DIVERSITY IN BOOKS: Rant

Some time around midnight last night, the book community (via my twitter feed) was in flames about something. Authors, bloggers, booktubers, and other members of the book community were commenting about a video.

Turns out that there was a booktuber who released a rant video that was just... ridiculous.

Don't want her to gain more views, but for your sake, I'll link a pdf transcript of the video, courtesy of Claribel Ortega. *Click on the picture to be directed to the link*

Yea, so there are a number of things wrong in that video. By the end of it, it just proved that Bre (the booktuber) is a racist, Islamophobe, and homophobe.

I won't delve into all of them, though, because this post would be way too long and I would just bore you. So, I will focus mostly on the main topic: diversity in books.

First of all, yes there are different types of differences, but they are not exclusive. You cannot talk about differences of opinions and values without speaking about race/ethnicity/religion/culture etc. Simply because of the fact that we are complex beings that are shaped and affected by everything around us and within us. Nothing is ever really isolated.

She has a selective and skewed outlook on history (as seen from the historical sources and books she mentioned in a previous video). ~[Remember, historical narratives tend to be biased by many sources]~ So her whole "historical"spiel is faulty and the point she was trying to make was nonsensical. Because historical events in the past were not all results of rejecting diversity (hello, socioeconomic and political factors?). But even if, HORRIFYING HISTORICAL EVENTS SHOULD NOT JUSTIFY THE EXACERBATION OF PROBLEMS IN MODERN SOCIETY. We are supposed to strive to avoid the past from repeating. We are meant to learn, grow, and progress as a community.

Now, here's why we need diverse books:

We are a diverse society, with different races, ethnicities, sexualities, disabilities, religions, bodies and cultures (family culture, food culture etc.). This means there are different experiences and ways of life. Every group deserves to be represented, to have their voices heard, and to create their own narrative.

Children (and people in general) should be able to read books and see themselves in them. They should be able to find books with experiences that they can relate to, characters that mirror their own, and references that they could understand.

They need to be represented.

The danger in the lack of diverse representation is that it creates a standard. A standard of how your hair should look like, of skin color, of body type, of sexuality, or belief, and so forth.

There becomes a standard of how to exist.

Then children begin to compare themselves to that standard and the results are devastating. Self-esteem issues. Doubt. Confusion. Self-hate.

Story time: I was a reader since my elementary years. I was quite the shy recluse in school up until junior high, so books were my companions. There are many parts of my identity that weren't represented in most books that I read. But the one that affected me the most was body image. I was quite a chubby child. Most books had average-sized characters that were always able to do a variety of things, had agility and looked a certain way. I had some really fun self-esteem issues. But there was one book that I read in 6th grade, The Cat Ate My Gymsuit by Paula Danzinger, that made me feel...visible. The power of a book and a simple representation.

Diverse representation in books become sources in which people can find comfort in and where they can understand that they do have a place in this society.

It's also important because other people who do not identify as part of the group represented would still be exposed to the different experiences that they themselves would not have known about otherwise.

It builds tolerance, knowledge, understanding, and empathy.

In terms of publishing: It is important to have a platform where people can express themselves and their experiences through fiction. Although we may all overlap in one aspect of identity or another, nobody has complete,100%, identical identity. Meaning there are different combinations of thought and outlook. Having the ability to create a narrative and be able to share it is something that should be accessible for everyone. Imagine the magic that can be unleashed by the many possibilities of the various kinds of people that exist.

Spectacular.

There needs to be an understanding that it is not the fault of the minorities that they aren't present in the publishing industry. It is not because they are "not good enough" (kind of sounds like the culture of poverty theory, right?), but it is because there is a systematic issue in our society that seeps into and affects the publishing industry.

Final note: Yes, attacking an author for aspects of the book is not okay. But pointing out issues in literature is fine. It's how we grow.

~We are building a better society with our tolerance and our constructive critique~

Support the We Need Diverse Books campaign. *click on picture for link*