by Sam Juliano
Mmmmm. Mmmmm. Mmmmm.
Somewhere in the heavens Robert McCloskey is holding a copy of A Fine Dessert and is marveling at how the delectable results of berry picking have persevered over many generations. His own concern in his classic Caldecott Honor book Blueberries For Sal of course was securing the raw materials despite the unanticipated stalking of a benign black bear. The author and illustrator of A Fine Dessert – Emily Jenkins and Sophie Blackall – have brought homespun prominence to one of 2015’s most exquisite and irresistible picture books, one that confirms that time and place having little bearing on the universal appreciation of making something with your own hands, and then enjoying it with your loved ones. To be sure, the vital ingredients in this mouth watering confection are not blueberries, but blackberries, but the culinary implications seem to imply fool can be made with any type of berry. A Fine Dessert could well be the year’s most painstaking picture book in the way it integrates the strikingly ornate art with sublimely applied typography. Superlative spacing and color coordination bring four different periods to life in handsome vignettes seen in various encapsulations and expansive framings. Author and illustrator waste no time in sporting their remarkable artistic kinship on the opening double page spread, set in Lyme, England, one that recalls the work of the renowned Barbara Cooney. In the background sits a country stone house of everyone’s dreams, bordered with a rock wall on both sides, a gate, fields of crops and two trees. A woman wearing early eighteenth century outdoor garb is carrying a baby daughter on her back, while the other girl is actively employed in helping her pick blackberries. Jenkins opens the story superbly, giving her gifted illustrator the base for splendidly orchestrated art:
A bit more than three hundred years ago, in an English town called Lyne/A girl and her mother picked wild blackberries./Their hands turned purple with the juice./The thorns of the berry bushes pricked the fabric of their long skirts.
Blackall’s illustration is stunningly adorned with curling and weaving blackberry bushes, exhibiting the darker ripe fruit with the red ones that need a bit more time. Yet this minority splashing of rouge really makes for a veritable feast for the eyes. Then the riveting work in progress unveil the manner in which fool is negotiated. It involves skimming the cream off the top of two successive sessions of milking the cow, and some vigorous beating of the cream in a wooden bowl with soft twigs. The process is intense enough to require periodic stoppages by the family matriarch. When the cream has achieved the desired texture it is briefly put aside, while mother and daughter rinse the berries in well-gathered water, aided by a piece of muslin. They are then squashed and strained to expel the seeds, are then mixed with the cream and some added sugar. The completed mixture is then carried to an ice pit cut into the hillside, where is is chilled by way of winter ice, packed with reeds and straw. The dinner table setting is right out of colonial era America. The beautiful plates and other figures over the fireplace are a wonderful touch, and who could miss the faces of the two boys looking ahead as they lick their lips in anticipation. The main course – including cold chicken and meat pie- clearly pales in comparison of what is to come, and nothing more needs to be said aside from this books unifying alliteration: Mmmmm. Mmmmm. Mmmmm. Under the yummy typography that attests to this exquisite culinary experience is the young berry picker licking the bowl clean in the kitchen.
The second part of the picture book omnibus takes readers to 1810 Charleston, South Carolina, a time when slavery was practiced full force. Again Blackall answers the call to Jenkins’ establishment of the mise en scene with a magnificent rendering of a southern plantation mansion, enveloped by trees, while in the foreground an African American slave mother and her daughter are blackberry picking and are delighted by the activity. Again Blackall fashions those eye-catching bushes in all their evocative splendor. In this later time the cream is transported to them by a horse-drawn wagon from a nearby dairy, and the beating instrument is now made out of sturdy steel. The young girl follows her British counterpart from years ago with the same beating ritual, but at a later stage has the advantage of a tin sieve and a spoon to get rid of the seeds. Instead of a mini hillside ice fortress, they bring the mixture to the basement, where the cooling process is sounder. Supper is then served to the white masters while the mother and daughter happily devour their own share of the fool in a closet.
Very sad to say this section of the book attracted an outcry from a portion of the children’s book community six weeks ago, one that provoked intense discussion, some uncompromising condemnation and an equally impassioned defense of the book. The detractors resented that the African Americans were “smiling”, as that would send the wrong message to young children coming upon the book. The indignation was particularly curious when one considers that both Jenkins and Blackall have long proven their dedication to cross cultural projects, where both are proven champions of ethnicity. While some African-Americans registered their complaints at a watchdog site that monitored white-oriented picture books and the treatment of blacks, a number of African-American artists stood by the author and illustrator, downplaying the complaints and implications, with some of those saying the book worked for them, as reported in The New York Times. It was also asserted that the spectacular reviews the book received from the critics were to be understood in the context that the critics are white. But aside from the fact that the vast majority of the critics who review children’s books are white, they are all invariably the same people who regularly embrace the works from our finest African-American illustrators. Plus I found it curious indeed that a group of people (all of whom I greatly respect) made claim to missing the tell tale signs when they first read through the book, and all had to be “told” by the few original plaintiffs to change their opinion. Is it possible that almost everyone who eventually had issues with this book had to be told by others that their first look at it was short sighted? Surely at least a few would have noticed anything so obvious or glaring during the initial whirl. For my time and sense of appreciation A Fine Dessert makes no disparaging inferences, nor does it demean African-Americans. What it does do is tell the truth about slavery as the most shameful episode in United States history. A teacher using the book is well advised to speak to the kids about slavery before or after reading the book. Yes, Virginia, slaves did smile during their years of deplorable captivity. and these priceless moments revolved around love of family. One must conclude after this lamentable business that authors and illustrators must be ever vigilant as to what they produce. I’m sorry but I really think the two lovely women who made this book got a raw deal from the militant scrutiny of some who read things into the personifications that were not at all meant to be. When a number of African American authors and artists declare the questionable reference is innocuous enough, well you know there is something rotten in the state of Denmark. Let’s hope the Caldecott committee will appraise the book’s stellar craftsmanship, and set aside the debatable issues that have arisen. To be sure it is not much ado about nothing, but rather a perception of the individual. The vast majority of the nation’s children, book fans and critics have declared their love for the book.
Getting back to A Fine Dessert, the opening of the 1919 Boston segment, featuring a tidy row of two story houses that seem to be the forerunner of brownstones lie near an elegant, immaculately attired woman who purchases berries at a fruit and vegetable wagon. At this time in history cream is delivered to the front door and modernized rotary beaters make the task at hand easier. Even a recipe book can be conferred upon. A kitchen faucet and kitchen ice box sport a homey and progressive look. The 1910 kitchen and the bowls they eat the fool with is exquisitely adorned with green. Finally the action shifts to 2010 in San Diego, California, where the rage is organic food, internet recipes, electric mixers, colanders, a food processor and plastic spatulas. After dinner is served and the fool dispatched, the boy in the kitchen licks the bowl, much like those in different times and places. The couple in this section are inter-racial, which accentuates the fact that America has come a long way since the days of oppression. Lastly, it should be mentioned in a painstaking afterward Jenkins explains the “difficult truth” of slavery and envisions children seeing a “hopeful, inclusive community.” A blackberry fool recipe and a note from Blackall complete this grand package, a book conceived and executed on the highest plane of artistry.
A Fine Dessert in thought, word and deed is one of the finest picture books of 2015.
Note: This is the fifteenth review in the 2015 Caldecott Contender series that will be published at this site over the coming months, up until the January 11th scheduled awards date. The books that will be examined are not necessarily ones that are bonafide contenders in the eyes of the voting committee, but rather the ones this writer feels should be. The order they will be presented is arbitrary as some of my absolute favorites will be presented near the end.
I’ll say only this, which I think will make my point cogently enough: you call the slave mother and daughter “African-American” which is ahistorical as slaves at that time were denied all the rights and protections of citizenship. everything about this section is rotten, but you go ahead and continue to choke it down. I’ll pass.
Jennifer, I will concede I was too harsh to you earlier today, and I’d like to apologize to you. II know we have our differences on this book, which is fair enough.
Sam, this is one of the most impassioned reviews you have ever written at this site, and this includes all your film and music reviews. I hope the powers that be are listening as this is surely a tour de force of the form. Sad that some have stirred up trouble, especially when you consider the heartfelt commentary that the author included in her afterward.
Some people want to be “heroes” but have completely lost sight of what this book intended and is really about. Sad.
Thanks so much for this wonderful response Frank. As to the powers-that-be embracing the book, it is hard to say what will come down in the end. The book has admittedly been damaged by this criticism, though nationwide many more have extolled its virtues. The main thrust of the indignation was registered at a watchdog site. Many African-American author/illustrators have stood behind the book. As always you make astute observations. Thanks for the kind words my friend.
Count me as a big adherent of this book. Frankly I am appalled at the reaction of some. It appears to me they are creating situations that don’t exist on the printed page. The kids in my school love the book. It opens up opportunity for an enriching discussion. Your review is a godsend. Beautifully written and with deep feeling.
