Class Reflection

I learned a lot this year in TE 448.  One of the most reoccurring themes from the semester was that different people are going to interpret and react to different situations and literature differently.  Just because a statement doesn't affect me personally, that does not mean that it is not offensive or embarrassing to the person next to me. Although this is something for me to consider, I do not have to apologize or feel bad for being set in my ways and confident in how I feel.  

I think that my favorite book from the semester was Al Capone Does My Shirts.  It addressed a cultural group through literature that I had never considered before.  It was done in a way that i thought was thoughtful and respectful to all cultures addressed.   I did like some of the other books, but I would have really liked to read a couple of books designed for a higher reading level.  I don't think that the class really addressed any books that a high school classroom might be able to use.  

The discussion in class was usually alright.  Somedays it was really good, but most of the time it was a little tired.  I think something that could have helped the classroom atmosphere would have been doing more fishbowl conversations.  Because there were two sides to almost every issue we discussed in class, the fishbowl set up really helps everyone feel like they have something valuabel to say.  Sometimes in class I think that people wouldn't want to add to conversations in class simply because there was nothing else to say.  What I want to say probably got said a few minutes before I wanted to say it, so I might just keep quiet.  In the fishbowl, people were able to respond to the comments of others and play a sort of devil's advocate.

I think that this class was relatively valuable to me and my learning about diverse literature.   I would have liked to get better discussion in class and I didn't feel like the blog was an appropriate venue for meaningful discussion.  With so many of the discussion prompts in class coming from the readings we were assigned, discussions often turned into what felt like tests rather than heartfelt conversation.  I think the class would have been more meaningful if we spent more time on what we thought was appropriate children's literature and less time on what strangers thought of as diverse literature.

Text set reflection

This text set as a whole was a very interesting one and something that I enjoyed exploring.  Being biracial myself, it would make sense that I might be aware of the literary materials available.  However, that was not the case.   Had no idea that there were authors who wrote specifically for and about biracial culture in America.  I am not sure if these are something that I would have liked to have been exposed to earlier in life because I never considered any of my thoughts problems.  The books all had something special about them that made them useful and appropriate for their intended audiences.  I think that the best book in this group was What Are You? By Pearl Fuyo Gaskins.  It took the stories of tens of youths and compiled them into one collection.  There was such a variety of racial combinations that any biracial person could probably find a story to relate to.  The book was broken down into chapters, each with an overriding theme. 

            Just because I thought this book was the best, that does not mean that it was the only good book.  Like I said, each one of these books serve a purpose and have their place in the home or in the classroom.

Professional Article Review

Title:  Why Are People Different?: Multiracial Families in Picture Books and the Dialogue of Difference

By:  Karen Sands-O'Connor

This was a very long book review and it actually reviewed several books that focused on multiracial and biracial children in literature.  Fortunately, there was a portion of the article that focused specifically on Arnold Adoff’s book Black is Brown is Tan.  Reading this article expanded my understanding and appreciation for Adoff’s book because the article acknowledged so many different areas of children’s biracial literature.  The article reviewed books that were good choices for children and those that were lacking in different areas.  Adoff’s book had a couple of different views. 

I wrote my own review of the book before reading any professional reviews because I wanted my mind to be clear and unbiased when I was critiquing the book.  It is rewarding and uplifting to find that some of the same points that I made in my amateur review of the book were echoed in the scholarly article.  Karen Sands O’Connor agrees that effective books should focus on more than just the differences between parents.  Adoff’s book was a good example of this.  In Black is Brown is Tan, the family is the focus.  The child is not the focus, the cultural differences of the parents are not the focus.  The focus is totally on the way the family works and plays together to be happy.  Differences between the parents are acknowledged in illustrations and text, but that is about the extent of it.  Rather than showing how the family has characteristics from the white father and some characteristics from the black mother, the family is shown as one individual entity. 

The article includes many different references to texts about multicultural and biracial children.  Besides Arnold Adoff’s book Black is Brown is Tan, another book that I reviewed was mentioned in this scholarly article.  Two Mrs. Gibsons by Toyomi Igus is another picture book for children that focuses on biracial families.  This book wasn’t quite as perfect as Adoff’s, however.  In Adoff’s book, the family is shown as on familial unit.  In Two Mrs. Gibsons, however, the author chose to identify those things from both sides of the biracial family that were different.  The Japanese mother and the African American grandmother do typical Japanese and African American things throughout the book.  The family looks more like it has two different sides instead of one concise unit.  It is my experience and the experiences of some of my biracial friends that this is not really the case.  My family is not white sometimes and black sometimes, it is just always my family.  I think that Black is Brown is Tan does a much better job of conveying this idea that Two Mrs. Gibsons.

