So basically Kids of Color read about White protagonist all the time and the stories with KOC are limited but doesn't work the other way.

"But, mommy, mommy I want to read more stories with people who look like me"

"Sorry, kiddo - Its their world you're just living in it"

WTF.

I totally agree about marketing MG/YA books with KOC get no promotions.

Look at Julia Alvarez's 09 release Return to Sender from Random House. I only heard about this book because I searched their website. Alvarez is a well known name is fiction. Many of my customers are more familiar with her than Alexie. Though Random House didn't even give half as much PR to Return to Sender as Little Brown did for Alexie's YA novel.

Some may think this comparison is apples and oranges because Alexie's novel has a larger audience appeal. But Return to Sender is a wonderful story and I think some adult fans of Alvarez would have enjoyed being able to share one of her books with their child or childern if they had known about.

YA can be overwhelming for parents with all the choices. But if parents see a name they're familiar with thanks to the author's adult fiction they will be more willing to give it a go for their child.

Also, I am not naive enough to think Return to Sender would be a bestseller. But when looking at sales numbers one should also look to promotions numbers as well.

Yes - I'd love to see a comparison between marketing and sales figures. Little Brown marketed the heck out of Alexie's book and it got reviewed everywhere. Marketing dollars matter BIG time - you won't buy what you haven't heard about.

‘books about girls have more appeal to girls’
It’s a kind of received knowledge that girls will read books with male characters taking centre stage, while boys are not so open to books with girls as main characters, on the cover etc, etc. Books with female characters may have more appeal for girls, as in they may reflect their own experiences back at them, but if they can’t get them they’ll read books about boys too.

I think what your two arguments show are two very different ways of looking at the world – one assumes teenage prejudice, while one does not. Even if teens are exhibiting racial prejudice in their reading choices I think we need to ask who is putting that in their minds and reinforcing it, it’s unlikely to have just emerged all by itself out of teenage culture.

Random House did do a push for Matt de la Pena's WE WERE HERE, and have always done a lot to support / push him as an author. If we are going to look at marketing dollars, let's look at the whole picture.

And did you see this? About Avatar (The last Airbender, not the other one)? All the good guys have miraculously turned white, while the bad guy is dark - much darker than in the original tv series...

http://www.racebending.com/v3/featured/the-last-airbender-primer/#casting

Liz you are right about showing the whole picture. In my first comment I did forget to say how much I loved the space Random House took out in the NYT recently to show off all of their award winners. Including Davis - Mare's War and Alvarez - Return to Sender

I am baffled by The Last Airbender casting. Its a very popular series on the Disney channel with a diverse cast. Their was no need for this.

It puts parents in such an awful spot. You can't tell a eight year old, we can't see Airbender because of Whitewashing.

What is a parent suppose to tell their child, if they ask - "Why is everyone White"

“But as to the assertion that Caucasian kids won't reads books about Kids of Color because they don't and won't identify with them and that's just the way it is, well, sorry. I'm not buying it.”

Good, 'cause no one's selling that assertion.

I wrote that we have to consider the possibility that some Caucasian kids don’t pick books about non-white kids, at least at the same rate as books about other white kids. I provided links to comments from librarians and booksellers who observed just that behavior. (Those links didn't survive the copying here, but they're in my posting.)

As to how to change that situation so that white kids will pick books without regard to racial or other largely meaningless differences, that’s a different question. I addressed it at length, arguing that the for-profit corporate publishing company is not an engine for such change.

I would hope writers can recognize the difference between the present and the future tense.

JL - I quoted you at length. I'm sure no one is misinterpreting your intent. (And I did link to your post so yes, your links can easily be found.)

Thanks for being a force for change Colleen. Thoughtful posts like this are much appreciated, and to this: "I think publishers should be buying more diverse books and marketing them better. And I think gatekeepers (ALL of them) need to rethink their own preconceived notions about Kids & Authors of Color (and GBLTQ characters)", I say "Amen".

As always, Colleen, your post is awesome. Thank you.

I wrote a great response and it didn't go there :( This is a test

I meant to say my previous comment didn't go through.

Ok excellent post Colleen! I read J. bell's post as saying that white kids would not read about kids of color. My question is how does he know that when a study has never really been done? And there are no equal numbers for this to be compared to. If there was an equal number (or at least a better ratio) of books about poc to books about white kids then I could understand how you could say that white kids won't read about poc. But there isn't, so it can't be determined.

And not many of my friends like to read (white and Black), but one of my friends loves romance books. I let her borrow Jason & Kyra and she LOVED it! She then got Played. Both books with AA main characters. She didn't care, all she wanted was a love story. So there are exceptions to this school of thought and kids will suprise you. like Colleen says if white kids can listen to Kanye West, Beyonce, Mariah Carey, Jay-Z, etc. and watch Will Smith, Chris Tucker, Denzel washington, Halle Berry, Jessica Alba Oprah, etc on the small and little screens then why can't we teens read about them too?

Colleen, I completely agree with you. As a Caucasian person, I read books about PoC in high school, because my school had awesome librarians who actively displayed PoC books, despite my school being 96% white. Also, I can recall reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor in class, and then going out and snapping up the other books because I wanted to know what happened to the characters.

I think maybe publishers don't give kids enough credit. Obviously if kids are going to purchase movie tickets and music with PoC, then it's likely kids will read books about PoC, especially because the kids that read books for fun, are likely kids who are more open-minded, kids who can think for themselves. I think the point someone made linking advertising and marketing of PoC with success was right on the money.

And also: even assuming no white kid in the universe will ever purchase or read a book about a person of color, why are we so worried about what white kids will and will not do with books? Do kids of color not read? Is there not an entire untapped "market" of young people of color who might, IMAGINE THAT, want to read books about THEMSELVES AND THEIR EXPERIENCES?

Yeah, no sh*t some people don't "behave the way we want them to behave;" that's not an excuse to sit around on our asses lamenting the sad state of the world and doing absolutely nothing to change it. It's EMBARRASSING as a white person to be surrounded by other white people making excuses for and defending this kind of bullsh*t.

Sorry for all the cussing but this conversation is really getting old, and it's kind of ridiculous that all these thoughtful and amazing bloggers of color to have to bend over backwards to defend every single point they're making, as if those points were somehow not already incredibly clear and well-argued. Fellow white folks, if EVERY SINGLE PERSON OF COLOR talking about this issue is in agreement, IT'S PROBABLY BECAUSE THEY'RE RIGHT.

Notice to all white readers: Do not tell me you're colorblind. Do not talk to me about getting to colorblind parity.

Why do you think not seeing my color is a compliment?! Want to talk about shyte that has gotten old. Why do I keep having to explain why it is not cool to say you don't see I'm black.

All kids want a good story, JL. We get that. And let's stop talking about the exceptions you want to argue. Can you focus on the major issues: POC is not published or promoted enough, that publishers are falling short in what they will publish by POC authors, that whitewashing contributes to the message that POC characters aren't appealing and that the absence of POC does contribute to kids sense of self and their expectations of how they are valued and represented in the larger society.

The fact that children of color and non-poc kids for that matter more often than not do not expect to find adventure, fantasy and fun in POC books is a problem created by adults. The fact that many readers assume that a black face on a cover automatically means: oppression, dysfunction, other, poverty anything that's not fun is a problem created largely but the decisions made at publishing houses.

And lastly, I don't give a rat's butt the readers who aren't ever going to read POC. I'm concerned about the readers who would if we could get the support and promotion they deserve.