As a kid, the stories I liked best were international stories. My Aunt worked in Women’s studies in art history for Greco Roman Art at a major university, so she would give me mythology from various places around the world. My maternal grandmother would give me books about folktales of Russia, and occasionally find me things from different locales.
So, the countries and cultures I did get to read was pretty vast, though I admit to some weaknesses (not from a lack of asking, though).
Native American tribes: Iroquois, Apache, Cherokee, Blackfoot. A lot of Mid-West and NE, mainly folktales.
Anything I asked for South of the Border or Latin America I was denied. I’m still working on filling that gap. It’s my largest weakness. (And BTW, I voted a few times for them to show up and be studied in my HS class, but kids were lazy and didn’t want to read Garcia--they rather read something they read before.) I looked, too. Still dislike my school for skipping it and using black as the token PoC. (Not hating on black lit, more like, can’t you do all of the representation?)
Of course Europe. But covering Europe would be boring. PoC authors, of course Dumas (and yes, I know his controversy). And of course other diversity writers, but I got bored after being told this is the pinnacle of all literature over and over and people telling me over and over I was wrong for questioning it. (You know after reading worldwide lit, I had a clue...)
Rromani... had some folktales, but I’m not sure if I believe that collection.
African American Folktales. (Also West African folktales). And of course Egypt.
Central and Southern Africa I’m weaker on. (regionalities because of white people splitting tribes... and I read by tribe/culture, not by borders imposed by whites). Northern Africa I have fairly well, but I admit it could be better. I’m probably limiting it since I don’t generally like stories of colonization that much, and the US tends to import those and it really gets to me. I rather not have it in my subconscious.
I’ve read West Asian Literature. Mostly the older stuff. Some of the newer pieces as well. (The Blood of Flowers, for example--loved that one). Again, I have a severe aversion to colonization and trauma porn. (It’s from waaaaaayyy back before I came to the US, apparently. It runs back when I spoke only Korean.) I find myself skipping some of the modernist writings.
South Asian Lit I gobbled that up quite a bit. I have weaknesses in more modern lit. I did kinda ask. I have consumed Bollywood movies and try to keep up on those and try to make sure to consume at least South India as well. Afghanistan, Nepalese, etc. Again, I hate colonization lit. A lot. So I avoid it. I have watched enough BBC documentaries that I don’t need more.
I have a blank area in Central Asian Lit. I really, really want to read things from Kazakhstan, for example. And the Central Steppes. OMG, if you have books in English about the Ancient Central Steppes, yes, please. (Also I have a literary crush on the Silk Road, especially women traders. I’ll squeal for you. Fiction, non fiction. I want it.)
I’m working on Mongolia, but I have most of East Asia in hand. I’m working on the Nomadic tribes more and trying to understand some of the Chinese minorities (but it’s so hard to find their lit. And I looked. Korea, of course, Japan, and including the Ainu and Okinawans. And Taiwan--I want more stories from the tribe’s POV--the native ones. Both modern and ancient.
I’m weak on the Pacific Islanders. Filipinos, I have, but honestly, it’s a black pit up in my brain for stories that don’t sound like a white anthropologist collected them. South East Asia, I’m trying to crack it. Thailand, (I’m looking at the Ethnic minorities more--Dai, etc). Hmong, Laos, etc.
The places I don’t know, I want to know, genuinely. Not in the anthropology sense as much, as learning story conventions from around the world and validating those. Getting names of them. Learning their structures, and being able to understand them fully.
But I was told it’s impossible to learn the entire world of literature. But I want to at least have a go at it. BTW, book recs, I’ll take them. PLEASE. Especially non-colonialized literature without white people that is unashamed of using the literature conventions of the ethnicity is comes from. Translated or not, I’ll take them all.
What I wish for the Diversity Movement in Literature for 2020
I’ll justify these below the line.
A Cancelling of the Cancel Crew. (You know who you are--put down your pitchforks already).
More Books in ALL parts of the bookstore being published, which includes the books demographically for adults. (Stop screwing over the adult section.)
More mistakes allowed for new authors to get their bearing on writing diversity.
More evidence of editors, agents, and publishers who are from diversity at least helping with the editing process of the books from the publishing industry, so our main gatekeepers aren’t the Super privileged.
Less, let’s make this character PoC, but reject you because I didn’t bother to read anything but European Literature and European-like literature for all of my life. Let’s keep those white story standards in place because conventions (culture by another name) are there for a reason (which has nothing to do with your culture.)
Magazines that pay their diversity authors.
A Cancelling of the Cancel Crew. (You know who you are--put down your pitchforks already).
The reason why I’m against the Cancel Crew isn’t that I don’t think what they are thinking is valid at all. Don’t get me wrong here. I mean YA has done pretty well, but when you put in gatekeepers at the wrong end of the spectrum, you chance that you might miss out on some excellent book. We need to stop trying to cancel books before they are released.
