Article Reviews on Multiculturalism

10 Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism

#1 Source
Information

By Council on Interracial Books for Children in 
Rethinking Schools, Special Edition, 14-15.
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/

#2 Author
Information

None

#3 My
Review

The Council suggests ten criteria:
1)  Check illustrations,
2)  Check storyline,
3)  Check Lifestyles,
4)  Check primary relationships,
5)  Check hero traits,
6)  Check effects on child's self image,
7)  Check author's background,
8)  Check author's perspective,
9)  Watch for "loaded words,"
10) Check copyright date.

This is a good site to access when teachers or librarians are setting up guidelines for book selection committees.  This may also serve as a defense when there is criticism of one or more books selected.  Those outside the selection committee may be asked which or what list of criteria would they suggest that they would recommend.

#4 Selected
Bibliography

Council on Interracial Books for Children:
More Resources

Criteria For Evaluating Educational Materials, @
http://busboy.sped.ukans.edu/~rreed/Towey1.htm

Gender Equity: A Bibliography, April 2000 Articles, Books and Kits, Council on Interracial Books for Children. Winning: "justice for all." Student workbook: a social studies/ language arts curriculum, @
http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/metks4/instruct/iru/pubs/bibs/gender1.html

Anti-Racist Education: A Bibliography, in Development, 2000:  Books A-K, @
http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/metks4/instruct/iru/pubs/bibs/antrace1.html

Guidelines for the Selection of Instructional Materials, @
http://www.fdl.uwc.edu/windian/harvey1.htm

Abstract:  As long as citizens of the U.S. are conditioned not to see Native people as human beings with human aspirations, national interests, and cultural integrity, with a long history of struggle to maintain their treaty rights guaranteed by the U.S. constitution and by international law--just so long will the citizenry of today like the citizenry of 100 years ago and 200 years ago--passively condone or actively support continued aggression by the U.S. against Native peoples (Moore & Hirschfelder, 1982, p. 73).

#5 Related
Websites

In the process of searching for related materials, I came across this site:
http://www.4children.org/news/9-97mlit.htm
Titled: "Beyond Good Intentions: Selecting Multicultural Literature," by Joy Shioshita; this article originally appeared in the September-October 1997 Children's Advocate newsmagazine, published by Action Alliance for Children.

#6 Related
Articles

Titled: "Beyond Good Intentions: Selecting Multicultural Literature," by Joy Shioshita; this article originally appeared in the September-October 1997 Children's Advocate newsmagazine, published by Action Alliance for Children.  An excerpt:

Recently, more materials have become available to "speak to the multiplicity of experience," says Newling. "It's important to have many choices representing a group's experiences. There is no generic Mexican American or African American..."

Newling suggests that people choose books based on guidelines from Ten Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism, from The Council on Interracial Books for Children, and How to Tell the Difference, by Beverly Slapin and Doris Searle. Important points include:

• General accuracy: Books should contain current, correct information. Consider how old the photos and pictures are. Modern stories should acknowledge recent events. For example, a book about South Africa should reflect changes in the apartheid system. While considering students' ages, stories should not force artificially happy endings.

• Stereotypes: Beware of reinforcing stereotypes. Books should reflect individual people's lives, rather than assigning general personality traits or behaviors to an entire group of people. Writers should weave information about a culture into the flow of a story. A misleading book might discuss "the Mexican American experience" without considering the variety of experiences within a group. Workbooks particularly present a danger of caricaturing members of a culture, Newling says. Also consider who holds powerful positions. Who has problems? Who solves problems? Men and people of European descent should not provide all the solutions. What types of roles do girls, women, and people of color have?

• Setting: Books should include accurate settings. Again, watch out for stereotypes. A stereotyped image might present all Native American people in tepees, but Native Americans historically have lived in various types of homes and Native Americans are part of present society.

• Language: Be careful of books that separate characters into two groups: those who speak standard English and those who don't. This division can reinforce stereotypes that all people in a group speak in a particular way. If a book includes the language of a specific culture, the actual language should appear, not nonsense words or an invented language that mimics the authentic one. Translated works should convey the original content and not sound like awkward, word-by- word interpretations.

• Epithets: Some books may contain epithets insulting people of a particular race or ethnicity. "There's a thin line between censorship and protecting children from what is really going to hurt them," Newling says. "I would tend to err on the side of protecting children."

• Illustrations: Illustrations should convey the reality that members of any ethnic group look different from one another. The pictures in a common version of The Five Chinese Brothers are "downright insulting," says Newling. "They're caricatures--all depicted to look alike. It's demeaning to Chinese people." With photographs, captions should indicate a specific location and situation, not a general statement like, "In Africa..."

• Author's perspective: Newling describes this as a controversial point. Some people believe that writers should belong to the cultures they describe; others believe that it's enough if writers empathize with members of a culture even though writing from an outsider's point of view. Writers should avoid treating cultural practices as exotic.

• Appealing stories: To receive feedback, Newling lends books to teachers and asks for students' reactions. Themes like friendship, family, and school appeal to children within and outside of a given culture, she says.

• Tough issues: In handling difficult topics, authors should present the complexity of issues and offer multiple perspectives. Michael Lecapa's picture book, Less Than Half, More Than Whole, does a good job portraying biracial issues, Newling says. "The book deals with a child's real confusion about being neither all white nor all Native American. There's no 'pie in the sky' resolution."