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From
the January/February 2002 issue of The Horn Book Magazine Letters to the Editor After reading all of the lively exchange (“Letters to the Editor” September/October 2001) concerning the various prizes given to ethnically diverse books and who should or should not be eligible to win such prizes, I am left feeling as though I clearly have missed something important. Many of those weighing in with their opinions, especially Ms. Pinkney, seem to feel very comfortable in dividing up our population into clearly identifiable groups; we’re either people of color or we’re white, we’re black or not black. Because making such decisions comes so easily to them, they don’t see it as a problem to have awards that can be awarded only to people of a certain group. This is where I start to feel mystified — what are the magic race-determining criteria that other people seem to know and agree on that I am clueless about? Is there a genetic test that you need to be able to pass? If your grandmother nine generations removed was African but everyone else in your family tree since then has been Scandinavian and you look like Robert Redford except blonder, can you still win? If you are genetically Caucasian but were adopted as a baby into a Hispanic family where you had been raised marinated in Hispanic culture and speaking Spanish better than English, would you be eligible to win the Belpré or would your genes prohibit it? What about all of the people who don’t know who all of their ancestors were or what their racial composition was (and there are many millions)? Or all the Hispanic speakers of African descent — are they eligible for both the CSK and Belpré awards? We do us all a disservice as long as we pretend that it’s possible to divide people successfully into clearly defined groups; all of us are people of color, and each color is beautiful. Classifying people racially, no matter how well intentioned, very often doesn’t work, can’t work fairly, and shouldn’t be asked to work. Chuck Schacht
I just wanted to thank you for hosting such a provocative and thoughtful debate about awards for children’s literature. And I especially want to thank Marc Aronson (“Slippery Slopes and Proliferating Prizes,” May/June 2001 Horn Book) for sticking his neck out and tackling these issues head on. We should never shy away from such debate, or be afraid to question our institutions or awards. It is by challenging them, and then reaffirming them, that they remain strong. John Lechner |
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