Overall, the article was interesting and I found my self in agreement with much that the author had to say.  She was able to focus her article on many books and the ways they have impacted biracial literature.  Her review included good parts of books and parts of books that she thought could have been better.

Biracial Literature using Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet by Sherri L. Smith

  Ana is a fourteen year old girl who is about to graduate from middle school and enter the intimidating world of high school.  Before she moves into high school, however, she has to work out some personal things.  Her father is Chinese American and her mother is African American and all of her relatives are around quite often.  However, even though a lot of her relatives are often around, not everyone gets along together.  Ana uses a post-graduation dinner plans to bring together her family and friends, despite all of the differences. 

            This was another book that didn’t really combine the different cultures involved but instead focused on the differences and diversity.  When it comes time to cook food for the dinner, Ana’s different family members cannot agree on what to cook.  The Chinese side of things clashes with the African American side until the latter portion of the book.  The most effective biracial books combine the different cultures into one familial unit instead of keeping them separate.  Many times the problems that biracial children feel they have are results of not being able to decide which side of the culture they should identify with the most.  A book that keeps those sides separate don’t do anything to help these problems.  In its defense, however, Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet does accomplish this feat late in the book.  The family members come together to have a successful dinner.  It would have been nice to have the book spend more time wit the families getting along together, but alls well that ends well.

Book Review for What Are You by Pearl Fuyo Gaskins

This book is set up as a collection of stories and experiences shared by biracial youth.  The backgrounds of these youth a very diversified and span across many different combinations of races.  The author, Pearl Gaskins, is the child of a Japanese-American mother and an European-American father.  She says that growing up she had several identity issues and that writing this book will help other people in her position better understand themselves and appreciate their own diversity. 

This book is perfect for any biracial person, younger or older, that is going through an identity crisis.  Because the book has writings from so many different people, most biracial readers could probably find someone with the same background as them.  There is a boy named Saladin Ali Ahmed from Dearborn, Michigan whose mother is Irish, his step mother is European-American, and his father is Arab American.  There is another girl whose mother is Puerto Rican and Portuguese and whose father is African American and Native American.  There are so many more combinations that just black and white.  Sometimes Americans can stop at just black and white combinations and not consider that in today’s age, people can and will marry whoever they want.  America’s diversity combined with the less negative stigma is producing some very exotic combinations of people.  Many of who are highlighted in this book. 

What Are You? also includes a glossary of terms.  The author seems to use her own definitions for the words as opposed to those which might be found in a dictionary or other literary work.  She gives a brief explanation of what the word or phrase means and then tells how it is used in her book.  Also included is the Bill of Rights for Racially Mixed People.  This is something that I came across often on the internet but something that did not show up in any other books besides this one. 

Pearl Fuyo Gaskins writes a nice introduction and tells a little about herself before turning the book completely over to the people’s stories and experiences.  The fact that she is an insider author and seems to have some purpose in writing this book makes in incredibly authentic.  Nothing in the book seems biased and I would recommend this book to anyone who is confused, curious, or interested in biracial and multiracial identity in America.

Biracial Literature using Black is Brown is Tan (Daniel Wright)

            This is a very important text in the area of biracial literature for children and young adults.  It is the first children’s picture book ever published that showed a multiracial family.  It was published in 1973 and, needless to say, was a huge step forward in the multicultural and biracial literary movements.  The book’s author is married to Virginia Hamilton, a respected author herself.  Perhaps it is this collaboration of two children’s writers that produced such an effective and accurate book.

            Black is Brown is Tan shows one family with a white father, a black mother, and two mixed children.  The skin tones used make it easy to tell that this is not a household of only one race and the children look mixed.  Of course, there is no science that will tell someone what a child will look like based on their parents, but this text does a good job of blending both parents into the appearance of the children.  One of the best parts of this book is that if you took out all of the color, readers would have a hard time telling what race each of the characters were.  I am not saying that because of the actual drawings and appearances of the characters.  The key is that the text and images do not portray the characters doing anything stereotypical or racially spurred.  The family is American first and foremost.  They go sledding, they barbecue, and the kids get sent to bed with a little yelling every now and again.  In some books for children that take on multicultural issues often show Asian people cooking rice, African Americans with cornrows, and Hispanic people driving pickup trucks.  In this book, the behaviors and activities are not like that and could best be described as typical American behavior. 

            It is great that this book shows a biracial family doing things that any family could do.  Too often, biracial families, children especially, are shown as either doing white things or doing black things.  There is an invisible line that biracial people have to navigate back and forth across.  In reality, biracial people aren’t sometimes black and sometimes white.  They are always biracial.  There would have been a problem is this book showed the children listening to rap music and eating collared greens on one page and tried to say that this is how they embrace their black side.  This is unlikely, but it does happen.  Adoff’s book is a great portrayal of how mixed children embrace both parents equally. 