Ricky, thanks so much for taking the time to respond here. I have to say I agree with every point you make.
The last section by the way depicts an inter-racial couple as if to accentuate for kids that we have come a long way. Thanks for the exceedingly kind words.
Am I to understand that the primary objection to this book is that slaves were “smiling?” Are these people kidding me?
Aye Janice, that is essentially correct. That and the illustration showing the slaves eating their fool in an open closet. Thanks for stopping in my friend.
While the book has many merits, isn’t is just more white priviliege/blindness that
proves how little we know about the African American experience? It’s more of that same privilege in the belittling and dismissing of the criticisms of how slaves are portrayed. Go ahead and sweep that away, but the opportunity to learn why African Americans are upset is completely lost. Perfect definition of “white washing.”
Jamie, your views are always welcome and appreciated here my friend.
What disturbs me the most is that many people had no issue at all with the depictions until others had to “show them.” A sad state of affairs when you consider these are adults who have their own set of eyes. If there was something so blatantly objectionable wouldn’t that have been obvious to those reading the book? I think we have some political correctness here, and at the expense of honorable artistry.
So anyone who doesn’t agree that there is a problem doesn’t “understand” the black experience? What a joke.
Mr. Juliano, I was moved by your excellent review.
Tanya, thanks for making an appearance at Wonders in the Dark. Yes I found that aspect problematic too, and that is why I did mention it. But to be fair some may simply have given the benefit of a doubt. I can’t say for sure about the matter of “political correctness” but I appreciate your opinions. Thanks for the kind words.
Sam, I’d say it is borderline.
The smiling thing means nothing as that can be interpreted many ways.
But licking the bowels of stool in the closet, that seems more problematic.
Great review, by the way.
John, I concede it is borderline absolutely. I appreciate you coming here and being honest and civil. Thanks for the kind words.
Sam — Your term “homespun prominence” is spot on! My watering mouth is certainly purple from enjoying the delicious berries in this book. And to top it off, I got to “time travel” too!
Thanks so much Laurie! There si plenty of things delectable in that book indeed! And yes four different time periods, is quite a day for one trip.
We live in a world of ambushes, Sam, and I’m sorry to see that your very sound enthusing—about a book delighting in a gift of nature through the ages which provides a means of communion—can be maligned. The illustrations are wonderfully keyed to the tininess of the gift and the perishability of its effects.
The structure puts me in mind of the film Three Times, inasmuch as it raises the challenge of engaging pristine gusto wherever it may be found (including literature stemming from the past). The enormity of the prospect of such engagement calls for deft not crude measures.
Jim, as always you express yourself superlatively and with wry disclosure. There is no question that your artistic observations are astute and grand at that. That is a brilliant connection there to THREE TIMES and the timing of it is uncanny! You brought a big smile to my face my friend.
Sam, I appreciate your enthusiasm for children’s books, and so I’m not surprised that you’re still defending this title. But your “all-or-nothing” tone is just not okay. Whether you mean to or not, Sam, you really are demeaning anyone who has previously expressed issues with this book. Look at the language you use here: “uncompromising condemnation,” “militant scrutiny,” and (in your response to Jennifer’s first comment) “reckless negative energy” in reference to those who found the book problematic. I agree completely with Jamiepeeps, and had to shake my head when you responded that you “don’t believe anything is “being swept under the table”” here in your review. Again, I point to your words. I could point to words you used in the comments of the Calling Caldecott post, or the Reading While White post, for good measure: the whole time, you’ve made it pretty clear (again, whether you mean to or not) that you aren’t really hearing what others are saying.
You hope that the Caldecott committee will “set aside the debatable issues that have arisen”? I couldn’t disagree with you more on this, Sam. My hope is that those 15 folks will take a close look at all sides of the issue. And I sure wish you would have done the same, but with each discussion we have on this my hopes of this ever happening are all but vanishing.
Sam, you know I respect you greatly and consider you a very good friend. I have since retracted some of the responses, and think we can move forward. 🙂
I wish that you had not deleted comments, Sam Juliano. Other references to them leave those of us who did not see them with no way to know what was discussed. And it makes it seem that you had something to hide or at the very least distance yourself from. It would be far better if you would bring those things back in and specifically address why you felt you needed to “retract” them.
So much of what you said in your initial post is worth close examination. Some of my thoughts are that the argument you put forth–the one to dismiss the critiques made by people of color and others who object to the book–is a present-day parallel to the kinds of responses men made to women over women’s rights. Then (and now, it must be said) some men–presumably you’d be one of them–had to be “told” to revisit their thinking on women. Some heard. Some didn’t.
Debbie—
The only comments I deleted (3 in total) were my own in response to others. I did not nor have I ever at this site deleted the comments of others. I did replace my three comments though. I had nothing at all to hide, you are just speculating. I just felt that I may have gotten too worked up and wanted to pull back out of respect for others. Nothing that I said in those responses to be honest hasn’t subsequently brought up to others.
I never said we should “dismiss” the critiques made by people of color, so your subsequent analogy broaching women’s rights in non-applicable.
Thank you for your civility, my friend.
The best way to do the lesson is to talk about slavery before reading the book. I can see why some African American peoples are upset. The two in the closet makes it look to readers like they always have to hide. I don’t think too many kids would pick that up, and I don’t think it will be regarded that way by everyone either.
There sin’t anything that can’t be discussed. This is such a great book and shouldn’t be dismissed.
Thanks Durga for stopping at this site. Your advice is certainly sage and the discussion should be ongoing.
Ah this entire affair is too bad. I was expecting you to review this book Sam, but wasn’t sure when it would appear.
I’m a big fan, but I am white. The closest I can get to a view from African Americans is to confirm that one of the library story time readers is one and she sees no problems. She admits that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and can see where the trouble has been brewing. It is a very difficult situation. People arguing on both sides will say the other is close minded. It is a no win result.
I guess the committee will want to stay clear, but when you think about it that isn’t fair either. Your review makes as strong a case as has been written for this book.
Thanks so much for your views Celeste. Always appreciated. I know the book was hurt by the controversy, but I couldn’t say where the committee will go. At this point I want to offer peace branches and move forward.
The Battle of the Sams. lol. As I predicted the moment you posted a review of this book there would b e reprisals.
Mind you I am a staunch admirer of the book -yeah I’m white- and also find it a stretch to see how it demeans blacks. But on the other hand I am not in their shoes. What could dash any problems is a thorough going over during the session. Slavery wasn’t really the concern of the book; it only constituted one-fourth. The interacial couple at the end was a cry for unity. Still people will read what they want to read. Shame your great review has been a bit tainted by this comment section. Be rest assured Jennifer drew first blood, so anything after that is fair game the way I see it.
Oh God no Peter. No battle. Sam Bloom is a good friend. Thanks for the thoughtful response in all ways. I want to move on though, and don’t want to inflame the situation further. I will be willing to talk in any other forums, but for now I want to throw out a peace branch to all.
I would like to say Sam that I admire your humility and desire to keep the dialogue respectful. The charges of racial insensitivity are despicable, and will never defeat the intergrity of the system. Some of these people make me sick. Hard to see how they live with themselves.
Kevin, I am trying to move forward peacefully after some previous contentiousness and do not want to foster any hard feelings of any kind. I thank you for making an appearance at this site, and I do understand what you are saying of course.
I understand. Could you let me know how I could find that “watchdog” site you spoke about in your review? I am curious.
Fair enough Kevin. The site is called “Reading While White” and I would recommend you type that in a search engine with A Fine Dessert.
I read several of the comments there and scanned through it. I agree with a woman named Christine who said the attacks on the author and illustrator were reprehensible and that with the author donating her proceeds to an ethnically diverse organization it seemed like extortion.
One person went as far as to call Jenkins and Blackall racists. What an ignorant lot of people. Some call themselves intelligent, but they are thinly disguised reverse bigots.
I did get a good laugh out of a comment “Ryan” made when he said anyone who is disturbed by two slaves embracing needs psychological help.
I’d agree with Christine that the blame is an editorial/art direction failure, but personally I don’t even agree with that. These people are seeing what they want or choose to see.
Hi Sam,
wondering why you chose to put quotation marks around the word smiling in the paragraph about the third section.
Thanks
Hello Daniel. I must tell you I am deeply honored to host your comment here, and plan to read some of your work.
As to your question I put the quotations on the work smiling as a heightened point of irony. One of the two criticisms of this book (though the lesser of the two) is that the two slave females were smiling. Those that resented this picture felt it indicated they were happy with their oppression, or as a message to young readers by implication that slavery was acceptable. Of course it was not – it is the most shameful episode in our history- but I do believe the smiling was more in the way of accomplishment (blackberry fool) and mother-daughter camaraderie. I feel there is little doubt that Jenkins and Blackall intended it as such, but as you know some are interpreting it differently. My quotations were basically to set off the inflection that has precipitated this controversy.
