American Stereotypes, in global stereo

First of all as a rule I don’t accept much less agree with any stereotype about any group culture, subculture or any identity. There are exceptions to every rule, and most stereotypes have plenty of exceptions and holes in their logic. So this question and the affiliated stereotypes were not offensive to me (as I categorically reject them) so I say them all as a little funny, since as a rule I search for the humor in ridiculous things so I don’t give in to fear.

1. Americans walk very fast/always in a hurry. Maybe in major metropolitan cities, and some suburbs but try that one out on the Midwest the so called “heart of America”. 
2. Americans are wasteful in utilizing space, say that to the OCD and well organized, the so called “neat freaks” and some todays most promising engineers. 
3. Americans always try to talk everything out. Say that to mute Americans, say that to the voiceless. Say that to the most personal introverts, good luck getting everything out of those people verbally.
4. Americans are very straightforward in talking. Say that to Americans from several different parts of the world especially those from some Eastern and tribal communities.
5. Americans are rich/drive big cars/think only about money. This is so laughable I don’t even know where to start. The homeless say what?
6. Americans talk a lot but say little/have superficial relationships. Clearly these can easily happen anywhere, and let me tell you the Caribbean, and EL Salvador are two places tat loooove to talk about the little things, that have no lasting importance.
7. Americans do not care about old people, while our social security system is worst than broken, this by no means exemplifies the entire populations view on the elderly. Who doesn’t love their grandparents, and as their parents get older, who doesn’t care for them?
8.  Americans are outgoing and friendly, again I point to the extroverts as well as the introverts among us all, both of which are EVERYWHERE!!
9. Americans lack discipline. Who doesn’t?
10.  Americans are disrespectful of age and status. Again we do care for our elderly, maybe not to the same extent as some countries but there are plenty perhaps millions of exceptions to that rule. As for status, there are many countries that lack respect of status. Especially those living under government oppression.
11. Americans are ignorant of other countries. This is another laughable assumption. While undoubtedly there are a number perhaps millions of willingly ignorant people in America, there are also I argue even more millions of Americans that travel, study, learn, understand, and celebrate other cultures. And a good many more who are unwillingly ignorant as not everyone knows about every other culture or country in the world.
12. Americans are extravagant and wasteful. Many cultures and countries are materialistic, and obsessed with affluence. How do you explain slums in El Salvador without running water or enough food to eat proud to have cable or satellite TV?
13. Americans are loud, rude, boastful and immature. This is an immature and insulting guess about the country with perhaps the greatest diversity of all identities and cultures in the world! 

 I will end with reaffirming my own belief in the necessity for increasing understanding and celebrating diversity as the best and most effective means to create connections between all cultures and identities and a good way to start is to stop as the brilliant saying goes “making asses out of you and me” (stop making any more assumptions).   

Stereotypes are rude assumptions that are based on a handful, handpicked and not at all randomized examples, thus stereotypes are illogical, unscientific, and reasonably if not entirely baseless.  So yeah, you are right, they have some truth to them they provide evidence to the extent of arrogance, the areas of ignorance and the source of fears of the person who subscribes to the stereotype!

This said, the Arasaratnam text makes some interesting points about stereotyping. Specifically the idea that stereotyping can help us predict and explain someone’s behaviors and categorize people to gain understanding of cultures and subcultures as separate groups is a useful idea. But in practice, at least to me stereotypes are more constrained and inflexible. In order for Stereotypes to be effective and useful they must be impermeable and unchanging, otherwise they are not my idea of stereotypes. If categories are ambiguous then what is the point in any separation at all? What is the purpose of division if all groups are flexible and living, evolving, adapting and ever growing? That’s my question. Why does there need to be separation? My answer, there is no point in separation, except to identify within a group. For the outsider to judge the insiders is basically divisive, creates a false distance and can be demeaning.

 Its one thing to ask someone what their culture is, it is quite another to place someone in a category based on looks, behavior, language or other observable characteristics, again the outsider versus insider thing I just talked about. While we need to understand and place and define people just to make sense of the world this in no way means stereotyping as I understand it. We can take it one person at a time, and contextualize and identify an individual, but as I have said before each person really only exemplifies themselves. We can take on identities as insiders and take pride in that group but that is for the insider to do. Not for outsiders to judge.

