Books

What A Literary Diversity Audit Should Look Like

I recently met with the new children’s librarian at my local library, and she said one of the priorities in her position is to do a much-needed diversity audit of all the children’s books stocked in the building.  For those of you who don’t know, a diversity audit is a process of determining how inclusive a book collection and try to fix gaps in diverse representations.

This made me think about doing an audit on my own reading habits.  I believe that everyone should read all types of books with many kinds of topics and characters to get a wide variety of perspectives.

Stacy Whitman of the famed multicultural publisher, Lee and Low Books, has this great list of ways to make reading more inclusive:

  1. Does your book list or collection include books with characters of color? LGBTQ? Differently-abled?
  2. Does it include books with a main character of color? LGBTQ? Differently-abled?
  3. Does it include books written or illustrated by a person of color? Of different nationalities, religions or sexual preferences?
  4. Are there any books with a person of color on the cover? Do the characters in the book covers accurately reflect the characters in the book?
  5. Think about your student population. Does your list provide a mix of “mirror” books and “window” books for your students—books in which they can see themselves reflected and books in which they can learn about others?
  6. Think about the subject matter of your diverse books. Do all your books featuring black characters focus on slavery? Do all your books about Latino characters focus on immigration? Are all your LGBTQ books coming out stories?
  7. Do you have any books featuring diverse characters that are not primarily about race or prejudice?
  8. Consider your classic books, both fiction and nonfiction. Do any contain hurtful racial or ethnic stereotypes, or images (e.g. Little House on the Prairie or The Indian in the Cupboard? If so, how will you address those stereotypes with students? Have you included another book that provides a more accurate depiction of the same culture?

I think this is a great list that all librarians and educators should seriously consider when selecting future books!  I also found this video that is helpful.

Review: The Pieces I Am

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I had meant to see this film when it originally came out in July, but time got the best of me. However, with Toni Morrison’s death, I had a renewed interest in learning more about her life. Luckily, a local movie theatre brought back The Pieces I Am for a limited time right after her death.

I learned a lot about her in this movie, especially her life as a single mother and editor who found fame later in life. I don’t think many people realize how resilient and radical it was for a divorced, single black mother of two boys in the 60s to start a new career as a book editor in the New York publishing world. She did this all while maintaining her dignity, whether it be demanding a head-of-household salary from her boss or making sure black writers were giving a voice at Random House.

It was no surprise that other black writers campaigned for her win recognition for her books, which would culminate with Morrison winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 – the first and so far only black woman to win that top prize.

All of her books are great, but my favorite is Tar Baby, which is a love story with a Caribbean twist.

It was an honor to know Toni Morrison through her books!

Review: Algiers: Third World Capital

I have always had an interest in the Algerian independence cause ever since I was in college where I minored in post-colonialism studies.  I took many classes on African literature and film, where I learned about Frantz Fanon.  His books, The Wretched of the Earth, A Dying Colonialism, and Toward The African Revolution are among my favorite books. Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers is one of the great films ever made!

So when I hear about the author, Elaine Mokhtefi, who has both known Fanon and had a small role in the classic film, I had to pick up her new book immediately.  Algier, Third Word Capital: Freedom Fighters, Revolutionaries, Black Panthers, is more than just a memoir and to say the Mokhterfi was a witness to history is an understatement.  As a young, Jewish woman from post-WW2 America, she moved to Paris in the 1950s to work as an NGO translator.  It was here she became more involved in the Algerian cause, which as the time, had just started its fight against France for its independence.  She moves to Algiers where she meets a host of famous writers, intellectuals, and freedom fighters like Frantz Fanon, Stokely Carmichael, Timothy Leary, Ahmed Ben Bella, Jomo Kenyatta, and Eldridge Cleaver.

Mokhterfi spends most of the book discussing her relationship with the International Section of the Black Panther Party in Algiers.  I thought the book read more like a political thriller because of all the questionable activity Eldridge Cleaver was up to, including a murder he committed out of jealousy.  She also talks about some of the drama she experienced as a Jewish-American woman in a Muslim-majority country.

I read this book in two days during a trip to the Cape.  It was really that good!  If you are interested in African history, post-colonial studies, black revolutionary politics with some drama thrown in, this book is for you.

Reread Book Club: Paul Robeson: A Watched Man

Book: Paul Robeson: A Watched Man
Author: Jordan Goodman
Times Read: 3

I happen to be reading this book when the whole controversy started when Trump told the so-called Squad – Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilham Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib – that they needed to go back to the countries they come from. Only one out of the four is an immigrant. It is a racial trope all people of color have had said this to them at some point in their lives because they used their first amendment right to share their opinion.  And then a few days ago, Trump demanded that the Israeli government deny entry to Omar and Tlaib into its country, to only reverse their decision for Tlaib on a humanitarian basis to let her see her grandmother.

So it is interesting how the American government went out of its way to keep actor and activist Paul Robeson in the United States because of his opinion. The State Department revoked his passport because of his outspokenness on racism in America and anti-colonial struggles around the world. He was also branded a communist, which abruptly ended his career. Today, he is viewed as a human rights hero worldwide.

Listen to the man himself speak his truth on a wide variety of issues:

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