Again, I thank you so much my friend.
You know Sam, I didn’t actually realize you were referring to Reading While White when you mentioned the “watchdog” site. When I figured it out at first (through your conversation with Kevin in the comments above) I was pretty offended, I’m not going to lie, but after all of this – including Kevin’s comment about comments at RWW from “thinly disguised reverse bigots,” which… just, WOW – I think perhaps it’s time to embrace that watchdog label. Because it’s obviously necessary.
Sam my friend, I did indeed use the term “watchdog” but absolutely not in a derogatory way. I got the term from a New York Times piece that framed the site that exact way. I actually appreciate watchdog sites including Reading While White, and feeling they are vital in the book community. That said I can see the term as a bit crude for obvious reasons but it was posed to state the site must be vigilant. And that is the way it should be. I’m sure there will be instances in the future I will stand solidly with Reading While White.
Sam I will correct those typos when I get home. Am using a cell phone.
Kevin, as I said before. I want to move forward. Thanks for expressing your views.
Okay. I’m not someone who jumps into comments sections, and I won’t be staying for a protracted back and forth, but I do want to say a few things. I admit to not understanding what you mean by “heightened point of irony” or “to set off the inflection” but the quote marks make it look like you want to cast some ambiguity about whether or not they’re actually smiling. This is something I’ve heard defenders of the book do, including the illustrator – call into question the smiles – and it’s always confused me, as they are clearly, in no uncertain terms, smiling.
The crux of your argument seems to be:
-some black people say it’s okay, so it’s okay.
-the black characters aren’t depicted negatively
-slaves can be happy too.
– the author and illustrator’s intentions were good
But none of these arguments respond to any of the critiques that have been made against the book. It’s like you and the other defenders of A Fine Dessert made up points to counteract that would be more comfortable to think about. No one has suggested that ALL black people are against it. The complaint isn’t that the book shows black people in a negative way, or that slaves can’t be happy, or that the creators had malicious intent. Their intent, and yours, are totally irrelevant. They don’t matter. What matters is the work, the context it’s created in, the effect it has on the world, and particularly on the young people who will read it.
On the other hand, you state that A Fine Dessert tells “the truth about slavery as the most shameful episode in United States history.” There’s no evidence in the book to back up this claim. Slavery appears to be at worst occasionally inconvenient and more often than not – fun!
I’m not going to explain why representing slavery as fun is a problem, because it’s 2015 and I’m holding out hope that the world at large and the children’s book industry specifically has it together a little more than it’s acting like right now.
I’m also not going to rehash the arguments already made, because they’ve been stated perfectly well by many other people and it’s clear that this post, from the tone — which The Other Ben correctly called out as condescending and dismissive, to the total misdirection and convenient misrepresenting of counter arguments – is determined not to engage with what’s actually being said.
If you’re wondering why people are upset, take a breath and consider what’s already been said more carefully, and then reread your own words. Perhaps you will figure it out.
Thank you for your time,
D
What matters is the work, the context it’s created in, the effect it has on the world, and particularly on the young people who will read it.
Daniel, I respect that you don’t want to engage in protracted conversations, but I simply must respond to a number of your contentions here.
First off, I absolutely, without any shadow of a doubt used the quotes to highlight that “smiling” was a major issue with those who had issues with the book. Of course I know they were smiling – there wasn’t an ounce of ambiguity. All we need here is to scroll up this thread to my actual review and we both can see the young slave girl is smiling. For me to contend otherwise would be counter to my entire argument. My use of quotes was in the vein of –hey look readers here is a major bone of contention.
Now to the section of your response that I italicized above. You mention the young people who read it. Well Sir, I am a veteran Elementary School teacher with 34 years in my system. I am 61 and have five kids of my own, all teenagers. I taught English literature in H.S. a few years before I took the current position in my home town. I am also a five term Trustee of my town’s library board. The reason I said all of this wasn’t to be an obnoxious blowhard, but rather to report to you that I have concrete evidence that the children you are concerned about have been exposed to this book numerous times at my behest and are all the better for it. You conjur up these elusive images of “how it will affect the world” and how children will be affected with not the slightest bit of evidence. You are basically trying here to apply your own philosophy based on your own perception of the book on a real life situation, but you have no actual information. You speak of context, yet you then question my statement that “slavery is the most shameful episode in American History” as being obfuscated in the book – a book in fact that is about love between family members while bonding to create. None of the first graders (5 classes) nor the third and fourth graders I read in a special program were adversely affected by the book, even with a huge ethnic population in my district that not only includes African Americans but Hispanics and Arabs. You are sadly deluded if you think a perception has automatically translated into a reality based on what you have concluded. It doesn’t work that way.
The older kids were given a full discussion on American slavery, though to be sure many were well aware of the shameful institution. From the reactions I got the students understood that that the bonding in that section was in the name of mutual creativity. Their status as slaves wasn’t demeaned because they happen to be happy to make something they enjoyed eating together.
A close friend, an American American woman, whom I’ve known many years and who goes out to eat with my wife and I has worked in the Jersey City School System as a fifth grade teacher for 29 years and she has used this book with her predominantly African American class. Her report has been a glowing one, and she feels the book was a great lead in to wider discussions. Yet she made a point of telling me that the kids enjoyed the book, and weren’t in the least taken aback. They know all about the ills of slavery. But yet they saw love among the family members of this book.
I supervised a reading of this book at my town library, again with African-Americans and Hispanics and again the venture was successful. Parents were present, and also absorbed the reading and picture showing.
You can portend all the doomsday scenarios you like but I have hard evidence. And I even made a request this week to our Superintendent to allow me to travel to all the other classrooms in the district in grades 5 through 8. I’ll wager the results will be the same. And if my former high school allows me to read it there (which I’m sure they will) I will do so.
I disagree with you that the other four reasons why this book is not objectionable should be set aside. Each mean something and together they mean quite a bit. Interesting that the interracial couple at the end (quite a significant statement no matter how you choose to paint it) and the heartfelt author’s note at the end are never mentioned, when in fact each are hugely significant.
If you are thinking that I will not be able to read this book to every classroom in America, you are right. But I do believe my sampling (and that of my lovely African-American friend) speaks volumes.
It didn’t escape me today either that many prominent author-illustrators have stood behind this book, and especially Ms. Blackall.
Hi Sam,
what I said was: there’s no evidence in the text to support your claim that it presents slavery as the most shameful episode in US history; you replied with 5 paragraphs about how you have had great experiences teaching the book.
I’m going to make good on my No protracted arguments pledge now, but I leave you with this final point because you have once again not engaged with what was actually said (that the text doesn’t portray slavery as that bad), and opted instead to make your own, totally different point (that you’ve had positive experiences teaching the text with kids). I’m sure the young people you taught had a great conversation. Statistically speaking though, what you’re calling hard evidence is meaningless. Analytically speaking, it’s even more so.
I don’t doubt that you’re passionate about doing the right thing by young readers. What I’m saying is: you’re not doing a good job of hearing what’s being said to you, and not just by me.
Have a good night.
Nice try Daniel. That’s right, I did offer up five paragraphs telling you of my teaching experience. That’s five paragraphs more than you offered, but then again you never had facts here in the first place. Your contentions were based on fear and speculation.
I must say I was admittedly surprised, that my statement about “slavery being the most shameful episode in US history” went over your head. Where did I ever say that this personal conviction was ever asserted on the pages of this book? And why should it have been? This omnibus story isn’t about slavery. You are saying it is. I recommend you read Emily Jenkins’ afterward, which clarifies her position on that part of the book.
I’ve done my job. I’ve read this book to many classes, and am very satisfied and in fact am quite impressed with the overall response to this book.
Good night.
“What it does do is tell the truth about slavery as the most shameful episode in US history.”
From your review above.
That is correct ‘hanburglars’, I was referring to author’s afterward, which is of course part of the book.
*The Other Sam, not Ben. No idea who the Other Ben is
Daniel, I just read your long response. I am going to respond to you now. I understand you dont want to engage in a protracted conversation, but I really need to clarify some things here including the issue of the smiling.
I am a big fan of Sophie Blackall’s art. She illustrated the book of a good friend of mine. From this friend’s experiences I understand that Sophie is a positive person who likes to draw happy, to put it simply.
I also adore Emily Jenkins’ writing.
When I heard of this new book from the both of them, I was thrilled. And, as a teacher, when I learned of the premise of the book, I got excited. It’s really challenging to convey an understanding of history to young children. This endeavor would perhaps be the perfect thing.
And then I browsed through the book and my heart sank. Because I saw the smiles. (Not the “smiles” as you wrote here Sam.) I saw the scene of the mother and daughter hiding in the cupboard and the white family being fanned while eating and I said no, no, no.