How does this make us better than the people who burned books? How does this make us better than the the people who censor books just because it had a gay person in it?
I’d argue it makes us a whole lot worse when we call for books to be canceled just because it has content we don’t love. Let the book be published, let people out there decide, review, and tell others how to DO IT BETTER.
There are authors, who legitimately are own voices who find the environment of YA toxic enough to want to quit writing YA and are afraid to write diversity period. That’s not progress. You can see it in the numbers, too, this year more books about animals were written than in previous years. Also not progress.
When you cancel before a person begins, you create fear and then how is representation going to get better? Who gets to be the arbriter for good taste then? Books are hard enough to get published, we don’t need a black person, say, stepping up and saying that someone can’t write about Asian slavery, which, BTW, was and is a real thing just because of Southern slavery. We don’t know until the book is released. Let it go.
Let the public decide, and let us learn from other’s mistakes, because that is wisdom.
More Books in ALL parts of the bookstore being published, which includes the books demographically for adults. (Stop screwing over the adult section.)
Look, publishers aren’t really going to take the diversity movement seriously unless it reaches all corners of the bookstore. If you are perpetually thinking about yourself and your pocketbook, you really aren’t better than the other people that started blocking us on the excuse, “Oh it’s just not profitable”
We need to make it end to end, so when you go to ANY section of the bookstore, you’re faced with books from diversity, everywhere. So it’s easy to find. And this year, still hasn’t happened. This is why the people in the movement need to get out of their chairs, off of the internet, and actually look in the bookstore to see how far they’ve gotten, and check every single last corner to see if they’ve succeeded, not just for themselves--because that’s not a movement, that’s navel gazing--but for everyone. The struggle doesn’t end with you.
Women didn’t quit and say Women’s Literature section--we’re done. They went, “Not good enough.” and conquered the entire end of the book store. They made sure it was profitable for every woman writing anything to get published. And this is reflected in the bookstore and magazines. Women rwrite for men’s magazines too.
More mistakes allowed for new authors to get their bearings on writing diversity.
When you were riding a two-wheel bike, you were absolutely perfect on the first try? Right? If you weren’t then you have to be kind enough to help those who want to learn how to write diversity and realize that your experience might not match everyone else’s.
The intention for own voices has warped out of control. The original intention was to highlight people with experience, and raise those voices, not to block every book that is not that trying to navigate and learn.
Help them by asking them to do research, point to resources, let them fail and help them raise their game, don’t simply go and say, “Well, you cannot do this anymore.”
We aren’t all writing memoirs. We are writing fiction. We are writing a variety of things that we probably never have experienced. So push towards researching more and then finding own voices. Ask more questions of the person inquiring. Less pitchfork, and more pushing the person to try harder and improve. Because you didn’t start writing perfect either.
This doesn’t mean your anger is not justified when people get it wrong, but direct that anger properly.
More evidence of editors, agents, and publishers who are from diversity at least helping with the editing process of the books from the publishing industry, so our main gatekeepers aren’t the Super privileged.
This doesn’t mean the super privileged can’t have jobs, but at least consider new hires to help with the problem. Shark Tank pointed it out--you need people from that experience on that team, to stop you from rejecting a book because they’ve written it in say... African American English. Or because they start with a bit of Spanglish. How will you know better if you don’t have the people who know better on your team?
Less, let’s make this character PoC, but reject you because I didn’t bother to read anything but European Literature and European-like literature for all of my life.
Because, while the character can and might be doing awesome things, it’s still token to say, we’ll accept PoC Characters, but nothing else from their culture. Stories are different from around the world. They have their own conventions that are significant to them. Allow them to exist. Otherwise, you’re secretly white washing the PoC characters. And you’re letting it go stagnant.
Plus it perpetuates the idea that when a white person imports a story convention from another country, say Sam Raimi and Japan, it’s”innovative”, but when a PoC does it, it’s just plain “wrong.” and do you really want that?
How do you tell the difference? You have people who are well read, like say, the previous step.
More Diversity Magazines that pay.
Historically, diversity people don’t get credit for either their diversity or their accomplishments. They often got ripped off and someone else took the larger title. I still contend that Louis Latimer should have gotten credit for the commercially viable light bulb.
Why is my life and my experiences, my pint of blood not worth any money? Why is my blood worth less than someone super privileged? Often Adoptive Parents, for example get to be paid large amounts writing FOR and ABOUT their adopted kids. But we are relegated to being paid nothing.
Same with my other diversity. Invariably the diversity magazines think that because we want to make change, that our life experiences should be free. But screw that. Seriously. When did the women’s movement before us say, “You know what, I don’t need to be paid!”
We should also fight for equal pay.
If we should accomplish even a fraction of this in 2020, the year I hope we see clearer, even if I didn’t get the affordable maid robot I wanted when I was a kid, I would cheer. We can do better and I believe we can work on it together.
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