Note: This Post Was Written A While Ago, Back Before We Apparently Knew The Meaning Of Revising, So Please Ignore The Grammatical Issues As It Was Written In A Moment Of Passion.
In our society, there is a growing number of mixed-race families (like ours) and yet I have not read one book that depicts this. I believe it’s about time that the main characters start to reflect the percentage of those that are biracial. We are beginning to see commercials and film start to depict this reality, so why not books?
Books influence the way people think. We as writers have an obligation to make a difference in enabling people to think the way they might not have done otherwise, for the pen is mightier than the sword. People should be able to read a book and have a main character that they can relate to. Regardless to what race and color, men and women think universally the same, but most don’t realize it. Having a character that is multicultural will help change that.
Nowadays I see almost all the main characters of books written as Caucasian. I have not read or heard of a book that contained a Hispanic or African American heroine/hero that did not come from the barrio or that isn’t talking about racism. There are a rare few books that I have read that the main character had some color to them. For example, Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games (our favorite book character) was written to have olive skin. But what did Hollywood do? They made her white for the movie. Not that I don’t love Jennifer Lawrence. I think she’s an amazing actress and I now think of her as a perfect Katniss. Nor do I have a problem with Caucasians (My father is white) but Katniss was someone I could identify with because of the color of her skin.
More often than not children are taught, whether by the media, their community or by their peers to be ashamed of who they are and their heritage. They’re told to choose one ethnicity and adopt to those standards and leave the other behind. Thus, stripping away their full identity which made them who they are. Those who do not convert or conform to the standards of those around them face ridicule, isolation, and bullying.
My sisters and I are biracial. We have a mixture of Hispanic and Caucasian features which causes us to face prejudice. We don’t speak Spanish so we aren’t considered Latina’s and for the Caucasians, we aren’t white enough. So when we were younger we were excluded from kids parties, sleepovers and parents didn’t want us hanging out with their kids. Things were worse when we, Marite and I, entered Junior High where the Latina’s would talk bad about us, right in front of us in Spanish, not knowing that we could understand them. Kids we thought were our friends, white and Hispanic, would tell us when we asked if we could exchange phone numbers that they didn’t have one and that their parents wouldn’t allow them to have friends calling the house. A few weeks later they would give their phone number’s out to some other kids in front of us, of the same race, forgetting that they already told us they didn’t have a phone. This happened a number of times. The isolation became so bad we begged our parents to home school us. They finally agreed and we, my twin sister and I, have been homeschooled since seventh grade and our little sister since second.
People are afraid of those they don’t understand and by consequence, those that are deemed as different suffer from their ignorance because they fail to realize that all are made equal, regardless of class, race, heritage, religion, sexuality, life choices, and the colors of people skin. This is why we should have diversity in literature. To make sure that the next generation of children will be more accepting of others. To achieve this we must stop talking about this issue but do something about it. This isn’t solely the writer's job. Agents, editors, and publishers choose books to publish mainly for what they think readers will want. Therefore, if we want more diversity in books we the readers, who come across such literature, need to go out there and spread the word because the fate of a book rests with us. Only then will we see a change.
Please share if you agree.
Love,
Price Girls
In our society, there is a growing number of mixed-race families (like ours) and yet I have not read one book that depicts this. I believe it’s about time that the main characters start to reflect the percentage of those that are biracial. We are beginning to see commercials and film start to depict this reality, so why not books?
Books influence the way people think. We as writers have an obligation to make a difference in enabling people to think the way they might not have done otherwise, for the pen is mightier than the sword. People should be able to read a book and have a main character that they can relate to. Regardless to what race and color, men and women think universally the same, but most don’t realize it. Having a character that is multicultural will help change that.
Nowadays I see almost all the main characters of books written as Caucasian. I have not read or heard of a book that contained a Hispanic or African American heroine/hero that did not come from the barrio or that isn’t talking about racism. There are a rare few books that I have read that the main character had some color to them. For example, Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games (our favorite book character) was written to have olive skin. But what did Hollywood do? They made her white for the movie. Not that I don’t love Jennifer Lawrence. I think she’s an amazing actress and I now think of her as a perfect Katniss. Nor do I have a problem with Caucasians (My father is white) but Katniss was someone I could identify with because of the color of her skin.
More often than not children are taught, whether by the media, their community or by their peers to be ashamed of who they are and their heritage. They’re told to choose one ethnicity and adopt to those standards and leave the other behind. Thus, stripping away their full identity which made them who they are. Those who do not convert or conform to the standards of those around them face ridicule, isolation, and bullying.
My sisters and I are biracial. We have a mixture of Hispanic and Caucasian features which causes us to face prejudice. We don’t speak Spanish so we aren’t considered Latina’s and for the Caucasians, we aren’t white enough. So when we were younger we were excluded from kids parties, sleepovers and parents didn’t want us hanging out with their kids. Things were worse when we, Marite and I, entered Junior High where the Latina’s would talk bad about us, right in front of us in Spanish, not knowing that we could understand them. Kids we thought were our friends, white and Hispanic, would tell us when we asked if we could exchange phone numbers that they didn’t have one and that their parents wouldn’t allow them to have friends calling the house. A few weeks later they would give their phone number’s out to some other kids in front of us, of the same race, forgetting that they already told us they didn’t have a phone. This happened a number of times. The isolation became so bad we begged our parents to home school us. They finally agreed and we, my twin sister and I, have been homeschooled since seventh grade and our little sister since second.
People are afraid of those they don’t understand and by consequence, those that are deemed as different suffer from their ignorance because they fail to realize that all are made equal, regardless of class, race, heritage, religion, sexuality, life choices, and the colors of people skin. This is why we should have diversity in literature. To make sure that the next generation of children will be more accepting of others. To achieve this we must stop talking about this issue but do something about it. This isn’t solely the writer's job. Agents, editors, and publishers choose books to publish mainly for what they think readers will want. Therefore, if we want more diversity in books we the readers, who come across such literature, need to go out there and spread the word because the fate of a book rests with us. Only then will we see a change.
Please share if you agree.
Love,
Price Girls
Great post! Best of luck with your story. :)
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