I saw that this book assumed a white audience as its norm.
I know Sophie Blackall did not draw these scenes to lessen the gravity of slavery. She likes happy, this is why she drew the way she did.
But guess what? Drawing smiling slaves in the context of a story of a dessert, a happy topic, does not make sense to MOST OF THE WORLD. If it makes sense to you or makes you feel okay or whatever, you are probably in a place/space where you’ve not felt the effects of systemic injustice.
I teach in a multicultural classroom, a microcosm of the world we actually live in and I would not share this book with my class. I wouldn’t do this simply because I care about my students.
They, brown, black, white, would see the injustice in the scenes of slavery and think it’s okay to be treated this way – themselves or others – because, look, the girl and her mom are still eating the yummy dessert and smiling! This is how young children naturally think unless someone makes them examine the scenes in the context of a discussion on slavery. Unfortunately, this will not happen in most classrooms as it’s not the book’s purpose. It’s not meant to be a springboard text for the issue of injustice. It is a book about dessert through the ages.
The only way this book can be explored with children would be through the lens of critical inquiry into the depictions of non-white characters. And, with older students, perhaps an inquiry into why people just don’t want to hear other people point out such problems in the publishing world.
Why can’t you take the time to listen and understand these voices? Why can’t it be that those of us speaking up have good intentions too, as good as the intentions you so nobly (and rightfully) grant Sophie and Emily?
The only way this book can be explored with children would be through the lens of critical inquiry into the depictions of non-white characters. And, with older students, perhaps an inquiry into why people just don’t want to hear other people point out such problems in the publishing world.
Why can’t you take the time to listen and understand these voices? Why can’t it be that those of us speaking up have good intentions too, as good as the intentions you so nobly (and rightfully) grant Sophie and Emily?
Hello Sajdah, thank very much for chiming in with a thoughtful response. Alas I have taken the time and in a very big way. As I just mentioned to Daniel above I have read this book to 11 full classes (Grades 1, 3 and 4) and to a library group where I am on the board. I have discussed slavery and the many African-American and Hispanic students in those classes have responded quite favorably. You ask me to “listen to these voices.” What better voices can I listen to than my own students, a bit over 200 in number in this exceedingly race diversified community. I have used the lens of critical inquiry into the depictions of non-white characters. i have done that! And I am very heartened by the results. They came away as better people consequently. One of my closest friends is an African American woman who teaches fifth grade in an inner city system. The classes are 80% African American. She reports fabulous results from the readings and discussions on slavery. Neither she nor her students felt demeaned.
Sam, I’m glad you and your friend were able (and wanted to) use this book with the lens of critical inquiry. However, I’ve been a teacher for almost 20 years and I know the reality is most teachers would not be doing this. So the book would stand on its own as a story about dessert – with happy slaves in it. That’s the simple awful reality.
Sajidah, thank you for your civility and sense of fair play. Alas we really don’t have any idea how many teachers will pick up this book. The arguments that have been raised against it at “Reading While White” and at Calling Caldecott are completely speculative. As to what you say about the book standing on its own as “a story about dessert – with happy slaves in it” I’d modify it based on the quartet of stories within to be a book about happy people enjoying the process of dessert making. The slavery angle was brought about by fear because the author and illustrator dared to string together the stories as having the same universal outlook. All we have to go on are these irrefutable facts:
1. The book has sold well.
2. The book received spectacular reviews and was named on many year end best lists by critics including a New York Times placement.
3. The book has been widely distributed in libraries across the country.
4. The book is aesthetically a masterpiece.
That would lead me to believe it is being read.
At the Horn Book it received two glowing reviews, one by Tennessee schoolteacher and longtime committee member Robin Smith who stated in her meticulous review in Calling Caldecott that it gets better and better every time she reads it. I know Ms. Smith to be a staunch supporter of ethnically diverse books.
Only when the outcry began after the fact by people who were basing their revised opinions on speculative fear did we have the situation we have now. As broached earlier on this thread many African American authors and illustrators have stood behind the book, in essence not succumbing to that unfounded fear. It is telling that a number of those who cried foul didn’t even see or read the book, but were basing their objections to perceived notions of slavery as part of an elementary school curriculum.
As FDR famously said the only thing to fear is fear itself.
There has been little evidence to suggest any kind of moral effrontery to our children, and I hope the Caldecott committee will make their own summary judgement on the criteria they always use to name their winners.
Sadly the lovely woman who wrote the book has since forfeited her royalties for the book so as not to offend anyone, but the truth of the matter is that the jury is still out on this book’s classroom viability.. Again based on evidence there isn’t a reason to making unfounded accusations.
Speculation is a poor way of judging anything, much less a book of this caliber.
I love it when white people say that because they’ve done good things in the past, all of their actions in the future are infallible. Love it. It’s great. Hilarious, even, except for the fact that it’s real.
Caring about diversity and multiculturalism is wonderful, and both creators clearly do care deeply about these things. And that’s great. Having cared in the past does not in any way mean you can’t be insensitive in the future. That’s like saying because you passed a math test once, no matter how you do on all future math tests, you have to receive passing grades because of that one time you did well. Past performance has nothing to do with present performance. What matters is the thing in question.
I love it when white people say that because they’ve done good things in the past, all of their actions in the future are infallible. Love it. It’s great. Hilarious, even, except for the fact that it’s real.
Why just “white people” mclicious? Isn’t that a characteristic of the human race? Why did you just imply that only white people are capable this kind of change? And pray tell WHO made the contention here that the author and illustrator were “infallible?” We are discussing a book exclusive of past works. Isn’t it fair game to at least mention that the author and illustrator have never had past issue in this regard? You selected one piece of this puzzle and chose to use it to taint what artists set out to do in this single book? Each book is a different artistic endeavor.
Ah well, we can agree to disagree. BTW I love your site. You are doing some great things there.
Sam, I am not coming back here to bring grief but I must respond to mclicious. The comment is overtly racist, further supporting my earlier charge of reverse racism. Pathetic.
Why just white people? Because in this context, it’s always white people who tell us that because of that one time they did this one thing with this person of color, it proved that they weren’t racist.
You contended that because the author and illustrator have done good work for diversity in the past, they cannot possibly have done so here. That has no bearing in reality.
“We are discussing a book exclusive of past works” but so then you want to discuss past works as part of your argument? Putting those two sentences together is an oxymoron.
I also like this common white person idea that when people of color point out acts of aggression, be they micro or macro, it’s not the aggressor who committed the racist act, it’s the person pointing out the racist act that is “tainting” something. And by like, since it’s clear you are not good with context or antecedents or sarcasm, I mean “am really freaking tired of.”
“Agree to disagree” is another common white defense of privilege to avoid interrogating it.
“Each book is a different artistic endeavor.” We agree there. That is a non sequitur that has nothing to do with anything being discussed.
I’m glad you like my site. That’s great. Kevin, there is no such thing as reverse racism. Kindly find a dictionary that can teach you the difference between a “system,” which is what racism is, and “prejudice,” which indeed is something any individual can experience regardless of background. You do yourself no favors being willfully ignorant.
“We are discussing a book exclusive of past works” but so then you want to discuss past works as part of your argument? Putting those two sentences together is an oxymoron.
Nah mclicious, you have spun it that way. I never at any time in my review suggested remotely that the reason why A FINE DESSERT should be embraced is because the author and illustrator did noble work before that. For your own point of attack you tuned into my bringing it up. Let me pose it to you using different language.
The author and illustrator have never before been accused of prior issues regard misrepresentation of race. In fact the record shows they are actually quite supportive of race diversity a point conceded at the “Reading While White” site where the conversation escalated almost two months ago. I never said that their past achievement would make it impossible for them to err this time, I said that if a mistake was made it was neither intentional or to these eyes shortsighted.
If I tell you that A, B, C, D and E all add up to an argument in defense of something, and then you choose to use D solely to invalidate a view I culled by bringing all five factors in, you are willfully ignoring the entire picture. But why I am not surprised? I know your type. I’ve been dealing with parents for over 34 years.
No “agree to disagree” is a polite way of not arguing over the same point over and over. But again you spin it with the ludicrous idea that it is a rhetorical tact exclusive to white people. I’ve been on many blogs and forums over the years where polite African Americans and Hispanics have “agreed to disagree” with each other and with whites. I discussed every relevant point about the book in my review and in the comment section. A few of my points did not need to be encored. You are down on the record here for all to see that “Agree to disagree” is position only posed by “white people.”
You came on this thread looking to burn down the houses of white people, because said people happened to like and defend a popular book.
And you pulled the race card aggressively. So all the ills of modern day society should be laid at the doorstep of “white people?”
Oh I see well where you are coming from.
