tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post3926573530301138875..comments2024-01-13T21:31:23.388-05:00Comments on Reading While White: When Whiteness Dominates ReviewsReading While Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07807138877345669931noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post-39741220505814882342016-08-16T20:46:41.450-04:002016-08-16T20:46:41.450-04:00some time soon while there is still time for me an...some time soon while there is still time for me and my p o e t i n g i will write a long long long overdue love song to kay tee...<br />and so glad she is here with her historical perspectives and insights....the struggles continue.....<br />and one more indulgence:<br />virginia and i talked countless times of dialect and colloquial speech... and authenticities.....differences and what she loved to call: verisimilitudes....decades were devoted to research and study...trial and error...sources ranging from gullah dictionaries...to wpa collected narratives...and on and on to create characters who spoke with the duality of authenticity and beauty....arnold adoff in haste and rememories.....Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10134152253707951474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post-61708845893991861342016-08-03T11:57:01.188-04:002016-08-03T11:57:01.188-04:00All of the above.
K.T.'s list of possible r...All of the above. <br />K.T.'s list of possible reasons why professional journal editors and reviewers mistook urgency for accuracy might also be understood in relation to a recent article published in the Educational Researcher, by Zirkel & Johnson (Vol 45, 5, pp. 301-311). The authors focus on the ways White researchers have historically and persistently framed Black and Brown youth identities as damaged and suspect and then published research that announces what must be done to fix 'their problems.' <br /> In response to this misguided (heroic) framing, Zirkel & Johnson show that a substantial body of research on Black racial identity "reveals robust and consistent evidence that Black racial identity is linked to a broad range of positive outcomes from measures of well-being- including greater resilience, coping with discrimination, higher academic performance, greater commitment to education, and improved educational outcomes on a number of measures." <br />They ask why researchers and other professionals hold on to theories "suggesting the 'danger' of Black racial identity". Why not shift the research framework to affirmative data and findings?<br />The parallel history of framing in publishing and reviewing is striking. This article supports the call to reject fictionalizing- and reviewing of such fiction - and teaching and researching- based on a presumption that Black and Brown racial identities are a danger to youth themselves. Teachers, writers, publishers and reviewers must learn to imagine humanity first. As K.T. points out, this means wide-reading, linguistic expertise, and dialogue/questioning about the foundational framing of the work at hand.Pathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14438109854751205925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post-81032934233386235302016-07-31T15:16:28.301-04:002016-07-31T15:16:28.301-04:00Here's my two bits, I agree with numbers 2 &am...Here's my two bits, I agree with numbers 2 & 5, in fact I think they are both sides of the same thing. If an author gives a reviewer what they expect, stereotype and all, then to them it sounds authentic. I don't know if you saw the 2005 movie Crash, but this makes me think of the scene where the white producer finds it disingenuous when a young black actor does a scene using proper English and ends up demanding that the black director, supposedly hired to help keep the show authentic, make him redo the scene using improper English so it will sound "authentic."<br /><br />We get similar things from editors who respond that they can't feel or grasp a character as written by an authentic voice. It's not what they expect and they can't get into the character. <br /><br />As long as the editors and reviewers believe the stereotypes, consciously or subconsciously, this kind of thing will strike a chord and appear authentic to them. And they will continue rewarding that.<br /><br />I don't so much blast the author or publisher. I just wish people who want to write about a group would first spend the effort to think outside the stereotype. And that publishers (and reviewers) would really consider authentic voices, even if what those voices say do not match their preconceived notions. B. A. Binnshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07122617891116573672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post-76990217290606703192016-07-30T12:41:50.423-04:002016-07-30T12:41:50.423-04:00Hanna, I've been thinking about these question...Hanna, I've been thinking about these questions for a long time. I have more than a few possible answers. And your observation (preference for White translator) is apt, too. <br /><br />Possible answers:<br /><br />1) White reviewers know so little about contemporary African-American life/culture/literature that they believed this book to be an accurate portrait. <br /><br />2) White reviewers approached the book with a stereotype of Black males deep in their heads and this book reinforced their belief that Black men are thugs.<br /> <br />3) White reviewers didn't see the author as an outsider because she is Latina, and they assumed that a member of one marginalized group understands all marginalized groups.<br /><br />4) White reviewers found the invented vernacular beautiful ("Shakespearean") and thought the book reflected rap or slam poetry. The African-American Vernacular English sounded right to them because they don't hear real AAVE regularly in their own lives. They have no concept of code-switching.<br /><br />5) White reviewers have never been close enough to any members of the African-American community to see their humanity, and didn't notice that that element completely lacking in this book. <br /><br />6) White reviewers knew the author had worked with "at risk kids" and they assumed this had given her some degree of expertise. <br /><br />7) All of the above.