Reading was something I loved from a young age. While I was enthusiastic to spend my free time reading new books, I remember that not all of my classmates felt that way. When I read, I could picture myself as Eloise in the Plaza Hotel or as Katniss with a bow and arrow. I admired how intelligent Hermione was and how Matilda never quit wanting to learn. I couldn’t understand how some of my peers were disgruntled during reading time and reluctant to pick up a new book. Looking back, maybe I was able to picture myself as my favorite literary characters because not only did we share the same rebellious spirit and imagination, but additionally, I could discern the commonality of our race.
According to a study by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin, of 3,400 books published in 2016, only 286 were about black people. If you do the math, that equates to around 8 percent of all children’s books, some of which will never make it into a local bookstore or library. According to The New York Times, today, about 30 percent of public school students are black and 40 percent are Latino, so this disproportionate representation is even more obvious when compared to the number of students of color attending public schools.
Books serve as “windows and mirrors,” as Chad Everett, a guest blogger for Scholastic Publishing, describes. They are windows in the sense that we can glimpse into the lives of others. We can examine and learn about different moments throughout history, while also sensitizing students to social justice issues that they themselves may not have experienced firsthand. Books are mirrors in the sense that while reading, we can see pieces of ourselves in the characters. Mirror texts teach us that our problems are important and that our unique experiences matter.
Instilling a love for reading in students becomes problematic when students do not see themselves reflected in the texts they read. When a lack of characters of their own culture is noticeable throughout literature, readers do not connect and relate to a text in the same way that a student whose ethnic group is portrayed in the text might relate to it. This is most relevant for minority groups, which are grossly underrepresented as protagonists in literature. When readers cannot find a representation of themselves in a book, it teaches readers that their society values them less than the more widely represented characters of a majority background. Books are tools for teaching important lessons and values, and through underrepresentation, students in minority groups do not have the same opportunity to picture themselves as who they can be — whether it be a doctor, superhero, mother or rock star.
As a college student, I no longer read Young Adult literature, but the lessons in the books I have read provided me with a love of reading, something that is necessary for college, motivating me to get through difficult readings and assigned texts for class. Without providing all young readers equal opportunities to enjoy books, we are setting up some students to struggle in the future. Next time you browse for a book at Barnes and Noble or the local library, challenge yourself to purchase a book in which the protagonist is from a minority racial background, and broaden your perspective.
Hannah Rosenfield is a senior majoring in English.