Sam, the aggression is coming from you. Polite language does not change or cover over assertions that are, at their heart, profoundly offensive. And rude. When many black women take the time and energy to explain the ways that a work is hurtful to them and their own children, based on their and their children’s experiences– and you assert that this is not evidence but that your experiences and the experiences of people who disagree with them are, that is rude. When you point to the success of the book among white critics as evidence that it has no problems, in a publishing system that actively discriminates against people of color– and black women in particular– that is rude. When you repeatedly mischaracterize and ignore the arguments and intentions of the people of color making criticisms, but ask that everyone consider the good work and good intentions of the book’s white creators, that is rude. When you defend the white woman author against criticism of the book, when she has already spoken for herself and apologized, that is rude. Frankly, the whole notion of “civility” itself in a conversation that is at its base aggressive, is rude.
There is no race card. But taking profound umbrage at the idea that white people might use deflecting rhetoric in conversations about race, and honing in on this as evidence of “reverse racism” (or seeing oneself as the victim of prejudice against white people) comes close.
Sarah
hamburglars, I have no idea who is white, black or yellow while conversing on this thread. I am not capable to monitoring what is going on in classrooms across America and can only report back my hands on findings and those of friends. Each work of art is a personal experience. I told you what mine was here.
Please do not use that “reverse racism” matter at my doorstep. I NEVER made the statement (another commenter did) and I mentioned I disagreed with it!
The vast majority of the critics are white. Who’s to say what critics of color would have written? As it is we have a number of African-American author illustrators who have defended the book as per New York Times findings.
And that’s not fair to use Jenkins’ resignation. She is obviously a very sensitive and compassionate woman, and didn’t want to cause hard feelings. behind the scenes there are plenty of artists who are appalled at the way this matter has played out.
I am not generally rude at all. I’d gladly treat you for dinner and engage with you in person.
“There is no such thing as reverse racism”
Interesting Mclicious, since you just demonstrated what it means. As far as willful ignorance take a look in the mirror.
Not my words, but I think they might help with this misunderstanding of reverse racism–which does not exist.
[From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/reverse-racism-isnt-a-thing_55d60a91e4b07addcb45da97%5D
“It really all comes down to semantics. At some point, the actual meaning of ‘racism’ got mixed up with other aspects of racism — prejudice, bigotry, ignorance, and so on. It’s true: White people can experience prejudice from black people and other non-whites. Black people can have ignorant, backwards ideas about white people, as well as other non-white races. No one is trying to deny that. But racism is far more complex.
“Some people simplify racism as one group not liking another, and think ‘racist’ and ‘prejudiced’ are interchangeable. But racism is a concept that operates on both an individual and institutional level.
“At its core, racism is a system in which a dominant race (whit people) benefits off the oppression of others — whether they want to or not. We don’t live in a society where every racial group has equal power, status, and opportunity (or representation in children’s books). White people have never been enslaved, colonized, or forced to segregate. They do not face housing or job discrimination, police brutality, poverty, or incarceration at the level that black people do. This is not to say that they do not experience some of these things (like poverty and police brutality) at all. But again, not on the same scale — not even close. That is the reality of racism.”
As a system, then, racism cannot be reversed to “oppress the oppressors,” even though individual prejudice can be experienced by white people. If you mean to say prejudice, Kevin, please say it. If you mean, reverse racism, then you’re saying nothing at all.
Darkliteratura, thanks you so much for your civil and I must say excellent response. As you know I didn’t myself use that term, but will only say here that your suggestion that the word prejudice be used is a sound one. Sadly in our society there are people who are prejudice on the opposite side of the divide, and I apparently got a dose of it today. I agree too with the aspect of semantics in these contentions. I knew well what Kevin meant, but he used the wrong term.
Why is her suggestion to use “prejudice” a civil one and my same suggestion somehow not?
You’re really not worth any of my time anymore, but since I’m apparently a masochist, I’d love to know my “my type” is since you know me so well.
Otherwise, though, if you’re going to denounce your own words anytime I or anyone else points out that your logic is flawed, you’re someone who is going to bask in his own self-satisfaction forever, so it’s not worth arguing with you anymore. Enjoy your privilege. I’ll just continue my activism.
Why you ask? Look back at your previous comments and tell me they weren’t over-the-top aggressive. You practically called me a racist, and blamed all the ills of the world on whites.
And don’t preach to me about your “activism” either. In addition to teaching in a school system predominantly Hispanic and African-American, I have worked each and every year for Democrat candidates on the local and state level and twice voted for and worked my tail off for Barack Obama, and am a card carrying liberal. I have tirelessly supported the social causes of minorities in my community and through social media. I resent your various innuendos and smug holier than thou attitude.
You are no masochist. In fact I’d say you are quite the opposite.
As to your kind, I will engage you. Your type is the kind who hurls stones and invokes ‘guilty by association.’
As far as me not being worth your time, please by all means exit stage left. The feeling is quite mutual.
Want to know another thing white people do as a white people thing, specifically? Tell people of color we’re not sufficiently grateful for your “tireless support” of the “causes of minorities.”
You don’t get to decide what is racist and what is not because you’ve never experienced it and never will. Why? Because racism is not an ATTITUDE, it’s a SYSTEM, and it’s a system created and maintained by white people. Nobody is telling you you are a bad person (though you’re certainly showing yourself to be through all of these comments in which you refuse to engage with constructive criticism and instead just keep telling people how great you are because you taught black kids once). They’re trying to teach you how racism functions and how people are complicit in racism even if they don’t think they are or want to be. Again, “prejudice” is intentional; “racism” is a system that is so well oiled, most people don’t even know they’re doing it. It doesn’t make them bad people, but it DOES show you to be a bad person when you don’t care to fix it when it’s pointed out to you.
You can either try to learn and do better, as the creators of this book chose to do, or you can choose to plug your ears and say nah nah nah can’t hear you and continue to bask in your privilege. That’s it. There are only two choices. You don’t get to whine about being called “a racist” (You may want to go back to the classroom you teach in and remind yourself of the difference between nouns and adjectives, because what everyone is talking about here is things that are “racist,” not a person who is “a racist”), because it’s not a character attack and it’s not an insult. It’s a description of an action. That’s it.
We’re done here. Enjoy your self-righteousness. Don’t worry; you’re still the winner, because you’re white and the world is still yours.
Mclicious–
Yes I will use your name or title, as I am speaking to person. That is a rudimentary manner of etiquette. In your first two sentences you again asserted a tendency that maligns a particular race, but alas it is a blanket statement. I told you the truth. I have as a 34 year educator done precisely that. And no I did NOT teach African Americans “once” as you note, I have been teaching them for the entire span of my career.
Let’s dispense with the “white” label too. I am an Italian-American on both sides of my family. My grandparents came over via Ellis Island from Italy. That would be a more accurate framing. But you seem to think white people have the world at their fingertips and don’t have any problems. Right.
Calling me “self righteous” is name calling. I could say the same for your posturing here. I love a book, so that makes me self righteous for defending it. I never said you weren’t entitled to your opinion.
What is you want me to do? I am listening to you and to others. I absolutely am. I don’t think I could have survived in my profession as long as I did if I were close-minded, especially in the district I am employed in. To begin with my wife is the principal in the school I teach in and she has professed a fondness for the book and the belief it is workable in an ethnically diverse community.
After all this dialogue today I will admit there are some passionately expressed beliefs. i don’t want to fight with you, this entire thread depressed me, even with much agreement. How do we effectively judge whether this book is wholesome or not when we have so many divided opinions.
I honestly don’t know the answer Mclicious.
I extend the peace branch to you here.
Sam, I’m sorry to say you are wasting your time with this nasty woman. You are right it is all guilt by association with her. Some of the Hispanics that work in my library would eat her alive if she came in there spewing all that hate. She tried to turn the tables on you. But her true colors came out in her tone and attitude. She wants to turn an opinion of a book into a race war.
“How do we effectively judge whether this book is wholesome or not when we have so many divided opinions.”
I sincerely wish this had been the question you began with and explored in your review. This is a question open to the reading experiences and concerns of EVERY reader–not just you and those who agree with you. This is a question that takes seriously the tensions within and surrounding this book rather than condescendingly dismissing the voices that find its contents troubling. This is a question that can appreciate the beauty of this book while still acknowledging that it being beautiful and enjoyable does not mean it cannot be problematic or be perpetuating a system of oppression that constantly tries to play down just how oppressive it is.
This is the question of someone aware of privilege, oppression, and the insidious system of (internalized) racism. I can only wonder why it is a question that comes after a charged discussion of how racism functions rather than in your original review.
darliterata—
My original review of A FINE DESSERT was just that – a review. It expressed a personal opinion based on my engagement with the book as a teacher and of my assessment of its artistry. 4/5 of my review was about the book, not about this late-breaking controversy. i am not asking people to agree with me, I just don’t appreciate the personal attacks which began right the very outset of this thread as you and all others can see. Yes I could be a hot headed Italian American, but I am not not ever will be blind to the views of others. As it is I am only quipped to report on my own findings. I am not saying that the book hasn’t or wont disturb kids I am just saying the jury is still out. There still hasn’t been anything beyond what it is “likely” to do. That is my basic point.
