Race in the Newbery books

[osprey_archer]

Now that I’ve done the Gender and the Newbery’s posts, it’s time for a Race and the Newbery’s post. This one is focused entirely on the contents of the book; in the interest of completeness I should probably do a post about the race of the authors, too. But I have a strong suspicion that the numbers for that are dismal.

Race of protagonist
White: 59
Black: 6
Asian: 5
Hispanic/Latin American: 1 (And Now Miguel)
Native American: 2 or 3 (Waterless Mountain, Julie of the Wolves, and perhaps Secret of the Andes, because Cusi is descended from, like, an Incan conspiracy? I’m not saying it’s a good representation.)
Pacific Islander: 2 (Call It Courage, Island of the Blue Dolphins)
Multiple protagonists of different races: 2 (The Westing Game, The View from Saturday)
Mixed race protagonist: 1 (Walk Two Moons)
N/A (the book is nonfiction or poetry, or the hero is an animal or a doll): 13

Now, time to compare the numbers with census data! The first number is percentage of US population by race, 2010 census data; the second is percentage of Newbery books with a protagonist of that race (not counting the books that have no protagonist or have an animal protagonist).

White: 63.4%
Medal Winners: 75%

Black: 13%
Medal Winners: 7%

Asian: 5%
Medal Winners: 6%

Hispanic: 16%
Medal Winners: 1% (!)

Native American: 1.2%
Medal Winners: 4%

Pacific Islander: 0.4%
Medal Winners: 3%

Mixed Race: 3%
Medal Winners: 1%

I didn’t expect the award numbers to track the census data as closely as for American Girl, given that the Newbery Award has been around since 1922. Not only US attitudes toward race but population percentages by race have changed quite a lot since then*. Given that the award only picks one book a year it can only change its percentages rather slowly, even assuming that they dropped all other criteria to make racial balance their top priority, which I tend to think would be a bad idea.

(American Girl, in contrast, could solve most of their representation problems simply by introducing an Asian American Girl.)

But nonetheless - the number of books with Hispanic protagonists still seems awfully low.


*US census data by race, 1920
White: 89.7%
Black: 9.9%
Native American: 0.2%
Asian or Pacific Islander: 0.2%

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Interesting that stories with Pacific Islander protagonists or Native American protagonists outstrip the population. I suspect that's because there's a fascination with those groups--fascination and romanticization (in the general population). Whereas, there's not the same romanticization (on the contrary ...) about Hispanics and blacks.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Yes, definitely. And I think that's why there are Newbery winners with Pacific Islander, Native American, and Asian protagonists so much earlier than African-American. There's a concern with diversity from the beginning of the award, but in the early years it's more for the sake of picturesque exoticness than for social justice or representativeness.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Island of the Blue Dolphins is about a Native American, a Nicoleño, not a Pacific Islander.

But wait, I also meant to say I think it's strange there weren't more winners with Hispanic protagonists and it's so interesting that the Asian census/protag numbers are similar. I would not have guessed that.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Pah, I knew I should have looked that up instead of relying on my faulty memory.

I was also surprised by how few books with Hispanic protags won! I have the impression (which publishing data may prove wrong) that there are more children's books published about Asian-Americans (or set in Asia) than about HIspanic people, which may account for some of the discrepancy.

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

Tikki Tikki Tembo is a book from 1968 with a Chinese protagonist, and it was quite well-received at the time. And it... is not what you'd call a good portrayal.

I do wonder if part of the Hispanic market share, if you will, is taken up by non-English language books. When Hispanic children look for representations of themselves, can they find them in Spanish or Portugese?

(Which does nothing, of course, for Hispanic children who don't speak the language of their culture of origin. But it's a thought.)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Books set in China have been huge in children's fiction since at least the 1920s. My grandfather had a book from his boyhood about a giant who kept stories in his pockets, half of which were about brownies and half about China, as if the author thought elves and Asia were pretty much as mythological as each other.

I found the stories-in-coat-pockets completely enchanting when I was six, so I'm kind of afraid to reread the book now.

The Spanish-language sections I've seen in libraries and bookstores are almost all translations of English-language books, (or, sometimes, the original Spanish versions of books that have been translated into English), with a special focus on books with Hispanic protagonists. But my high school friend whose family was originally from Argentina had some brought some Argentinian children's books with her, so at least some Spanish-language books exist.

It occurs to me that if I want to get a better handle on which books with Hispanic protagonists are out there (and easily accessible), the Spanish language section would be a good place to start. And good for my Spanish skills, too.