I read this article and wondered why the person who wrote it thought it was timely (besides the fact that the New York Times already wrote about the subject). The fact that the majority of children's book characters are white is hardly surprising. I think we're all aware of this fact. The solution proposed is to make sure that the editors and staff at publishing houses are more diverse so that the cycle can be broken somewhere along the line. The editors choose the books with primarily white main characters. Those books are the only options for children. We all get use to those choices...and maybe even get locked into them. I say that because the article kind of glosses over the fact that books featuring non-white characters tend to sell poorly. This begs the question: why aren't we buying books with diverse characters? Maybe a clue is what one African-American journal professor said about "not trying to make [her] kids read books about slaves all the time"...
The Media Between Art and Audience