Dear Sam,
I read your article as both a defense and a promotion of A Fine Dessert. There was no indication in your review that you gave credence to any criticism leveled at the work. Further, you double-down on your promotion of the book and the authors in your comments.
As an African-American woman slightly older than your 61 years, I found the pictures extremely problematic. I grew up in the segregated south.
The act of stealing that lick of food during slavery could have been met with punishments ranging from a beating, to a daughter being sold. I wonder if you discussed that in your class?
Smiling, well dressed, well fed slaves was not the norm in the south. Many wore the scars of ownership, often clearly visible on faces or limbs.
The “delightful” activity of picking berries may have come with an overseer and a whip. Or maybe just a punishment for not picking quickly enough.
The modern generation, including children of color, may not be fully aware of the horrors of slavery. This book does little to remedy that, and in some ways negates it. And that is what makes A Fine Dessert objectionable.
Dear Debra—
Thank you for this very decent, calm and exceptionally polite response.
Well, I did not discuss the possible ramifications of stealing that lick of food, though I do not at all doubt its authenticity. The other points you make are sound as well. In the spirit of what I found the book to be advancing (accentuated by the inter-racial couple at the end) was a sense of community that goes back generations. I know that the book wasn’t created to address the implications of slavery.
Well my friend, I can’t refute what you have concluded as it is honest, pointed and heartfelt.
It is clear that my own personal views based on classroom readings needs to have an asterisk.
I thank you for this response. You are obviously a lovely person.
McLiscious–
I thank you for your responses. You are obviously passionate about the very serious issues at play here. And though I do not know you (nor could I hope to from your brief comments here), I can infer that you are a person dedicated to diversity & inclusivity in and out of children’s literature, and as such, I believe you are a lovely person.
Yeah, she’s about as lovely as Annie Wilkes. You seem to be equating passion with anti-white venom. All she’s dedicated to is trying to portray white people as racists, when it is really the other way around. Read this thread, and the pompous tone.”
“You are not listening” is the battle cry. The problem is that we are.
It takes no effort to portray racist white people as racist. Trying to get resistant, well-meaning white people to acknowledge the system of racism of which they cannot help but be a part–that takes a great deal of effort. I equate passion with that effort and the very necessary act of calling out oppressive condescension that attempts to exclusively define racism from a perspective that has never experienced it.
And yes, with the vulnerability and high stakes involved such an act, I consider it the mark of a lovely person, in my own estimation–which I’m happy to say does not seem to align with yours.
Tim, pointing out white privilege, racism, and willful ignorance is not “anti-white venom.” These are literally just not the same things.
I’m really grateful that WOC are sharing their perspectives, whether or not white folks are listening.
I’m also curious if you see a real connection between the comments you read and the violent, obsessive, delusional behavior of the fictional Annie Wilkes, or if you’re just equating the discussion of privilege and racism with a figure who is terrifying to white men.
The latter, with some serious rage and anger management issues.
I can’t say I’m surprised.
I’m listening Kazia. Are you listening to me or we white people (since you want to establish color lines) in return?
Sam,
I read your comment above, that you’ve read the book with African American and Hispanic children, and I shudder with your assessment that they are “better people” because you shared that book with them. That assessment invites many questions.
1) How do you know they’re “better” people now? What were they before this interaction with you?
2) What is the measure by which you determine they are “better” people, and how do you define “better”?
3) Do you not realize the power differential in your role as a white teacher and theirs as young children of color whose parents–because today’s society is so dangerous for people of color–must teach them early not to speak back to white people in positions of power? From that reality, do you not know that they’re likely choosing to remain silent, even polite to you?
You think “the jury is still out.” You put those words forth as though the final measure of this book will rest with the Caldecott committee, as if their pronouncement matters more than anyone else’s. It doesn’t.
In this post and discussion, you sit in judgement–not just of that book–but of people participating in this discussion, calling some civil, decent, polite and the like. Frankly, it makes me wonder about the ways you interact with children in your classroom. Who, I wonder, do you determine in that space, is civil or not? Decent or not? Polite or not?
Astonishing. Utterly astonishing.
Debbieresse:
First off I want to say that my comment “the jury’s still out” has nothing at all to do with the Caldecott Awards, as the chances of A FINE DESSERT to win even an honor is admittedly scant. I’d say it is like 90 to 10 that it won’t win. Before this controversy came down I would have to imagine the numbers would have been reversed. And I never said either that the Caldecotts means more than the other book awards even if I follow them closely every year. The comment had to do with the book’s acceptance or rejection in classrooms across America. This is not something that can happen overnight. What I was basically saying is that all the evidence isn’t in.
No need to shudder my friend, my reading included a discussion on slavery and its woeful ramifications. I suggested they were “better” for having experienced why I have considered a life-affirming book. But I understand your position, and that you would not agree with that. Fair enough.
I am in judgement of not a single person here. I got hot a few times because I felt I was being attacked. If I call others ‘descent’, civil and polite it is because I like giving out compliments when they are warranted. I am a positive energy kind of a guy.
Thanks again very much for the response.
Sam: reflect on your words. Those African American and Hispanic children are better (in your view) for having experienced what YOU consider a life-affirming book. Wow. Life Affirming World, According to Sam. They have no power to challenge you. Do you understand that?
The books acceptance in classrooms across the country is also meaningless. Two books I can point to, LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE and ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS, are degrading to Native people and misrepresent them–factually, and yet, they’re taught in classrooms across the country. Does that make it right? Obviously I think the answer to that is no.
I’m an adult, and a Native woman, and I feel worse for having engaged with you at all. I have sympathy for the children in your classrooms and frankly, am glad you’re as old as you are and will likely be retiring soon.
Please don’t call me friend. I assume that’s a word you use as a matter-of-course in that “positive energy” space you speak of, but I find it off-putting.
Incidentally my district is almost 90% Hispanic, African-American and Arabic. the color barriers have been broken since the days of old, and and there is a full measure of unity and equality. My being white is practically besides the fact.
You’re arguing that this shows a breaking down of color barriers, but that’s not what I see in that number. I see re-entrenching segregation.
You’ve pointed out three categories of people, all of whom you seem to be identifying as non-White, as making up 90% of your school district’s population. However, according to the census, NJ was 68.6% white, non-Hispanic in 2010. The math does get a little more complicated because, unlike your categories (and the experience of racial profiling that many Arab-Americans undergo, to be fair, because the perception of who is and isn’t White is highly fluid), the US Census recognizes Arab-Americans as White, so they’re part of that number. The census also collects ancestry data from long-forms, though, so we know that in 2010 the bureau estimated that there were 85,956 New Jerseyans who identified as Arab-American. The Arab-American Institute Foundation believes that to be an under-estimation due to the exclusion of citizens who identified as Assyrian/Chaldean and Somali/Sudanese Arabic speakers, putting their projection of the Arab-American population at 257,868. Even if we use this higher projection, and neglect that some of the Somali and Sudanese Arabic speakers probably self-identified as Black, Arabic-Americans would make up 2.9% of the New Jersey population in 2010, leaving 65.7% of the population as White, non-Arab, non-Hispanic. (US Census Bureau Quick Facts and Arab American Institute detailed profile of NJ).
This means that your district does not actually reflect the racial/ethnic make-up of New Jersey as a whole, but rather an island of non-Whiteness in a state where the majority of citizens are White, non-Arab, non-Hispanic. That would be deeply troubling to me. The research shows us quite clearly that all students are better-served by schools in which students are truly integrated across racial, ethnic, and economic categories. Your numbers would indicate that this is not true for your students. That they, in fact, interact with very few students who you identify as White. Historically, school districts that exist as these kinds of islands are surrounded by districts in which students interact with very few people of color. That’s a disservice to both school districts’ populations.
Now, we could go with the alternative theory that you’re exaggerating because you believe that teaching in an area with so many “non-White” students (I am using quotation marks here because the census recognizes White as a racial category and Arab-American and Hispanic categories as based in ethnicity, allowing a range of racial categorizers) because you believe that it lends your argument credibility. This is equally, or more, disturbing.
The first possibility is structural racism in a nutshell. It would mean that de facto segregation, or gerrymandering of school district lines to preserve segregation, is as alive and well in New Jersey as it is in most of the rest of the United States. Most of us turn a blind eye to structural racism most of the time because “it’s just the way things are,” but it’s an active danger to our students of color to allow it to go unchallenged.
