I started blogging about Young Adult books because I noticed very few reviews were being published about books that feature people of color. Then there was some controversy. The publishing company Bloomsbury released a book called Liar about a biracial, African American girl named Micah, and described her as a “nappy-headed” tomboy. But that wasn’t what the controversy was about. The problem I had with Liar is that the cover had a white girl on it.
After many bloggers protested, including the author herself, Bloomsbury changed the book’s cover to an image of an African American girl, and I learned about the power of blogging and how we can make a change. But change isn’t always permanent. Recently, the cover of another book was whitewashed (whitewashing is when a book about a person of color has a white model on the front): Magic Under Glass. The main character, Nimira, is described as "dark-skinned," but the model on the book (a white girl with light hair) is definitely not that.
Whitewashing is the fault of the publishing companies. By blogging, I've learned that the author has little say in her or his cover. I think this is wrong and should be corrected. Perhaps then publishing houses wouldn't continuously anger people and create covers that look nothing like how the authors’ stories are envisioned. And if they're not going to consult the author about the cover, they should at least read the book themselves so they don't look like fools when they create a cover that doesn't fit the book!
Do publishing companies really think teen readers are so stupid and shallow that we will not read books with people of color on the cover? Newsflash: It's the 21st century. We have an African American president, and as long as the story in the book is good, no one cares about what the main character looks like. What we do care about is the cover accurately representing the book.
I'm sure some of you don’t know what it's like to wander through the teen section of a bookstore and only see one or two books with people of color on them. Do you know how much that hurts? It's upsetting, and it makes me angry. When I was a little girl I remember wanting to be white because not only did I not see people who look like me on TV, but I didn't see them in my favorite books either. I wanted to be beautiful like the characters in the books I read, and I started to believe that I couldn't be like my favorite characters because I didn't look like them.
Now I feel sad when my middle school age sister tells me she would rather read a book about a white teen than a person of color because "we aren't as pretty or interesting." She doesn't know about the few books that do exist out there about people of color because publishing houses don't put people of color on the covers. I want my siblings and all other children of color to want to read books about people of color. I want them to feel like they exist and are as cool and pretty and interesting as white children. If I can enjoy a book about a white teen, then why can't a white teenager enjoy a book about a Black/Latino/Asian/Native American teen? We all go through the same experiences; we all face discrimination of some sort, whether it is based on gender, race, or sexual orientation.
This is not a onetime issue and publishers will not be let off the hook when they whitewash a cover. We will continue blogging, emailing, and writing about this issue until it stops happening. I am considering becoming a CEO of a publishing house so that I can make a commitment to having books about people of color that show them on the cover so that all children and teens can see themselves on the Young Adult books they want to read.
Image © Otmar Winterleitner | Dreamstime.com