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.  

this class and my career

In all honesty, I wouldn't have taken this class if I already had my 120 credits.  That was my mindset coming into this class.  But, I was also thinking that if I had to fill my final semester here at Michigan State with something, it might as well be something useful.  The title of this class was intriguing and I figured it would be more beneficial for me than bowling II (which does mean that I have already taken bowling I) or some other blow off class.  I have always been very interested with what other people think about when it comes to race and ethnicity and religion.  This is probably because of my own insecurities and unawareness, but either way, a class bout multicultural literature seemed just the medicine I needed.  One day, I want to teach elementary school.  But not just any kind of elementary school, it has to be a certain kind.  I want an urban setting, like the one I had in Southwest Detroit this past summer.  I liked being around people who were different than me.  Different in their culture, their clothing, their ways of thinking.  I want to meet people that aren't going home to the same thing as me every night.  I feel like I learn more.  If I am going to have a classroom like this, I need to culture myself and expand my mind so that I will feel comfortable in every situation and likewise make those around me comfortable.  In my own head, there are times when I just want to ignore all the differences in people.  The skin color, the voiced accents, the different places of worship on Sundays or Wednesdays or any other days.  I think of the John Lennon song "Imagine."  The second verse goes like this: "Imagine there's no countries;  It isn't hard to do; Nothing to kill or die for; And no religion too."  I'll be the first to admit that it is a bit of an idealist idea, but I think it would honestly solve a lot of the problems.  However, there are times when a student in one of my classes will tell me something about their culture from home or explain to me what they do with their families on the weekends and I can see such pride in their stories.  Surely, that is a good thing.  I am truly on the middle of the fence on this one.  I am sure that I will be able to manage my own classroom and make decisions according to who is in their with me, but I would like to show all my students what other types of people exist in the same world as them.  I want to give them a little bit of who I am and have them take with me a little of who they are.  That said, one thing that I worry about is the way society is so easily offended today.  Or, maybe not even how easily offended people are, but to what lengths they feel they need to go to correct what they see as a problem.  I like to think that people, humans, are inherently good-intentioned beings that have one-of-a-kind senses of empathy.  Offensive comments are not always meant that way and with a little further explanation, it probably wouldn't be taken as offensive at all.  I guess I'm just trying to say that you never know what is or is not going to offend strangers.  For that reason, I think that getting to know my students on a personal level is the key to having a culturally sensitive learning environment that would be suitable for any students of any background who might walk through the door.  Think about it, maybe John Lennon's ideas weren't so crazy.  Just imagine.  Peace.

Instead of blindly diving into this final project of under acknowledged areas in children's literature,  I need to do a little bit of research.  I wanted to find out what books and resources were out there and who was writing them.  Being mixed myself, I sometimes feel like I don't have a real personal history or past.  You never read a whole lot about mixed race people in history books or social studies classes, so sometimes my views about history are apathetic at best.  However, upon doing a little bit of internet research, I was able to find several great resources for people interested in mixed race literature.  Cynthia Leitich Smith has a wonderful website that has a plethora of resources available to people looking for such information as books about commonly faced situations for mixed race people, lists of children's books on the topic, and mission statements and a bill of rights for mixed people.  That site can be reached through cynthialeitichsmith.com  I think that i will use this site to select books for my project and also some of my own research.  If you have any other websites out there that you think I might benefit from, you know where to find me.  peace.

I really enjoyed all of the literature samples Claire brought into class this week.  It was refreshing to see some African American literature that was positive and uplifting.  Sometimes it seems like there are too many slave narratives and sad stories and not enough happy and positive literature.  Langston Hughes is always one of my favorites.  His poetry has inspired me to write some of my own a couple of times.  He gets across a very deep message in simple forms.  It is an easy style to mimic.  Other African American samples from class were quite different from Hughes, however.  I can't remember the author, but the story that had no pictures and it told the story of slave passage to America.  I am not sure if I would use this book in my class just because of how graphic some of the illustrations were.  They could raise some awkward questions and disturb parents at home.  The book was very good at bringing out emotions and feelings from deep inside, it may be a little too graphic for a fourth grade classroom.

I'm not sure what question the blog for this week is talking about.  Something about what our group discussed, and the last group discussion I remember having was the insider/outsider debate.  But, I wrote about that last week so, as a favor to you the reader, I'll try to avoid all redundancy.  Now all I need to do is think up another question to pose and then answer.  (dramatic pause...)  I got nothing.  But, I was thinking last week about the video from week three about the native American issues.  I kinda wish we would have had time to talk about it in class because I had a couple points to make.  

Now, I can't help but feel a little guilty and alone in my opinions on the topic.  Well, as least within our limited learning community of which I am the only apparent non-caucasian female.  All that aside, the video was talking about the disrespect and pain that native Americans felt as a result of mascots that portrayed native Americans.  The Cleveland Indians, Washington Redskins, and the Illinois Fighting Illini were among some of the mentioned teams.  There seemed to be quite a few native Americans that were deeply offended by the names and they were also very upset with the inaccuracies.  One woman in particular at the University of Illinois took it upon herself to protest the school's right to use the Illini as their mascot.  To this day, however, the university maintains their logo and they are refusing to change it.

And I support their decision.

Before you start sending hate mail and death threats, let me just say that I can't get behind every mascot with a native American reference.  Although I personally have never heard it used, I have it on good authority that redskin was a derogatory term used towards native Americans.  I hear that and it immediately brings to mind ideas of the Houston honkeys or the New Jersey Niggers.  So, what I want to put out there first and foremost is that mascots with blatantly hateful resonance should be done away with or at least separated from the masses.  But as for the Cleveland Indians and the Fighting Illini, I still need to speak.  

It may sound like I am making a lot of disclaimers (and I am), but this is a new issue to me and I am still learning a lot.  These are just my initial reactions and opinions.  But now down to business.  I think of the Dallas Cowboys first.  The cowboy is an American icon.  They are a part of society still today.  Across the country, you can find people who consider themselves cowboys and who live the cowboy lifestyle.  Why aren't they offended when Dallas takes the field every Sunday?  Football has nothing to do with wrangling steers and branding cattle.  It cannot give people a sense of what it is like to ranch for a living and the back breaking labor that goes into a cattle ranch.  But still, I have never heard of people protesting the mascot.  The Duke Blue Devils and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.  These are just a couple of mascots in the NCAA that use demonic or satanic mascots to represent their teams and schools.  Satanism and devil worshipping is a practice of people (albeit a small portion of people) in this country.  What should we do when they protest the names of every school with a satanic mascot?  Should the satanists not be heard as loudly as the native Americans?  I have been raised Christian and would never consider worshipping a devil in my own life, but that doesn't mean that another group doesn't.  What if the Greek community protested the use of Spartans, a Greek culture from days long past, because they didn't like the way Michigan State University represented them.  Or what about the Minutemen of Massachusetts, could they be interpreted as disrespecting American history?  

Almost any mascot that isn't an animal, plant, or machine could potentially offend someone.  The issue of where to draw the line is one that is very blurred to me, but I am more worried that censorship of one will lead to censorship of many.  Who is going to decide which groups of people are offended enough to force change and which are not?  As you probably noticed, I used a lot of questions in this post.  That is not because I think they are necessarily rhetorical and work in favor of my current position on this sensitive subject, I'm looking for other opinions to expand my own.  Honestly.

Holla at ya boy with a post or somethin.  

Peace.