My initial reaction is to say no, it is not appropriate - even though I understand how you feel. I, personally, would not feel comfortable publicly labeling an author as racist just because there is no diversity in his/her work. Because there are places in our country that are not diverse. You can see those four white teen girls at the mall in my hometown (perhaps without the Catwoman suits). If we're hoping to see reality reflected back at us in the books we read, then we should be prepared for just about anything. Yes, I'd appreciate more diversity in books, especially since I prefer it in my own life, but I know that some places in our country are still shockingly segregated. That's still a part of our reality. Now, if that's not the goal of this discussion - to see the diversity in our country reflected in the books we read - then I'm not sure how to answer your question.

How do YOU define racism by omission? How can you tell that it exists? Do books need to fill a diversity quota? Because I think that's a subjective call, so subjective that I'd feel uncomfortable sharing it in a professional review. Personally, though, I'd find a way to include it in my blog reviews if it affected the way I read or reflected on a book. But I don't think I'd label it as "racism by omission" just because I'm not convinced that's a fair judgment.

Oh I certainly don't want to label someone as a racist on the basis of a book like this one. I agree with everything you are saying here. There are certainly tons of places where girls of one race or another all stand together. But I'm looking at this book specifically - at how Sala had to give them each a different hair color in order to differentiate between them - and wondering why on earth he didn't just use a different ethnicity for at least one. It would better mirror society in general but more importantly here it would make more sense for the reader. So why not do it?

And then - because I had that question as a reader - can I ask that question as a reviewer?

I'm referring to this whole broad topic as "racism by omission" because that is how it was presented to me. That anytime you ask why all the characters in a book (or movie or tv show I guess) are all one race then you are accusing the author of racism by omission. I don't necessarily agree with that but it's what I was called on the carpet for.

Thanks for bringing this up Colleen. It's a thorny issue particularly in un-illustrated work.

I was asked by a reader at an event a few months ago why I had written such a relentlessly white book. (Heart of a Shepherd) I was taken aback because it is not an all white cast. Of the 23 kids in Brother's rural school, 10 are Basque, an ethnic group originating in Norther Spain. And in my mind, another 3 are black because I know people in Malheur county who have adopted Haitian orphans. And another 2 are mixed race decedents of Chinese laborers. In short, the school is as racially mixed as most schools in this country, whether you live in a city, suburb, or rural town.

To be fair, I didn't say in the text, "Shannon Egan is the ranking 7th grader. She's approximately 12 feet tall and BLACK and will kick us to death if we don't maintain our perimeter". Why should I call attention to a thing that none of my characters care about. If race is not an issue for my character, mention of race doesn't belong in the book. It's not organic to the story.

I would argue that the assumption that all characters are white unless otherwise specified is a racism that resides in the reader, not the writer. I have never in more than 20 years taught an all white classroom. Race is seldom an issue for kids I teach. (Class is sometimes an issue. Irritating behavior is almost always an issue). So when I write a school scene, I never see an all white cast. In fact, I struggle a little to imagine it.

Reading, however, is a collaboration and readers bring their own experience to the page. So if a reader sees an all-white cast where it has not been directly specified in the text, whose issue is that?

It's a tricky problem and not easily solved but certainly part of the solution is acknowledging the collaborative nature of reading.

I'm really surprised that would come up in your book Roseanne - as I distinctly recall the Basque references. Hmm.

I agree with you about unillustrated books where no physical descriptions are specified. It is the default of the reader who sees what they see. A lot of times I'm struck by a book where there are physical characteristics but the publisher puts a blonde on the cover anyway. That always seems like a calculated choice on their part to play into the what they think readers will want. Which is depressing and wrong but there you go.

I was referring here to specific instances where race is noted - and of course it's all the more as this is a graphic novel. But I do appreciate your insight - fascinating to see from the author's perspective!

But if the way to make otherwise indistinguishable characters distinct is to give them different ethnicities, isn't that textbook tokenism? To my mind, a reviewer should point out that the characters are difficult to keep straight, but since there are any number of ways an author could have avoided this it seems pushy to suggest one in particular.

I agree with point about tokenism. When I see one token black character it just seems awkward. But on the other hand, I have to disagree with the comment that kids don't notice race. Just because it's not a big deal doesn't mean they don't notice who has curly hair, who has blue eyes, who has brown skin, ect. I think an author can drop hints about the race of the minor characters in subtle ways that still seem organic.

