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Malorie Blackman, The New Children’S Laureate.
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Yes they have chosen a black person as the new Children's Laureate, and straight away she has brought race into play.
/// Parents can be put off from buying a book with a black character on the front cover, Malorie Blackman, the new Children’s Laureate, has said. ///
/// The multi-award-winning Noughts & Crosses was Blackman’s first literary foray into issues of race and ethnic identity and was inspired by her anger about the death of Stephen Lawrence and his family’s treatment by the police. ///
Why can't they just get on with things instead of constantly causing diversions?
/// Blackman, a London-born author whose parents came to Britain from Barbados, said there was a distinct lack of black and Asian children in picture books. ///
It would seem that there is also a distinct lack of Chinese children in picture books, and before some pedantic reminds me that Chinese are Asian, we all know that they are not generally referred to as Asians.
Wasn't her novel series Noughts and Crosses, about the Crossers who were the Africans, the Noughts who were the Europeans, and the Crossers made slaves of the Noughts?
If a white author was to write such a book today, it would never get published.
Yes they have chosen a black person as the new Children's Laureate, and straight away she has brought race into play.
/// Parents can be put off from buying a book with a black character on the front cover, Malorie Blackman, the new Children’s Laureate, has said. ///
/// The multi-award-winning Noughts & Crosses was Blackman’s first literary foray into issues of race and ethnic identity and was inspired by her anger about the death of Stephen Lawrence and his family’s treatment by the police. ///
Why can't they just get on with things instead of constantly causing diversions?
/// Blackman, a London-born author whose parents came to Britain from Barbados, said there was a distinct lack of black and Asian children in picture books. ///
It would seem that there is also a distinct lack of Chinese children in picture books, and before some pedantic reminds me that Chinese are Asian, we all know that they are not generally referred to as Asians.
Wasn't her novel series Noughts and Crosses, about the Crossers who were the Africans, the Noughts who were the Europeans, and the Crossers made slaves of the Noughts?
If a white author was to write such a book today, it would never get published.
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Is discrimination against an individual based upon their race a bad thing, AoG?
If you agree that it is, what objection can you have to this woman using her position as a way of making that very point?
You also wrote this;
"she is now going to use her position to get her own personal message of the supposed discrimination of black people across"
Are you trying to suggest that when black people complain about race discrimination, they are actually making it up, and that it never happened? Are you trying to suggest it still does not happen, even now? Because frankly, that would be an absurd suggestion, ignoring the masses of evidence that point to the contrary.
Or were you trying to make a completely different point, and once again the readers of your post have, as usual, "misinterpreted" you?
If you agree that it is, what objection can you have to this woman using her position as a way of making that very point?
You also wrote this;
"she is now going to use her position to get her own personal message of the supposed discrimination of black people across"
Are you trying to suggest that when black people complain about race discrimination, they are actually making it up, and that it never happened? Are you trying to suggest it still does not happen, even now? Because frankly, that would be an absurd suggestion, ignoring the masses of evidence that point to the contrary.
Or were you trying to make a completely different point, and once again the readers of your post have, as usual, "misinterpreted" you?
As a white person I also get fed up with some black people criticising white folk of things that have to be just figments of their imagination, such as this statement of Ms Blackman.
/// Children will go with any story as long as its good but white adults sometimes think that if a black child's on the cover it is perhaps not for them," she said. ///
/// a London-born author whose parents came to Britain from Barbados, said there was a distinct lack of black and Asian children in picture books. ///
Is this some form of direct and intentional discrimination against blacks and Asians perpetrated by white authors, just for the hell of it, or is it because there are not many black or Asian authors to balance the inequality of it all?
/// She said that when she was younger, she never once read a book that featured a black child, which left her feeling “totally invisible”. ///
Ms Blackman is 51 years old, and when she was a child this country was still predominately white, perhaps there would be plenty of books in Barbados featuring black children, or perhaps not, who knows?
It is these types of 'them and us' statements which do very little to encourage harmony between the races.
Ms Blackman, just use your position as the new Children’s Laureate, to encourage our children to read books, regardless of the characters skin colours, that matters little in the telling of a good story.
/// Children will go with any story as long as its good but white adults sometimes think that if a black child's on the cover it is perhaps not for them," she said. ///
/// a London-born author whose parents came to Britain from Barbados, said there was a distinct lack of black and Asian children in picture books. ///
Is this some form of direct and intentional discrimination against blacks and Asians perpetrated by white authors, just for the hell of it, or is it because there are not many black or Asian authors to balance the inequality of it all?
/// She said that when she was younger, she never once read a book that featured a black child, which left her feeling “totally invisible”. ///
Ms Blackman is 51 years old, and when she was a child this country was still predominately white, perhaps there would be plenty of books in Barbados featuring black children, or perhaps not, who knows?
It is these types of 'them and us' statements which do very little to encourage harmony between the races.
Ms Blackman, just use your position as the new Children’s Laureate, to encourage our children to read books, regardless of the characters skin colours, that matters little in the telling of a good story.
I am more interested in your thoughts and further explication on your comment about "supposed discrimination" than I am in reading what is in essence a restatement of your OP, AoG.
Although, to be fair, I would tend to agree somewhat with the idea that promoting literature that will encourage children to read,and that we should yeach "colour blindness" should be top of her agenda...
Although, to be fair, I would tend to agree somewhat with the idea that promoting literature that will encourage children to read,and that we should yeach "colour blindness" should be top of her agenda...
AOG
You wrote:
Ms Blackman is 51 years old, and when she was a child this country was still predominately white
The country is STILL predominantly white, but Ms Blackman is correct in what she says. She's five years older than me, and it's true that in the 70s whilst there was a sizeable black and Asian population in many large cities - you never saw a black face on the cover of any book or magazine.
Even up until the 80s, it was a thrill to see a black family on a quiz show. Seems strange now, but that was what it was like back then.
Ms Blackman is speaking the truth.
You wrote:
Ms Blackman is 51 years old, and when she was a child this country was still predominately white
The country is STILL predominantly white, but Ms Blackman is correct in what she says. She's five years older than me, and it's true that in the 70s whilst there was a sizeable black and Asian population in many large cities - you never saw a black face on the cover of any book or magazine.
Even up until the 80s, it was a thrill to see a black family on a quiz show. Seems strange now, but that was what it was like back then.
Ms Blackman is speaking the truth.
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