            I think it was good to show the other family members coming to spend time with the children.  Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents from both sides of the family came together at the house and enjoyed each other’s company.  There are the few cases where a man and a woman from two different races come together to start a family and there relatives do not support their union.  By showing extended family members together, Brown is Black is Tan does something very important.  It extends itself to those readers who may be considering the positive and negative effects of starting a biracial relationship themselves.  Then again, the pages with all of the family members on it could raise questions in not so perfect homes like “Why doesn’t my grandma come around?”  This is an unlikely occurrence though, especially in today’s more global community.

            This book was way ahead of its time in terms of breaking down racial boundaries in America.  It is still relevant today and is a must read for any student or teacher who is working with biracial affairs.  Some books can take the issue and spin it so that it seems like it is saying that be biracial is okay even though it is different.  Rather, this book makes being biracial look as normal as not being biracial.  As an insider reader, I was able to look at this book almost as though it were an illustration of my life.  I wish I would have read it earlier.

Biracial Literature using Two Mrs. Gibsons (Daniel Wright)

Two Mrs. Gibsons is a picture book for young children.  It depicts the daily life of a family where the mother’s side of the family is Japanese and the father’s side of the family is African American.  The main character of the story is actually the author of the book and all of the accounts are based on childhood memories.  It is an autobiographical story about growing up in a biracial household.  Toyomi Igus is the author of the book and since it is a book based on memories from her childhood, the book is definitely by an insider.  This adds to the authenticity of the literature and experience. 

The book has a very positive overtone and everyone looks happy in every picture throughout the book.  However, as positive as this book is, there are still portions of it that raise eyebrows with critical readers.  Some of the things that the black Mrs. Gibson and the Japanese Mrs. Gibson do could be considered very stereotypical of them and their race.  It can be hard sometimes to determine whether something is a stereotype, if it is a generalization, or if maybe it is a fact and a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Whichever view you take, it is hard to ignore the glaringly obvious traits the author gives to each woman.

We will examine the black Mrs. Gibson first.  She is our main character’s grandmother from her father’s side.  She is a round, warm looking old woman with glasses and she loves to sing.  It is too bad that the only things she sings are Christian spirituals.  This Little Light Of Mine seems to be her favorite.  Besides her vocals, this Mrs. Gibson cooks collard greens and turnip greens in the kitchen.  She speaks with a bit of southern hospitality, making remarks like such as “Come here and give me some sugar!”  Finally, she likes to put her granddaughters hair in braids when she does it.  Now, surely African American women aren’t the only ones who braid hair or cook greens or sing Christian spirituals, but they are probably more closely associated with these activities than any other culture group.  If you described these activities to someone and asked them to guess what race they thought the character was, I am confident that their guess would be African American.  But, like I said earlier, this is an autobiographical account so the author wasn’t falsifying any ideas to make the character seem this way.  It just goes to show that maybe some stereotypes are true and fulfill themselves all the time in society.

The other Mrs. Gibson is the main character’s mother.  She is from Japan and now lives in America with the family.  Just like the older black Mrs. Gibson, the younger Japanese Mrs. Gibson is portrayed by a series of well know Japanese stereotypes.  She speaks with a different dialect for one.  When she is putting a dress on her daughter, she says “Don’t get dirty,” instead of “Don’t get it dirty,” or “Don’t get that dirty.”  She cooks stir fry and rice when she cooks and she folds origami paper cranes with her daughter.  When she styles her daughter’s hair, she pulls it straight and tells her that she cut her hair short and curled it to look more American.  I am sure that a lot of people associate origami and stir fry with Asian culture and these are just more of what would seem like stereotypes if they weren’t coming from an insider author.

There are some good things about this book and some not so good things to go with them.  The illustrations in the book are beautiful and use warm skin tones to show the different complexions of all the characters.  The book does a good job of showing some things that are usually associated with both African American and Japanese literature such as clothing, food, and language.  In those senses, the book is effective at conveying a point.  On the other hand, the book does not combine the two cultures very well.  The first page and the last page show black, Japanese, and the main character all working together.  All the pages in the middle show only one Mrs. Gibson at a time.  This doesn’t do much for the book in ways of biracial literature.  It basically shows to cultures next to each other instead of one new biracial culture.  After reading this book, the reader will know more about African American culture and about Japanese culture.  But, they will have no real insight what biracial children are thinking or how they feel in response to the main character.

This is not necessarily a bad thing.  The book shows two races combining to make one big happy family.  It just doesn’t address the issues and problems facing children who are in biracial homes.  The little girl doesn’t say anything about how she is feeling besides that both Mrs. Gibsons love her and everyone is happy.  This is definitely a feel good book, but I think it could do a lot more to promote the awareness of biracial issues and emotions for young readers.  Not a bad book by any means and not that I have any right to make that distinction, but it leaves me wanting more.