I think kids in every minority need to see people like themselves in books; that's an acknowledgment of their existence on this planet and in this society.
Interpretation
Representation in literature helps children from minority backgrounds feel acknowledged and validated in society.
This quote emphasizes the importance of representation in children's literature, particularly for kids from minority backgrounds. It underscores that when children see characters who look like them in books, it not only validates their identity but also helps them understand their place in the world. This acknowledgment is crucial for fostering a sense of belonging and self-worth among young readers.
In practice
In a discussion about diversity in literature at a book fair.
When I was growing up as a young lesbian in the '50s, I looked in vain for books about my people. I did find some paperbacks with lurid covers in the local bus station, but they ended with the gay character's committing suicide, dying in a car crash, being sent to a mental hospital, or 'turning' heterosexual.
Language forms a kind of wealth, which all can make use of at once without causing any diminution of the store, and which thus admits a complete community of enjoyment; for all, freely participating in the general treasure, unconsciously aid in its preservation.
History should belong to all of us, and it needs to include people from different cultural backgrounds. Otherwise, it risks becoming irrelevant to children, who could then become disenchanted with education.
Hitherto I have courted Truth with a kind of Romantick Passion, in spite of all Difficulties and Discouragements: for knowledge is thought so unnecessary an Accomplishment for a Woman, that few will give themselves the Trouble to assist us in the Attainment of it.
It is never too late to expand the mind of a person on the autism spectrum.
We are a democracy, and there is only one way to get a democracy on its feet in the matter of its individual, its social, its municipal, its State, its national conduct, and that is by keeping the public informed about what is going on.
We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.
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