 As text Arasaratham text says talks about the three models of stereotype change, two of which I will discuss below. The bookkeeping model where a person encounters a number of instances which contradict an existing stereotype. The others conversion model is when a change is a dramatic onetime transformation which occurs as a result of an encounter with a significant stimulus which disconfirms an existing stereotype.

 I loved when as a junior in high school I went to CAMP ANYTOWN which is now CAMP EVERY TOWN, it taught me and reinforced on me how lame judgments especially of cultures, identities or groups you are an outsider to.  The conversion can when I torn down signs the staff had put up on the bathrooms for whites and colored people. I cried a lot at camp Anytown and it broke down some personal barriers.  

  http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_21574337/camp-everytown-destination-from-high-school-heart-and

Arasaratnam, L. A. (2011). Perception and communication in intercultural spaces. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

side note: I was talking to my dad about culture the other day and I gave my definition of culture. A self identified group of people who create their own limits of acceptable and appropriate behaviors, beliefs, words, and body language that all of which must fit group norms.  My dad is Bill Durham an anthropologist and human biologist.

I argue that it is our insistence on the artificial significance of these differences that has created horrific and perhaps entirely unbridgeable rifts between people from different cultures. Things like slavery, genocide, massacre, torture, mass incarceration of non-white people, racism of all kinds, and many evils only exists because of our insistence on the one percent differences. To avoid provoking racists, we would do well to celebrate our differences only while acknowledging the similarities, lest we shall create and maintain reasons for those distances and related evils again. 

Oh and if stereotypes are to be amiable and permeable, there is even less need for them at least to the non-ignorant.

Alas, you can justify anything these days, even in a world of far too much information.

Paper and plastic, mass marketing and independence

As a bookseller at a local indie bookstore, I think that the idea that Hade talks about in his 2002 article about how independent bookstores such as the beloved Linden Tree hand-sell our books, so that the special book can find its way to the special reader. (Hade, 2002, p. 511) This said we are at the mercies of the marketplace especially with the big five and their hegemony as the biggest children’s book publishers.

I agree that because of mass marketing as Hade says in his 2002 article, that “The corporate owners of children’s book publishing have successfully turned recreational reading into a commodity” marketplace.  (Hade 2002, p. 515)  

If indeed as Hade claims and I agree that “Stories are the building blocks of our thinking.” (Hade, 2002, P. 515) So it is sad that the big five publishers are ever increasingly becoming brokers or gatekeepers of our literary lives. The idea that merchandising is becoming a bigger thing than the ideas and content of the books is staggeringly frightening sometimes. I think it’s a bad thing that kids and parents that come to the Linden Tree are practically forced to give into the whims of the big five publishers.

I think that the e-book movement and digitizing of books is a great thing, not just saving trees but allowing more independent e-book publishers more access to a potentially more equal playing field both are essential for the future of the world and literature. Audio books and text to speech make literature much more accessible to many more people of all kinds.

 I also think it is impossible to do adequate justice or at all replace a reading a book in physical form, not only because how much better it is for your eyes to read with indirect light (as opposed to light coming to your eyes directly from the screens we use and depend on.)

But also reading a physical book is an experience, the smell, the feel, the sounds of the page turning, at least three senses are activated in irreplaceable ways when reading using a real physical book.

We as advocates and readers, need both paper and plastic, we need the mass marketing, and our independent bookstores and our own independence of thought.

Here is some food for thought, how many of our creative images are created for us by mass marketing interests versus images created by artists simply for arts sake?

And what part of our childhoods are not for sale anymore? What is and what will be sacred for our children?

Hade, D. (Sept/Oct 2002). Storyselling: Are children’s book publishers changing the way children read? (PDF) Horn Book 78(5): 509-517. 

Sutton, R. (April 20, 2012). What hath Harry wrought? (WEB). Horn Book. Retrieved from http://www.hbook.com/2012/04/creating-books/publishing/what-hath-harry-wrought/.