<br /><br />I'd be interested to hear any other theories people have. <br /><br />There has been much talk online in the past week, blasting the author and publisher of WHEN WE WAS FIERCE. That's valid. But for me it's equally as egregious that three of our mainstream professional journals didn't even question the book's authenticity, and gave it starred reviews.K T Horninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04505891463218329510noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post-77745812533112982282016-07-30T04:17:20.651-04:002016-07-30T04:17:20.651-04:00Thanks, as always, for your insightful and importa...Thanks, as always, for your insightful and important analysis, KT. What do you think accounts for the rave reviews, particularly in light of the fact that POC authors often have a hard time breaking through and getting similar attention?<br /><br />Do you think there is an element of preference for a white translator? That the positive response is not just in spite of the author's outsider status, but because of it?Hannahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11862016976073298925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post-86768356946346661912016-07-25T18:48:56.762-04:002016-07-25T18:48:56.762-04:00I belong to a group of African American authors wh...I belong to a group of African American authors who still have trouble begging, borrowing or stealing a spot with major publishers. I published a YA in 2010 to good reviews, but still could not sell another until earlier this year, a MG book to Harper Children's that will not be out until 2018. It is both defeating and deflating to see things like this occur. Especially with someone making up their own language and yet getting raves, a think I told a class of writing students to never do when writing ab out different races only last week. And now we have accolades given out for this book. <br /><br />Disheartening barely describes this for the group of African American childrens writers.B. A. Binnshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07122617891116573672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post-75901617777609265112016-07-25T18:37:42.387-04:002016-07-25T18:37:42.387-04:00Great points, mclicious. Thanks for bringing them ...Great points, mclicious. Thanks for bringing them into this discussion.K T Horninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04505891463218329510noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post-56578348243726595602016-07-25T18:36:52.526-04:002016-07-25T18:36:52.526-04:00Great points, mclicious. Thanks for bringing them ...Great points, mclicious. Thanks for bringing them into this discussion.K T Horninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04505891463218329510noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post-3709097149564214812016-07-25T17:42:40.352-04:002016-07-25T17:42:40.352-04:00When it comes to inventing slang, I think of how A...When it comes to inventing slang, I think of how Amy Heckerling invented nearly all of her slang for CLUELESS, and people assumed it was just for kids so hip that they hadn't heard it before. But Heckerling is white and was writing mostly white characters, so a) she was part of the in-group, and b) rich white people are not marginalized in the way that poor blacks are. AND she made hers crazy over the top so it should have been obvious, and yet it naturally fit into the characters' mouths. That's the way to go about doing it. I haven't read this book, and unlike picturebooks we've talked about in the past year, there's not enough of it available on the internetz for me to make specific criticisms. BUT to bring up what I know was a totally rhetorical question that you know the answer to, I do love that SLJ decided to do something like that! But let's be honest - reviewers will be white so long as librarianship is white, and they will be white so long as the majority of publications don't pay their reviewers, and they will be white so long as white editorial boards silence PoC objections to positive reviews or stars or highlights because they don't deem them problematic *enough* to warrant taking those stars away. mclicioushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11181003635060336120noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post-78018476610050928122016-07-25T17:24:47.421-04:002016-07-25T17:24:47.421-04:00Thanks for noting the consistent erasure and dismi...Thanks for noting the consistent erasure and dismissal of Black voices being able to be prominent and the authority ON Black voices. This is another very sad example of that.Jennhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12823739886038280225noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post-80748104515807372532016-07-25T15:40:57.860-04:002016-07-25T15:40:57.860-04:00I didn't notice a whole lot of rule-bending wh...I didn't notice a whole lot of rule-bending where language was concerned with His Own Where. It seemed like fairly standard Black English in poetic form. But it was a real rule-bender in other ways -- novel length picture book? For teens? With pictures? As is often the case, African-American authors do it first and best but rarely get credit. I'm also thinking of Alexis DeVeaux's great biography of Billie Holiday, called DON'T EXPLAIN from the early 80s. Written in verse. (Or in this case, true poetry.) <br /><br />Thanks for remembering June Jordan, Roger. I should have included her in my list, along with Sharon Bell Mathis. K T Horninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04505891463218329510noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post-49131440960065331402016-07-25T15:06:02.034-04:002016-07-25T15:06:02.034-04:00And you're making me remember June Jordan'...And you're making me remember June Jordan's His Own Where (1971), which I thought WAS a brilliant synthesis of what we then called Black English and the writer's own unique bending of its rules.Roger Suttonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00030627312439744621noreply@blogger.com