cold hard facts

They’re at it again over at Editorial Anonymous…strange obsession with the CSK and why it shouldn’t be restricted to black authors and illustrators.  Over the past two days I gave *11* workshops at a middle school in Bed-Stuy.  The literacy coach there has just been amazing, and A Wish After Midnight is on the reading list for their 8th graders for next year!  This week I was at the school to talk about Bird, and to do some writing activities with music and memory.  The principal at this school has wisely invested in technology, so almost every classroom had a smart board–!!!–what a boon to teachers and students!  I used a powerpoint presentation, and then played some music…most interesting was noting the differences between the classes, grades, and genders.  I finished my first day thinking about same-sex education, and how I firmly believe in separating the sexes by the time they reach middle school.  But the next day I had to rethink that decision; some boys are completely functional (thriving, even) in a co-ed environment, so I can’t impose a “solution” for kids who really don’t have a problem.  Most of it is just an issue of maturity, and since girls generally mature faster than boys, they exhibit less problematic behavior in class.  But altogether the students were fantastic–receptive, engaged, attentive.  And their teachers were great, too…I have *such* respect for public school teachers; after my first 5 workshops, I came home and just CRASHED…was less than functional for the rest of the day.  Yet the teachers at this school show up day after day, they’re dressed impeccably, and they’re ready to teach, guide, lead…hats off to them, for sure!   Part of my presentation involved talking about the awards that Bird has won; apparently the new books (from the second printing) only have the CSK award sticker on the front.  They all know who Coretta Scott King was, and so I asked them why she started a prize just for black authors and illustrators.  I asked them how many books each year are published for children–answers ranged from 1000 to 1 million!  So I explained that 3-5000 books are published for children each year in the US, and then I asked them to guess what percentage of those 5000 books were written by blacks?  Kids guessed 50%, 25%, 60%.  I held up three fingers: “Less than 3% of all books published for children each year are authored by African Americans.”  Some kids sucked their teeth, others grumbled, some looked surprised.  We have the tiniest fraction of the market, we have ONE major award, and whites want to claim that, too?  Get real.  At least EA acknowledged that upper middle-class whites dominate the industry, and she proposes more internship programs to get minorities into the field.  So THAT initiative is ok, but the CSK–which also addresses racial imbalance–is “reverse racism.”  It’s really hard to engage in these kinds of conversations when whites don’t have the language to express their ideas…which generally are in keeping with the very white privilege that created this imbalance in the first place.  There are some allies following the debate, and it’s encouraging to know they’re out there at all…but I couldn’t bother chiming in–again.  Let me know if you stop by…