The second possibility is troubling because it means that you are actively complicit in the calculation, and you’re saying that because of where you choose to work, you’re somehow more credible. Working with students of color doesn’t make White teachers more capable of determining how best to address their experiences. Teaching students of color is not a pass on not interrogating our privilege.
ProPublica’s report on re-segregation of American schools is long, but powerfully written and meticulously sourced: https://www.propublica.org/article/segregation-now-the-resegregation-of-americas-schools/#intro
No JR I am NOT exaggerating. If anything I may have underplayed the numbers.
Fairview’s Hispanic population was the 12th-highest percentage among municipalities in New Jersey as of the 2010 Census. The drastic spike in the numbers of Hispanics actually occurred in the last five years, as transient families moved in from neighboring Hudson County, which houses the largest Cuban population in New Jersey. The five first grade classes I have this year in the building where my wife is principal are overwhelmingly Hispanic. In contrast to the time I grew up (I have lived in this town my entire life and an raising my kids here) when the town was just as predominately Italian American as it is Hispanic now. Whether or not the Arabic families are included as white doesn’t really impact my original point as it applies to the contentions I’ve made on this thread.
Hence, you need not be disturbed. I did my homework before coming here, though this gauging was simple enough.
Then you go on about the disparity in New Jersey’s population, where the rest of the state is 60.0% or so white. But my town is minutes from the George Washington Bridge and Manhattan in the extreme corner of Southeast Bergen County, which aside from the community of Palisades Park (which is 60% Korean) is heavily Hispanic. The African-American and Arabic numbers have been on a steady rise as well. I know of some rather bigoted minded people who moved out in the last several years because they were angered that the town has been “overun by minorities,” particularly the Hispanics.
If you feel there is a problem in teaching books like this in a community with comparatively few whites I would counter argue that this is the true test of whether or not it can be effective and free of the condescension some are saying is inherent in A FINE DESSERT. Every teacher comes to the assignment with various styles and abilities and willingness to engage further than the text. If you think I am at a disadvantage because I have few whites in my classes, fair enough, but I feel it makes for more telling results for a variety of reasons connected with race.
Sam,
I never said that I had a problem with you teaching this book to students of color. I said I had a problem with the way you’re interpreting the racial/ethnic breakdown of your school district as a positive. I said that it isn’t a measure of unity and equality; it’s a measure of re-entrenching segregation. You chose to answer an argument that I didn’t make.
I did say that teaching in Fairview didn’t give you a pass on checking your privilege, and I stand by that, but it’s possible to check your privilege and teach books in ways that seek to acknowledge and understand the experiences of students of color. Given your response to someone else who asked you to consider your privilege, I’m not sure you’ve done it, and that troubles me, but I didn’t say anything about you teaching this particular text to these particular kids. I commented on what I believe is a related part of your blindspots considering structural racism. (One of my colleagues suggested that instead of asking students to check their privilege, we ask them to consider their blindspots. I haven’t completely made the switch to that language because if you Google “Find your blindspots,” instead of “check your privilege,” it’s not going to be nearly as helpful, but I like it. It acknowledges that privilege is blinding in both directions, hiding itself from those who have it and limiting the field of view for those who don’t, and it asks the subject to take an active role in interrogating the world, which I find useful. I am, however, wary that it’s just a way of protecting the feelings of people with privilege, which is not the job of those who are oppressed.)
Did you read the article I linked to? In light of the ProPublica study, take a look at this data from the Education Law Center: http://www.edlawcenter.org/research/data-research.html. 56% of New Jersey’s Hispanic students, and 33% of New Jersey’s Black students, attend DFG A schools. So, of the demographics you mentioned which I can measure via data, 89% attend a school district in a DFG A district. Only 9% of White students do! If you limit the map to just your county, it’s immediately evident that the county is separated into highly segregated borough school districts, that then have starkly different socioeconomic make-ups.
This is structural racism. The structure of how schools are administered in New Jersey separates students along racial and socioeconomic lines who live within the same county. This affects the lives of your students, and not in a way that unifies or equalizes them. If there were unity or equality, your students would be going to a school that reflected the make-up of the county, not of just your borough. They would be integrated into the lives of their peers who are not living in poverty, many of whom are White. That’s what unity and equality looks like. This looks like structural racism. Ignoring that when we teach our students is choosing to ignore racism and the impact that it has on their lives.
J.R., thank very much for that clarification and for yet another diligently researched and superbly posed argument, Certainly much of what you say is food for thought. And the statistical breakdown in that link is really appreciated for a number of reasons. Especially the town to town statistics, since it includes many in my immediate area.
Weill, I well understand what you are saying about privelege, but ther presentation of a book to a class is an insular experience and isn’t really impacted by the likelihood suggested by statistics. I don’t doubt these statistics, but like everything else connected to the teaching experience it comes down to what the instructor is saying and how the lesson is structured. The reason why I originally specified that I taught a high number of Hispanics and African Americas was because a number of others here had suggested that most of my students were white, hence my perceptions were blinkered. You may well be right about structural racism, but I am where I am and have no control over who I actually am assigned. All I can do is to give it my all and make sure everyone understands the vital social concerns before forging ahead. Perhaps I should abandon the idea that the preponderance of minorities makes a better case for my position. And that’s fair enough.
Sam, I don’t know how you put up with this abuse. This woman is a cretin. She is insulting your profession and your role in it, and even wishing you retirement.
And I like the way she says “the world according to Sam Juliano”. Are you not the one teaching the book and should you not be the one to make the determination? What are you supposed to do call her up and ask her how you should teach the book?
It is either way or no way. What a fraud.
Deberisee:
Come to think of it I felt horrendous now at having dealt with you. After several great comments from reasonable and compassionate people you come here to pollute the air and to clamor for my retirement. A mighty sick woman, who I will no longer engage with again here. I don’t need the likes of you, nor your permission to project my own positive world view thank you very much.
Yeah, in the American school system the teacher is indeed the one who holds sway. Sorry if you view that first graders should run the class isn’t the accepted norm.
You certainly worked hard here to damage the progress we are making.
Good riddance. No you are certainly no friend, you got that right!
Sam, you misrepresent what Debbie Reese wrote (something that offends you when others do it to your words here: I didn’t write anything of the kind, you say, and that is that). She never said in any of her posts that the first graders should run the classroom. On the contrary, she says that they should have a voice along with the teacher’s. In other words, you as the teacher, despite opening it up to discussion with them, despite having a discussion on slavery as well, still run the show. The typically voiceless remain voiceless in the classroom setting. If you as the teacher, as the authority figure, select this title and describe it as beautiful or whatever, first, the student will go with it b/c he is the teacher after all, and second, these kids largely have never had their voice validated, ever. It’s not enough for the teacher to say, “In my class they are free to speak.” They won’t b/c they know the system, and the system doesn’t work to their benefit, despite our intentions.
Rene, I always encourage feedback from my students. Always. On all levels. We actually had a terrific discussion on this book with the middle schoolers I read it to, and for the first graders it was a a first time learning experience on this subject. If your problem is with the system fair enough, but i really can only address my own hands-on experiences. Thank you.
I wonder, though, how deep you would get into the discussion with the elementary kids had one asked why the older and younger women have to hide in the closet to eat their portion (stolen) of this fine dessert? How much of the counter narrative would you have provided them? Because the illustration is there, and if a child had asked, would you have described to them how these two women would’ve suffered as a result of their theft? Whippings with cat o’ nine tails, metal tongues shoved into slaves’ mouths and fastened at the back of their heads and when a time had passed and their mouths had dried the metal bits ripped from the slaves, etc.? It is at that point, when they have a fuller understanding of the narrative and the counter narrative, that a child can begin to participate in a true and rich discussion. An argument I’ve heard is that these kids are too young and innocent to get into such discussions. I happen to disagree. I could not in good conscience tell that child who asked why hide in the closet that slavery was a bad moment in our history and that they could’ve gotten in a lot of trouble as a result.
Rene—–
Your position here recalls a comment from a reader in the Reading While White thread last month. The person was named “Irish”:
I see a tender moment between mother and daughter. The book does not shy away from the topic of slavery- it shows small children working, wearing patched clothing, having to hide away in the cupboard to have some desert. People need to remember that this is a picture book for very young children, who on account of their age, should not be presented with the complete nature of slavery. As an adult accounts and images of slaves horrify me, so how much more would the complete nature of slavery distress very young children? The book does not avoid the topic- it just introduces the issue in a way which would draw curious questions (why are they hiding? who are they hiding from?) from children, which can then be explained by the adult reader.
This readers’s position is very similar to my own. I would not, did not and will not in the future get deeply into the horrors of slavery. I don’t feel for this particular book, which is one focused in that direction partly. I have indeed taken Irish’s advice and have discussed the implication of the images, some of which indeed would at least draw questions from the young readers.