As an aside, I always thought Lavender Brown from the HP series was black, and disappointed in the movie version that she was white. But then again, she's such a flaky character in the movie, a ditzy blonde. Would it have been fair to make that character black?

I do NOT think that asking why all the characters in a book are all one race is accusing the author of racism by omission. (Though such a question can be packaged in such a way as to accuse the author of racism by omission.)

I agree with Natalie that such questions are probably inappropriate for a professional review. (Run it by your editor first?) But please include such questions in your blog reviews! :o)

I love the point about readers bringing their own experiences to books. I saw every single character in Ash by Malinda Lo as Asian. Yes, even the characters with blue eyes. :o)

As far as I know, Basques are white...

Anna - Ah, see your comment brings up how skin color really doesn't help in any of this, does it? I wrote about that a while back as there is nothing more in common with Basques then French Canadians and yet because of some skin color similarity they would be assumed as both Caucasian - and yet certainly as different ethnicity as African American to Native American to Irish to Australian.

But in the case of Roseanne's book she makes a very big point about the Basque community so then the argument would be that she needed to choose an ethnicity that had a different skin color which is getting way complicated (especially as she chose that ethnicity for a specific reason).

Oy. But I digress.

Yeah, I thought about tokenism also. But honestly it seemed like you have a token redhead, token blonde and token brunette in this particular book. So...it's okay to have token physical features to a certain degree but not to ethnicity? I mean really - how you can not look at that picture and laugh at those girls as they are now...would having one of them be African American be an insult?

So yes, we are back to "the characters were indistinguishable which reduced my ability to enjoy this title". In a graphic novel though - I think you can go do far as to say the characters all looked the same and acted the same, which I guess makes the lack of diversity issue obvious.

"So yes, we are back to "the characters were indistinguishable which reduced my ability to enjoy this title". In a graphic novel though - I think you can go do far as to say the characters all looked the same and acted the same, which I guess makes the lack of diversity issue obvious."

YES. I think you should say all that in professional and blog reviews of the book!

It seems to me that the charge of "racism by omission" is best put at the level of the children's book industry as a whole (or authors as a group, or publishers as a group), and not at the level of individual books. Put another way, if there were a consistently rich mix of ethnicity represented in children's books as a whole, it seems to me there wouldn't be such a problem with a book that featured characters from a single ethnicity--be they Caucasian, African-American, Latino, etc. Some books would be more ethnically uniform than others, others would have significant internal diversity, but on the whole the mix would be a better reflection of the multicultural world we live in. The problem is that we don't hit this mix properly. There is such a preponderance of books with solely Caucasian characters that yet another one just seems not to help. But, this is very hard to pin on individual authors/publishers. Seems like it would be good if authors/publishers recognized this general problem and viewed themselves as a part of a collective effort to rectify it.

In any case, saying that the charge of "racism by omission" is best put at this more general level does NOT mean that questions shouldn't be raised about indistinguishable characters. I think Coleen would be quite right to call attention to this in her reviews, professional or otherwise. However, it seems to me that this kind of problem might just as easily be a lack of creativity, or bad character development, as it might be a lack of ethnic diversity. Put another way, changing the skin color of one of the characters might not help much in distinguishing them if they are really that bland/monotone.

"However, it seems to me that this kind of problem might just as easily be a lack of creativity, or bad character development, as it might be a lack of ethnic diversity."

Thank you, Aaron. This is precisely why I don't think a question about why all the characters in a book are all one race is necessarily accusing the author of racism by omission.

I wonder, in this case, if the book was written with all-white characters on purpose? It had kind of a 50s retro feel to it, and a white cast would fit with the Nancy Drew style. (I wasn't crazy about the book, either.)

But I agree with several commenters: you could legitimately mention that there are no characters of color in a review; I don't think you could go so far as to make a judgement of racism. The former is a fact. The latter is a harsh judgment and I would never make it lightly.

It can be a fine line between tokenism and a natural mix of characters of different races and backgrounds. When secondary characters are so flat to begin with, I agree it doesn't really make a difference whether or not the characters are of color. And to that, I say, then why not make the main character a person of color?? Humph.

