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Still Not Enough Black and Brown Faces in Children’s Books Today
The traditional publishing industry has a diversity problem
In 2015, publisher, Lee and Low, conducted a survey of publishers and review journals to examine the racial, gender, sexual orientation, and ability makeup of their staff. In that survey, 79% of respondents identified as white, 78% as women, 88% as straight, and 92% as non-disabled.
This did not come as any big surprise to many of us who work with children in schools and libraries and are very familiar with books published for young people.
More diversity is needed
2015 also saw the groundbreaking launch of We Need More Diverse books, a non-profit organization formed to garner more attention to the problem of the lack of diversity in children’s literature, and to encourage publication of books that include, reflect and represent the experiences of all children and teens with respect to race, ethnicity, culture, gender and ability.
We need more black and brown faces in children’s books today. And by including more diverse characters, I am talking about books that feature black and brown characters as main protagonists, as opposed to typically featuring them in supporting roles such as loyal best friend or sidekick, or…
