everyone else in this world is light-skinned.
http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312074955l/9638692.jpg
I’m happy that they republished it, but I would’ve preferred they used the girl in the second image in the first cover. I felt really conflicted about which cover to get. The second cover fit the main character, but the first cover was so pretty. The dark-skinned girl is so cute, but the cover is plain.
It really irritates me when the character on the cover looks nothing like what they’re supposed to. If they aren’t going to make the model match the character description, then don’t have a person on the cover.
Yes I remember that one as well. Even with the reprinted cover, they still have a light-skinned black woman on the color. It’s a shame that PoC with darker skin are even more discriminated against, than the small amount of PoC who get cover treatment in the first place.
I love this post! As a person who is mixed race (half Chinese, half caucasian) I really feel that there isn’t enough racial diversity in the media. In fact I think that Asians have it he worst when it comes to representation. We’re either super stereotyped (how many Asian characters can you name that aren’t martial arts related or doctors. Seriously.) or we just aren’t there at all. I realize that black, latino, and asian people are in the minority but seriously WE ARE PEOPLE TOO! We deserve to be represented just as much as any white person.
Yes I would definitely say that Asian’s have one of the hardest times in the media, or at least in Film/television.
I agree that we are people too, and we deserve to be recognized!
Seeing the faces of my readers, on social networking sites like Goodreads, makes me even more motivated to put diverse characters in my books. One of my series has a PoC as the protagonist. I can’t look at the faces of my readers and not create stories that reflect their diversity. I do have two books with illustrations of white girls on the covers, but I’m planning to reflect other ethnicities with future books.
It’s really tough to be brave enough to write outside your own experience. There’s shame involved — a fear of rejection. God forbid you make a joke or something and the poo-train comes by to call you bad words because a percent of people are offended. Still, I’m trying hard to summon up that courage. I don’t know if it’s easier for people who aren’t self-publishing, as they at least have an editor and publishing house backing them up, but I have to say for me it’s scary.
I appreciate your article! It helps me find the courage.
I know it can be intimidating to try to write a more diverse universe, but I am glad you are at least attempting to
.
If you fear stepping on some toes, or not giving accurate representation of PoC try reading some PoC led books, watch some documentaries, and movies about PoC, it should help you expand your universe.
And if that isn’t enough try talking to some PoC whether online or in person. As some questions, and concerns that you might have, and maybe they can help shed light on what you fear.
Thank you for the comment!
So much to love about this post. I thought of many comments I wanted to make as I read it But I think I’ll limit myself to two. One, you write ” If an author writes about book set in say modern day Los Angeles, or New York City, and has zero minorities, then their story is flawed.” Can I just say that no author, white or otherwise like being told that their perception or experience is wrong. There are bad authors, and there are stupid authors, yes. But many authors are simply being true to their story. I lived in LA, briefly. I was writing a screenplay and my husband was working for a digital sound company. I made a few friends (in the film industry); they were all white. The only people of color I spoke to were service staff. So how would I tell this story without a. changing the truth (to me this would feel like tokenism), b. including stereotyped POC characters (a manicurist or maid) or c. making it exclusively white? The reality is, and this is a huge part of the problem, that the world of POCs sometimes just doesn’t impinge on the life of a white person. The opposite is rarely true perhaps. (A POC needs to comment on this). Sometimes it’s about “milieu” more than geographic location. Lots of white New Yorkers don’t have any close friends who are black. Sad but true. Can we ask artists to portray the world differently than it s? Should we? I’m not sure about this. I’d love to hear people’s comments.
Secondly, you make a very useful comparison of the population of African Americans (AA) (37 m) to Canadians (34 m) suggesting that Canada is a culture and a population that can economically sustain its own media so why doesn’t AA culture warrant the same media representation. I’m sorry to disillusion you but Canada’s media, at least the publishing arm of it, is not self sustaining. Canadian publishers (and TV and radio stations,some newspapers and magazines, theater companies and musical groups) rely heavily on government grants and so called “Can Con” (Canadian Content) regulations to keep themselves afloat in the almost impossible task of competing with (white) American content. Would you support similar programs for under-represented populations in the USA? While it might not seem a bad idea, it is a double edged sword. I won’t bore you with the details but if anyone is interested they can contact me.