Cinderella (the ashen faced girl) and Cinder (the "lunar" cyborg)

I chose Cinderella by the Grimm brothers as my fairy tale, their story of Cinderella goes as follows: One particular Rich man’s first wife dies, after giving birth to good pious girl, and the man remarries a control freak and the wife brings two externally beautiful but internally vile, wretched and ugly daughters into the house.  The good and pious daughter forced to be maid and servant nick named Cinderella because she sleeps near the fireplace and ashes or cinders get on her.  As it just so happens there is a three day royal festival coming to town.

The tree growing from Cinderella’s mothers grave (where she cries and prays every chance she gets) and its birds give Cinderella a spectacular and gorgeous dress and slippers were so dazzling was her dress that her no one recognized her, the prince dances with Cinderella. On day two of the festival the tree and birds give Cinderella an even more beautiful dress, everyone was too astonished for words. Except the princess who calls Cinderella his “partner.”

One of Cinderella’s glass slippers is caught on stairway upon Cinderella’s quick escape. The Prince goes on quest to find the lady who will fit the “dainty” shoes. The evil step sisters cant mangle their feet without getting noticed and so Cinderella gets to marry the prince and the step sisters are rendered blind by birds for the rest of their miserable lives.

As a totally different take on the Cinderella story I chose Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer published in 2012.  In this dystopian sci-fi retelling of Cinderella, Cinder is a girl mechanic and servant who is also a “lunar” cyborg living in a dystopian New Beijing, on a planet earth that has been ravaged by a plague. Cinder is a servant who is, in disguise the single last hope for a planet doomed by the plague, but she has loyalties to the “lunars” who are because of a evil dictator woman hell bent on taking over the planet. Because of Cinder’s attraction to earth’s Prince Kai, Cinder finds her self in the midst of a intergalactic struggle that seems poised on the edge of war.

Caught between loyalty to her identity and her hearts desire, between honesty to who she is, and loyalty to her hearts desire. What is Cinder going to do? Common elements include the royal ball, a love interest that is also an important prince, a royal festival, a dropped slipper, horrible self image, abuse, bullying, and protagonist who is forced to be a servant for a long time (a number of years).

Cinder is a story book that is a great example of the mixing of science fiction and classic fairy tales. Cinder is a very likable character despite her mysterious and strange identity, and her sometimes quirky and clumsy behavior.  Marissa Meyers’s book speaks of betrayal of identity as a means to be honest to ones heart, an important lesson.

Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. "Cinderella." 1999. National Geographic.com. 3 July 2003 <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/cinderella.html>
 Meyer, M. (2012). Cinder. New York: Feiwel and Friends.

Linden Tree has leaves of unjustly limited colors

I work at Linden Tree in Los Altos, California and so I did a quick recognizance of the first ½ (new releases and older releases A- H) of the 8-12 (intermediate) books. I went by number of titles as opposed to number of total books. I found 602 total titles of which 445 or 75 percent boasted Anglo main characters only on the cover (though over half of these had both a boy and girl and sometimes just a girl). Only 62 titles or ten percent where multi racial or other racial group by any stretch, and the rest (95 titles or 15%) featured other non human animals as subjects to focus on.

This is sad, and not an accurate portrayal of the demographics anywhere much less in California. In the 2010 census, Los Altos claimed to be 70.6% white. 23.5% Asian, 4 percent multiracial, and roughly 3 percent Latino.   This means Los Altos is roughly 31 percent non-Anglo humans. A percentage that is done a great injustice by the 10 percent of the section of children’s Literature I surveyed.  Almost all of the multi or ethnic books were not about Asians, much less Japanese boys and girls. Asian and some Japanese families comprise a good percentage of our beloved loyal customers at Linden Tree. It is simply disrespectful and dismissive of a culture to deny their existence and not describe their experiences and their imaginations in all parts of literature and imagination.

Linden Tree tries its best to find and explore diversity when and in any way we can, this said much literature about Asians for 8-12 year olds tends to be non fiction and mythology and folk tales. This disparity and the significant absence of literature for Asian intermediate readers needs to be fixed as does the distance between the percentage of ethnic groups and their representation in all aspects of youth literature in general. 

