Why I Have Not Read Books by White Authors This Year
As a new immigrant eager to learn English, the local librarian introduced me to Little Women and books written by Judy Blume when I was in the 4th grade. The protagonist though not male, was always white. Growing up in the '70s and '80s, I did not see any books written by Asian American authors nor saw myself in the books I read.
The required readings in my high school included The Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye and many more, which were all written by white male authors. Our English teachers spent four years analyzing and dissecting these books with us. The narrative is that we should view the world through whiteness. I was resigned to be an outsider. That white people must be more important than me.
Viet Thanh Nguyen, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and New York Times best-selling novel, The Sympathizer, created the twin phrases narrative plentitude and narrative scarcity. Narrative plentitude is when plenty of stories provide the reach, latitude, stretch, and experiences to a group of people.
In this interview, Viet Thanh Nguyen gives an example that explains it well. If we see a movie about a white serial killer, we don't leave the theater thinking all white people are serial killers. Why? There are so many movies about white people that we can embrace the breadth of serial killer's humanity, good and bad, and the in-between.
However, narrative scarcity is a shortage of stories for minorities, leading to stereotyping and dehumanization. The lack of stories characterizes a group of people, often sowing seeds of hate.
For where are authors and protagonists of colors required reading for school?
The implicit message was that you couldn't be a writer unless you were white. I was in my 30's when I read Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. It came a little late for me. I had already internalized self-blame. Devalued. It must be because we were not good enough until I learned about systems of power much later in my life.
In describing the role of gatekeepers in perpetuating and fighting systemic inequality, Jackie Summer writes in The Power and Promise of an Open Door,
Talent and willpower will only get you so far. In a system that is designed to exclude certain people from benefiting from their own creativity and labor, gatekeepers decide who has access to funding, accolades, and public awareness.
I want to amplify excellent authors of diverse ethnicities because we know publishing is still predominately a white industry (89% white in this research), primarily male, that centers certain voices.
So here are some of my favorite books:
- Beloved -Toni Morrison
- First They Kill my father- Loung Ung
- A Thousand Splendid Sons-Khaled Hosseini
- Here We Are-Aarti Namdev Shahani
- The Undocumented Americans-Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
- The Alchemist-Paulo Coelho
- I Know Why the Bird Caged Sings-Maya Angelou
- On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous -Ocean Vuong
- How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays- Alexander Chee
- The Kite Runner- by Khaled Hosseini
- The Marrow Thieves-Cherie Dimaline
- The Rape of Nanking-Iris Chang
- Just Mercy-Bryan Stevenson
- Land of Big Numbers -Te-Ping Chen
For 2022, I will intentionally read diverse books by authors at the intersectionality of religion, sexuality, gender, ability, class, age, ethnicity.
It is also crucial that we create spaces for young people to see themselves represented to affirm their worth in the world. We want children to read diverse books to thrive and affect their communities and society. We live in a multi-ethnic world. We want white children to grow up reading other perspectives, expanding their empathy muscles, and not have an inflated sense of self-importance. Thus, we can move towards a more just and equitable world.
Shout out to Diógenes Brito, who describes the importance of representation here.
Join me in supporting the Reading Diverse Word Book campaign to advocate for publishing changes, push for diverse literature. You can request your local library to purchase diverse books. 📚