So much to love about this post. I thought of many comments I wanted to make as I read it But I think I’ll limit myself to two. One, you write ” If an author writes about book set in say modern day Los Angeles, or New York City, and has zero minorities, then their story is flawed.” Can I just say that no author, white or otherwise like being told that their perception or experience is wrong. There are bad authors, and there are stupid authors, yes. But many authors are simply being true to their story. I lived in LA, briefly. I was writing a screenplay and my husband was working for a digital sound company. I made a few friends (in the film industry); they were all white. The only people of color I spoke to were service staff. So how would I tell this story without a. changing the truth (to me this would feel like tokenism), b. including stereotyped POC characters (a manicurist or maid) or c. making it exclusively white? The reality is, and this is a huge part of the problem, that the world of POCs sometimes just doesn’t impinge on the life of a white person. The opposite is rarely true perhaps. (A POC needs to comment on this). Sometimes it’s about “milieu” more than geographic location. Lots of white New Yorkers don’t have any close friends who are black. Sad but true. Can we ask artists to portray the world differently than it s? Should we? I’m not sure about this. I’d love to hear people’s comments.
Secondly, you make a very useful comparison of the population of African Americans (AA) (37 m) to Canadians (34 m) suggesting that Canada is a culture and a population that can economically sustain its own media so why doesn’t AA culture warrant the same media representation. I’m sorry to disillusion you but Canada’s media, at least the publishing arm of it, is not self sustaining. Canadian publishers (and TV and radio stations,some newspapers and magazines, theater companies and musical groups) rely heavily on government grants and so called “Can Con” (Canadian Content) regulations to keep themselves afloat in the almost impossible task of competing with (white) American content. Would you support similar programs for under-represented populations in the USA? While it might not seem a bad idea, it is a double edged sword. I won’t bore you with the details but if anyone is interested they can contact me.
Thank you for the comment.
I should clarify what I meant when I said “if an author writes about book set in say modern day Los Angeles, or New York City, and has zero minorities, then their story is flawed.”
I live in LA, and have worked inside the entertainment industry as well. While people who actually hold positions of power in the industry are predominately white (which is down to white people are more likely to be hired for the job), when you look at PA’s, interns, and those trying to get their break in the industry they are racially diverse.
I know plenty of aspiring art directors, costume designers, producers, directors, etc. that are PoC. They are there, and they are trying to get noticed. I think that since the field is mostly white as of now, that is used as an excuse for the lack of PoC because they are simply “not there.”
Yet, film, television, and books are works of fiction for the most part. Why couldn’t a PoC just happen to be in the situation that is mostly white. It’s not unheard of, it’s just not the norm. But that is an issue in and of itself, that ties back into white privilege and the type of people who have the opportunities to pursue the entertainment industry.
I mean girls with Vampires for boyfriends, dudes with super powers, etc. aren’t normal either.
When I mentioned the above I was thinking about how the day before I wrote this article I was near Rodeo Drive on Wilshire. I saw just as many PoC as I did white people walking down the street.
Yes, certain areas of racially diverse cities, can be racially segregated like Bel Air in LA or The Upper East Side in NYC. Just because a majority of white people in LA, or NYC don’t have PoC best friends, or interact with them on a professional level that doesn’t mean that all white people don’t.
Most stories taking place in these settings have a lack of diversity. In TV shows, and movies PoC rarely even show up in the background like on a train, let alone as supporting roles, or leads. You can barely find a PoC barista with one line in a movie these days. That is just not true to life.
It’s true that tokenism is a problem in it’s own right (and far too big an issue to discuss here), however for me, it’s gotten to the point that the lack of representation is so widespread that I’d take a few token PoC over nothing at all.
—
On your second point, I wasn’t necessarily suggesting that the Canadian publishing industry is self sustaining. I was just stating that they have their own, with less people than AA in America. I was just trying to use a particular comparison, to the percentage of one racial group.
The better comparison is the latter one, with the collective 100M PoC in America to the 62.2M people in The United Kingdom. The UK has a self sustaining media, and despite the fact that the UK has about 1% black people, I tend to see them in a wider variety of roles in the UK.
In the US you’d never ever get a black Guinevere like in the UK Merlin (an adaption of Arthurian legend), and it’s less likely that a show like Misfits with two PoC leads in an ensemble cast of 5 wouldn’t have 5 white leads in the US. Martha, a black companion on Doctor Who was a medical student, and plenty of PoC play supporting roles in the franchise. If that show was made by American television most of the people on that show would be white.
Again a better comparison is the Japan, and South Korea ones. They have their own self sustained mass media, their own celebrities, and their own culture that is reflected in entertainment. There are less of them, than there are PoC in America, who rarely get to see themselves in entertainment as leads.
I hope that clarifies what I meant.
Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I guess with the whole LA issue the question is do we writers want to reflect the REAL world or an IDEAL world. Ideally, I agree the people involved in a story would be a representative mix. And I don’t have a problem doing this. But if I wanted to write a very real story about my own experience in middle school for example all the characters would be white. All. All teachers (I went to French school in Saskatchewan). All family. All friends. I guess I just think it would be helpful to accept that for some writers this conflict between the real and the ideal is unresolvable.
Your observations about Britain are very interesting. I too have noticed the much more seamless mixing of races and cultures in UK media. However I do think Canada is the best example of the culture that is “not quite American” struggling to compete with the behemoth AMERICAN (white) culture. Interestingly, it is only in music that both cultures (African American and Canadian) have really been able to gain the kind of visibility that I think we all want. Don’t know what to make of that.
I see your point with real vs. ideal. I grew up in the burbs of Seattle, and I went to a middle school where I was one of 3 black kids, and there was 1 Asian, and no Latinos with all white teachers, so I can understand where you are coming from with that.
Contemporary works can get a pass on the individual basis for that. But these futuristic, post-apocalyptic, dystopian, and high fantasy books that are popular now, that aren’t set in modern day the real world really have no excuse to not have PoC in their world since it’s not set in the “real world.”
As a writer I have never experienced what it’s like to be a princess, orphan, prostitute, parent, white person, and I’ve never had super powers, but I can write about them, and do. So I think a few more writers could write about PoC even though they don;t encounter many, or aren’t one themselves.
It’s true what you say, American (white) culture dominates in the world media, there is no question. And you bring up a good point that music is much more diverse than film, TV, and books.
I think that being good at singing, and dancing is considered to be an inert “black thing” thus, they are more likely to get signed. I also thing that since you can listen to music, and not see race, or culture just beautiful songs, makes music have a much broader appeal.
Great post – thank you! So many great points! Like anything, the more we get exposed to something the more comfortable we become with it. If more stories (and covers) featured PoC then readers and authors then I think it would be easier for everyone to produce PoC focused stories (publishers & authors). I hope many authors answer your challenge to branch out and move beyond their comfort zone to try something new!
Thank you Terri! I hope too that many little changes can eventually snowball bigger ones!
As a white writer, I’m trying to be more conscious of including characters of color in my stories. In fact, my first long published work features a black woman as the lead character. Of course, her picture isn’t on the cover. Wonder if that would have made a difference…
Congrats on your book! It’s good to see people branching out. Sucks about the cover, but I hope it is still pretty!
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I’ve always found the “white kids won’t read white protagonists” argument to be completely bizarre. I’m a pale-skinned, blue-eyed blonde from an all-white family, raised in a mostly-white neighborhood, and spent most of my education in mostly-white schools (and, when I was religious, mostly-white churches). I am, and always was, a hardcore reader, and I enjoyed books about PoC every bit as much as (if not more than) the ones about white protagonists. If anything, I found them more interesting, because it was nice to read stories from the perspectives of people who weren’t exactly like me. Because that is what we read: to “experience” things that happen outside our realm of experience.
Some of my favorite stories growing up: Julie of the Wolves and its sequels; The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm; The Egypt Game; A Wizard of Earthsea. Cassie was my favorite Animorph; Trini was my favorite Power Ranger. Personality is much more important than appearance, and I feel like publishers/producers used to understand that. Kids read books with animal protagonists, for crying out loud. Empathizing with kids from different backgrounds is relatively easy.
Er. That is, the “white kids won’t read PoC protagonists” argument. -_-
Maybe I’m just weird, but I liked Rue way better than Primrose. Primrose is just way too helpless and weak IMHO. And I too am white and blond. Oddly though, I thought she was Indian, as the sub-continent of India Indian. I didn’t have a problem with the movie casting, it just clarified that for me. And I was seriously irritated with the cover of Immortal Rules. It was made pretty obvious to me in the context clues left in the story, that she was Japanese American, which makes sense, since the Author is too. I saw that cover and went “The hell? Why isn’t she Asian looking?”
On another interesting note, my husband, who is himself the son of Indian immigrants and so is quite brown, is self publishing his first book, a sci-fi where the main character is brown in color, but he couldn’t find a picture of a brown guy to use on the stock photo site. He had to settle for a white guy in fatigues. I have the same problem with a book I am working on, since the main character is part Indian (again, from India). Again, a lack of stock photos to use for her. That is a problem in a world that is increasingly mixed and continuing toward being colorblind in all but description.