“The most irresponsible kind of censorship: That based on the denial of some vital area of human experience, and in this case, resulting often in the black child’s total eclipse or his total misrepresentation.” ~Nina Mikkelson Source 

Depictions of African American children have evolved from delightful pickaninnies speaking heavily accented Black dialect dominating the characterization of black children in the 1930s to a high representation of servants, slaves and sharecroppers in the 1960s. While Blacks were writing books for children since the 1880s, books featuring black children were written mostly by white writers. This trend continues today with the CCBC reporting that of the 3400 children’s books written in 2016, 93 were written by African Americans and 286 about. There is not one year that the number of books ‘by’ exceeded those ‘about’; the closest it came was in 2013 with 68 books ‘by’ and 93 ‘about’. This same disparity in representation exists for all People of Color and Native Americans as documented by the CCBC. There are numerous reasons why this discrepancy exists from the predominantly white publishing houses’ unwillingness to work with POC/NFN people to other more egregiously racist practices. The result? Censorship of black writers in youth literature.

While those empowered view censorship as the heavy hand that denies their freedom of speech, others view it as the quiet acceptance of the denial of the presence of the oppressed. For those who are privileged and telling the story, it’s a matter of how well they tell the African American or Asian American story. But for that African American or Asian American writer it’s a matter of getting to tell a story. This censorship results in the oppression of their creative voice and misrepresentation of the Black experience. Is there another way to perceive the cry to protect the privileged voices on behalf of white writers and their creativity other than colonization and oppression?

The censorship of the childhood of our black girls and boys happens when these children as young as 5 are seen 4-7 years older than their actual age. The irony here is that though they’re expected to read and compute at lower rates, they’re also supposed to be mature enough to be sexualized and criminalized beyond their years.

The censorship of our black boys and girls on the streets of our cities happens when they are physically eliminated from our presence. #blacklivesmatter

The censorship that happens when low income black and brown boys and girls are prevented from quality education; that lets funding and top teachers and administrators be placed in wealthy suburban districts, censoring these students from one of the most important tools in building a future rich with possibilities.

The censorship of libraries and certified librarians from these same schools.

But, the privileged choose to censor these conversations in lieu of creativity.

The back and forth over picture books almost, almost feels petty when you look at these other censorships except it’s here on these black and white pages where children are socialized; where they learn the behavior of citizens, learn who is us and who is them. Consequently, the constant monitoring of what is presented to children—all our children—is a must simply for survival.

I don’t want to understand why there continues to be so much demand for how white writers can write outside their experience or how we can produce more culturally neutral books or why white writers can’t write whatever they want. No one catches on that that if black writers were better represented in the numbers of books produced, white authors would be paid less attention. Realize the insidious nature of censorship that begins with deciding what to publish and what not to publish. #equity

Where are the the young adult books with Native American, Latinx, African American and Asian LGBTQ+ characters? #censored

Where are all the authors with disabilities? #censored

Where are all the POC, N/FN speculative fiction? graphic novels? horror? #censored

Where are all the books written by POC, N/FN, LFBTA+ or disabled authors? #censored

Are there any African American lesbians writing youth literature? #censored

When I and others doing the work for better representation in children’s literature are called “censors” I cannot help but feel empowered as this makes it obvious that the work we are doing is shaking things up. I know most people don’t like change, particularly if they feel they’ll be giving up too much. Past generations were raised on the concept of scarcity, that there are finite limits of things seen and unseen in this universe. I don’t believe that. I believe in the abundance that surrounds us, that there is enough space and time and imagination for all of our stories to be told.