Beyond the Secret Garden? #ReflectingRealities & #OwnVoices
The latest in Darren Chetty and Karen Sands-O’Connor’s series looking at representations of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic voices in children’s books.
The recent report published by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, ‘Reflecting Realities - A Survey of Ethnic Representation within UK Children’s Literature 2017’ included some startling statistics. Only 1% of children’s books published in 2017 for the 3 -11 year-old age group included a main character from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background. For books containing any BAME characters (including secondary or background characters) the figure rose only to 4%.
This compares to 14% of the population of England and Wales self-reporting as being from BAME backgrounds, according to the 2011 census. However the disproportionality is even starker when we focus in on the target demographic for children’s books. The Department for Education reported in 2017 that 32.1% of pupils of compulsory school age were of minority ethnic origins. Whilst there appears to be growing awareness that children’s publishing in the UK has lacked diversity at all levels historically, the CLPE report offers evidence that calls into question the common claim that things are improving in that regard.
Additionally, these numbers only indicate what was first published (or newly re-published) during
2017; how long these books will stay in print depends not just on the quality of the book, but on the marketing and commitment by publishers to keep books in print, and on booksellers, librarians, and schools getting and keeping the books on shelves.
In an age
of tight margins for publishers and high focus on testing in schools, a book has to prove its ‘salability’ quickly if it is to remain available for kids to read.
Some might suggest that the statistics improve if books for young adults (12-18 years old) are included; the last five years have seen the publication of several award-winning novels by YA writers from BAME backgrounds such as Alex Wheatle, Patrice Lawrence, Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Catherine Johnson. However, a recent paper by Dr Melanie Ramdarshan Bold of University College London notes that despite the spate of diversity initiatives (aimed at authors and publishing professionals), authors of YA fiction from BAME backgrounds accounted for fewer titles in 2016 than they did in 2006. ‘There are many reasons that contribute to this dearth of authors of colour – for example, structural inequalities, unconscious biases in the publishing industry, the struggle to earn a living as an author, and (ironically) the lack of author role models’ Ramdarshan Bold comments. She explores these issues further in her forthcoming book, Inclusive young adult fiction: authors of colour in the United Kingdom, 2006– 2016.
The call to publish more writers from BAME backgrounds, or writers of colour as is more commonly used, is one aspect of the social media movement that has coalesced around the hashtag #OwnVoices. The term ‘Own Voices’ was originally coined by YA author Corinne Duyvis through a Twitter hashtag #OwnVoices which encourages recommendations of books with a marginalised protagonist by YA and children’s authors who share their identity. The hashtag, which Duyvis started in 2015 ‘to recommend kidlit about diverse characters written by authors from that same diverse group’ (Duyvis, tweet posted September 6, 2015) has spread to cover all types of literature for all ages. One thing that this suggests is that people involved with children’s literature, and particularly authors of colour, have the power to steer the conversation in good ways about and for authors and characters of colour.
But why is it important to have #OwnVoices authors or #ReflectingRealities books? One thread of ‘Beyond the Secret Garden?’ has been identifying how historically many representations of BAME children written by white British authors have been shaped by, and shaped, racial stereotypes. The re-edits of Enid Blyton’s work have been important in the continued marketing of her books. We are now far less likely to find The Three Golliwogs in classroom reading corners than, say, the 1970s. Similarly, Helen Bannerman’s Little Black Sambo is rarely seen, though The Boy and the Tigers and The Story of Little Babaji, both rewrites credited to Bannerman remain popular. There is clearly more to white writers depicting BAME people than avoiding the names ‘Mumbo’ and ‘Jumbo’ as contemporary versions of Bannerman’s classic do. However, even in books that contain BAME characters almost universally regarded as positive, a white author’s view of the world can colour (no pun intended) the way that character places her- or himself in a world dominated by whiteness.
12 Books for Keeps No.232 September 2018
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