I did kind of wonder that Maggi - if he was making some sort of retro point but then I thought how weird because the girls purposely come from nowhere in particular (the only thing in common is they all went through the same "criminal" orphanage system). And heck, even Josie & the Pussycats were a multiracial group and they date back to the 60s. (Loved them, by the way.)

I imagine this was just all some degree of laziness or lack or creativity as several folks have mentioned here but it still comes back to a default of an all-Caucasian cast because that is easiest and most expected. As a reviewer we could all certainly say it is hard to track the characters, they need further development, etc. But it all still bothers me hugely.

Wow... I hardly know what to say, except to apologize with all my heart to anyone whose feelings I may have hurt or anyone I may have unintentionally angered or disappointed with my book. I confess I did not realize (in my wildest dreams) that this would be an issue. I have no problem taking criticism, I assure you, and if you think I was lazy or uncreative -- or if you felt that the girls were interchangeable -- or if you simply didn't enjoy the book -- that's fine. I have learned it is never wise for a writer to respond to reviews, good or bad. But this one just really depressed and upset me -- and although I appreciate your thoughts and insights, I can't say that it doesn't hurt. I promise you I really tried my best to create a work that would convey a positive message for young female readers. I guess I was so busy patting myself on the back for imagining I was doing that, that I missed the bigger picture. If I could go back and change it, I would. I must say that during the years it took to finish this book, at least three editors went over it and the issue of making the girls more ethnically diverse was never raised. Still, I realize that that doesn't change the fact that it is my book all the way through. I was "lucky" enough to do it exactly how I envisioned it. But if anyone had said to me: "You should make one of the girls black", I would have done it. I just -- stupidly -- didn't even think of it. I'm certainly not completely oblivious -- in my career as an illustrator this issue is often raised and understood. So I'm not sure why I didn't think it was necessary in this instance. I guess my vision was to create an old-fashioned, Dickens-meets-Nancy Drew kind of world -- but I should certainly have been more sensitive to the times we are living in now. I know that if, say, The Watchmen or The Fantastic Four (sorry - I'm a guy and these are references off the top of my head) or even Nancy Drew & her friends were created today, they would most likely be more ethnically diverse. I should have thought of that... The focus of my book is the central character, K Westree -- who is not intended at all to be interchangeable with the other girls, so if she seems to be, clearly I failed there. The book is about her journey -- just her. All of the other characters are just there for her to react to and to convey to the reader her strength, levelheadedness, sense of fairness, loyalty and courage. The reader is meant to identify with her, no one else. She had a horrible, abusive childhood after she was orphaned, during which she was forced to steal (ala Dickens' Artful Dodger), but she managed to not only survive, but to grow into a good person, mainly on account of her memories of her parents. There is no boyfriend to rescue her and most of the major characters, good and bad -- are female, with the exception of a mysterious benefactor who may (or may not) be her thought-to-be-dead father. I'm saying all this to try to explain that perhaps my focus was elsewhere. I see now that it shouldn't have been, but it was. I just want you and your readers to know that it wasn't a conscious, malicious, bigoted decision to have three white cat burglars in addition to K. I just honestly didn't think of it, which, I guess you may argue, is even worse. Anyway, I know it will haunt me now for a long time. Again -- my sincere apologies for upsetting you and your readers.

Richard:

I really appreciate you taking the time to post such a long well thought out reply and I'm going to email you directly to explain a bit better where I was coming from and my thoughts on this book. I never thought you were racist and I hope I made that clear in my post. I will reiterate it now though - never ever did I think you were making any sort of racist statement here. I did wonder if you purposely made the other girls nearly identical so they wouldn't stand out (and asked that question in the post) but as a reader it ended up being frustrating for me that they were so alike. I get that it was K's journey (she's the point) but making the girls so similar was a distraction to me which clearly is not what you wanted to happen. And then, because the racism by omission question had come up elsewhere, I wondered if it would be wrong for me to ask in a review if the girls had been more multiracial and thus easier to tell apart. As some of my commenters pointed out though, then I might have been dancing into the realm of tokenism.

I don't know what the answer is to this question but I do know that I struggled with your supporting characters and I wanted to explain that struggle here.

But again - I will email you and explain my position further.