African Americans in Children's Lit

The impact of children’s literature on development is significant. This is because children’s stories are often used by children to create an imaginary world as well as notions of the real world. Growth in immigration, rising birth rates among minorities and other factors have change elementary and secondary school environments from a homogenous to a diverse one. This necessitates a rethinking of language arts curricula and standard texts of the past. As Pirofski argues; “The new classroom necessitates literature that is multicultural, inclusive, and gender bias free” (1). Despite most educators advocating such an approach, such children’s literature is just not available.

In her book Shadow and Substance, author Rudine Sims uses the term culturally conscious in the evaluation of African American children’s books for cultural authenticity. As Sims argues; “Culturally conscious literature is that in which the author is sensitive to aspects of African American culture and consciously seeks to depict a fictional Afro-American life experience” (49). In this work the author argues that authenticity includes not only accuracy and validity of the text but also those of the illustrations.

The representation of African Americans in children’s literature is directly related to the relation of shifting markets, organizational structures and legal factors in society, impacted by the dialectic of black-white struggle to

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addleboat while whites socialize below – one black character is asleep, one plays the banjo, and one eats watermelon” (452). The children’s literary canon appears to be woefully inadequate with respect to representations of African Americans. According to Pirofski, Newbery and Caldecott award-winning books, basal readers, classics, and best sellers “have few African American characters and depictions of African Americans are not true reflections of this minority group” (3). A study of children’s literature between the years 1963 and 1983 shows negative depictions of African American stereotypes with respect to physical descriptions, language used, and portrayal of status. In 1992 a recommended children’s reading list created by Jim Teslease and former U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennet did not contain any Asian, Hispanic, or African American characters. In the early 1960s, a study of 5.206 trade books found that only 349 included one or more African Americans, prompting Pirofski to note: “Integration may be the law of the land, but most of the books children see are all white” (3). Such symbolic annihilation of African Americans in children’s literature has important implications for other minority groups, since Af
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Approximate Word count = 1255
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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