Blind Eyes on the Prizes

Blind Eyes on the Prizes

I think that the focus on prizes skews the discussion from what is to what gets rewarded.  The books are written the same with or without any award, awards are simply, in my honest opinion most useful as marketing devices. The sales of books that win any youth literature awards are all but guaranteed to skyrocket sometimes exponentially after they are recognized or “win” the award(s).

 Some books are chosen by the Newberry committee that is so carefully described by Bonnie J.F. Miller in her Fall 1998 article “What Color is Gold?. The books that win the famous Newberry award or win Newberry Honors, certainly give evidence to how the award is used and tremendously successful at selling those books. 

The critique by Marc Aronson in his article “Slippery Slopes and Proliferating Prizes” is fascinating in its approach to defining some awards as “limited by” the award committee’s identity.  MY response is that I agree with Miller’s point that “literature is subjective” and that awards are, as she quotes Joan Lyon Atkinson, “chosen by imperfect human beings who are of a particular time and place; they reflect the values and priorities of their eras and backgrounds.” (Miller, 1998)

  

I think we should add more awards for every category whether it be quality in a genre or more awards for more specific identities to increase the knowledge and understanding of all identities racial or otherwise.

There is simply no way to take the human aspect and the identity aspect out of a single person much less a whole committee of people, so why be upset at the human condition, and humanity in general, when we can work with each other. Identity is always a factor as long as we hold on to, and are attached to those identities, we will have to distinguish literature based on those identities, especially ethnicities or other identities who are treated as maligned and marginalized minorities whose youth literature could otherwise be ignored entirely or worse. If we do not distinguish literature, it can be and I think will be lost to our library users.

pairing YA lit with classics

Bruce Robbins article about using YA lit in high school English classes, is full of insight. I particularly enjoyed his idea that with out help some readers can be lost in the gap between middle school and high school because some kids can't effectively jump that gap alone, and this can make the young adults distrusting of books. This distancing from books can make some young adults become forced to read classic literature, which are usually books reluctant readers don't enjoy and because of this some readers can disengage and struggle to understand books through out the rest of their lives. I also like the methods and strategies Robbins article suggests for using new YA books and integrating them with the classics. 

As for how to incorporate more contemporary YA materials I would consult the award winners, as well as doing my own research to find what classic could fit with what new YA book or material (suggest non print materials for my students to use to better understand themes, plot, dilemmas, etc.).   

As for my own pairing of a classic with a relatively new YA book Ophelia by Lisa M. Klein copyright 2006, and Hamlet by Shakespeare would be my first choice of pairing for High School English Classes, that is not discussed by Robbins. I like Ophelia by Klein because it presents an alternate take where Hamlet takes a back seat to his lover Ophelia, and the book tells of the alternate point of view and different plot in a way that has Ophelia surviving, and searching for her life's meaning. It is a page turning thriller where all is revealed in the end.  

The Treasure Chest Series

The Treasure Chest series by Ann Hood is an ongoing series (book 7 comes out this fall and book 8 comes out next spring) that stated with Angel of the Battlefield that was published in January 2013. The series (meant for ages 8-12) tells of the adventures in current time the journeys in time travel of brother and sister 12 year old twins  (Felix and Maisie) of divorced parents. The series is a collection of stand-alone books about traveling back in time to different historical figures. In book one, Felix and Maisie have been forced to move to a new house because of their parent’s divorce, the mother decides to move with them into their great aunt Maisie’s old apartment in a mansion that is owned by a historical society/restoration museum.  The twins explore the mansion, first as part of a tour then they explore the off limit parts of the mansion called Elm Medona on their own.

                                                                                        

 On the first of their escapades in the forbidden areas of the huge house, then find a room containing a treasure chest full of fascinating and historical things, notes, coins, and other mysterious objects. The twins end up going make visits to a different historical figure in each book, and time and time again they try to not alter history (this is tricky as often the twins need to learn the history they are visiting) in the process.

The character development and the dynamics between each of the twins and their elderly great aunt Maisie (who now lives in a special assist senior living home) is carefully thought out and described in depth. I especially enjoyed the humor that is sometimes resounding and the levity that is sometimes carefully hidden in this series. It warms my heart that there is such an awesome series that reminds me a lot of the Time Warp Trio that I read when I was a 2^nd grader.