I have not read this book and for the most part am simply reading rather than responding to the conversation. However, this is worth a response:
“Do you not realize the power differential in your role as a white teacher and theirs as young children of color whose parents–because today’s society is so dangerous for people of color–must teach them early not to speak back to white people in positions of power?”
This is a vast generalization and I can tell you that the teachers I know would beg to differ – they frequently must navigate objections of both parents and students, quite often objections along racial lines. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. In some situations it will lead to further growth on the part of the teacher, a realization that they misstepped somewhere along the way in dealing with a student of a different race. In other situations, the outcome may be less fruitful.
While I don’t doubt that many parents “must teach [their children] early not to speak back to white people in positions of power,” there are also many parents who not only teach their children – appropriately or not – to do so, but who will gladly speak back to those teachers as well. This is but a facet of a larger tendency of parents to speak back to teachers and to accuse them, rightly or wrongly, of mishandling their children’s education. It is something that comes with the profession of teaching and is a phenomenon present in all kinds of classrooms, public and private, multiracial and homogenous, rich and poor.
For you to make a blanket assumption that Sam’s students – and their parents – have no is as unwarranted as any assumptions that he has made elsewhere on this thread.
The problem with this discussion, and others like it, is that many people prefer to make sweeping statements rather than deal with concrete facts. It’s so much easier that way, allowing whoever is making the comment to set the premises of the debate as fundamental, when they are in fact highly questionable.
This particular example stuck out to me because I know teachers who are going through precisely this process right now, and have many times before. Alleging that they are protected from questioning by their white privilege and the dynamics of the classroom does not take into account how these situations actually unfold in the real world.
At the end of the day you cannot assert that Sam’s students have no ability to question his reading or that their parents will discourage them from doing so. Some will, some won’t. The rest of your accusations stem from a similarly arrogant assumption that you understand a particular teacher’s classroom dynamic from statements made by them on an internet comments thread.
*”have no inclination or ability to speak back,” is what I meant to write in the fourth-to-last paragraph
Thank you for your kind remarks. I will simply add that a picture of an interracial couple is perhaps not the best marker of progress.
One potential read of that picture is that we, black people, have achieved enough acceptance to associate with white people. Although, I’m sure that wasn’t the intent.
A more thoughtful depiction might have included a black family enjoying the dessert in a peaceful, loving home.
OR:
Imagine the delight of African-American parents and children, if President Obama and his family had been shown eating dessert, or maybe Astronaut Mae Jemison. A depiction of true progress from slavery.
Had the author and illustrator been able to see beyond the limitations of white culture, this would have a very different discussion.
Debra, I will admit that all thee alternate idea would have been a very good fit. I think the use of the interracial couple was an honest attempt to celebrate the equality we didn’t have in those dark days. Thank you. I’ll engage with you any time, any place, and further on this thread if you wish. 🙂
I’m going to just go ahead and put this here, self-serving though the move may be (it’s from a blog I contribute to, the “watchdog” blog Sam made mention of in his post)
http://readingwhilewhite.blogspot.com/2015/11/on-be-kind-and-other-bull.html
So in these comments I am seeing very clearly that white folks are able to say things like Fenster above: that mclicious is “nasty” and that the Hispanic women Fenster works with would… do what, exactly? WTF is that? So I’m going to go ahead and say, as a white man, that it has been THE WHITE PEOPLE acting as the aggressors in this particular discussion. And Sam, whether you like it or not, whether you want it or not, you are the one who started the whole mess with the language you used in your review.
Seriously, folks (I’m talking to the white folks here): click that link above. You may say you’re listening, as Tim McCoy says above, but you aren’t actually HEARING what is being said.
Sam, I assure you I was not bargaining for this kind of a response. But as this thread goes on I am beginning to understand a lot.
Sam, my post on October 29 gave an overview of the discussion up to that point, and at the end of that post, I began to provide links to other discussions. Your readers may want to read them to gain more depth and insight to the fuller conversation. Here’s the link:
https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2015/10/not-recommended-fine-dessert-by-emily.html
I added yours to the page, too.
Debbie
Debbie, thank you for adding this here. I have read through your entire thread and do fully understand now the nature of the objections.
I am going to add your site to my sidebar. Yes I know that my site is basically a place for film, music, opera, theater and book reviews, but the sidebar contains a wide variety of exceedingly worthwhile places.
When I was in elementary school, my teacher read the book The Five Chinese Brothers to the entire class. Everyone loved the story, including me, until recess. I was hounded and harassed and mocked and bullied. Kids ran after me pulling their eyes into slits. In art class, a boy sitting next to me painted my arm mustard yellow because I was not the right color for a chinaman. To this day, I shudder at the mere thought of that book. And yet many many people still love that book and defend it as a wonderful happy folktale. They can’t relate to my pain because they don’t understand it. They don’t know it. And I didn’t know that book would be the cause of my pain when it was first read to me. I’m sure the teacher who read that book to my class thought we all adored it and were some how the better for having read a “diverse” story. She had no idea the torture that would follow.
And yet my experience is entirely different from another Asian American friend of mine who readily admits to loving that book because it was the first time she’d ever seen Asians in a book at school. Our experiences are different but they don’t invalidate each other. And perhaps it was that I grew up in NYC and she grew up in California that was the reason for our different experiences. But it is so important to be aware of the kids who absorb the messages they receive from books. And that, if you are not from that same marginalized background, you can not know what they are thinking or feeling or what their lived experiences are. So when people from those backgrounds share with you what their feelings are, it is important to listen and begin to become more aware of the greater world that lies outside of your own experience.
When I first read A Fine Dessert I thought it was beautiful and lovely but when I got to the part with the slaves, I was so uncomfortable. But I couldn’t articulate why it bothered me, I only knew that it did. Only by listening to the words of African American librarians, teachers, and authors did I finally understand the why. Now I understand. I hope you and others on this comment thread will be more open to actually listening to these criticisms. Because they usually come from a place of pain and it is only right to let ourselves listen with compassion.
And yet many many people still love that book and defend it as a wonderful happy folktale. They can’t relate to my pain because they don’t understand…
Well Ellen this is a tremendous comment, and not just because it was posed politely. Your personal experiences with a specific book (which like A FINE DESSERT still impressed the reading community at large) makes the most acute point of all for tolerance and understanding.
When I really love something I just cannot let go.
I would think the Japanese HIROSHIMA NON PIKA about the dropping of the atomic bomb and the horrifying fall out is another book that many who experienced or knew people who suffered would also find extremely uncomfortable.
Thanks very much for sharing this touching experience.
I find it interesting that you value the opinion of a few African-American authors and artists more than African American-American READERS who are reading this book to their children, who’ve expressed disappointment, who know that representation is important (they live it every day). The author could’ve easily made made the black family into free blacks, with agency, who don’t have to sneak to enjoy something they deserve, no?
Of course slaves had moments of happiness. That’s what oppressed people do; they make the best of what they have. That being said…authors have a lot of responsibility and this could’ve been a chance make a better story.
Oh no. I value the opinions of the African-American READERS just as much as the African American authors and illustrators who have stood behind the two women who created this book.
I think in this evolving discussion late this afternoon -and one one person dampened the progress with some pointed viciousness while others were wonderful- I have come to respect that the readers of color are vital.
It is clear to me that the book is polarizing. If I had any doubts about that today confirmed that. I understand those whose race was oppressed are not obligated to being polite, but it is always the best way to achieve understanding. Your ideas and civility are much appreciated towards that end.
“I have come to respect that the readers of color are vital.”
I’m sorry but how could you NOT have already known this? You are a long time teacher. Your students are your “readers of color.”
By “readers of color” I was referring to the adults readers who supervise their children’s reading, not the kids themselves.
Sam, again I’m going to point out that the ONLY “pointed viciousness” that has “dampened progress” here has been from some of the white commenters. For instance, Tim McCoy calling Debbie Reese a “cretin” and a “fraud.” Again, I point your attention to the link I shared on being kind. And I highly, highly recommend you read it and take its message to heart. Please.
Sam wait. i have been listening here for the last two hours and I have been engaging positively with a number of people. C’mon meet me half way here. I don’t want to fight anymore I want peace.
I am sorry that Tim McCoy called Debbie Reese a cretin and a fraud, but it was in response to what Debbie Reese called me. I don’t appreciate after a successful 36 year teaching career (more to come) that I am unfit to be in a classroom, and I don’t need to be told that she is “lessened” by having met me and that she resents me calling her a friend. There are been plenty of barbs early on this thread aimed my way as a few prominent illustrators just reminded me by message. the viciousness has gone both ways since last night and this long thread will bear that out to anyone who looks in.
I was extremely polite to that woman. She came in like gangbusters and didn’t stop. It is hard for me to proceed when I am being trashed like this.
I want to engage thoughtfully, and I ask everyone to stop with the personal insults on both sides of the divide.
Yes, always interesting to see whose remarks are labeled “civil” (so close to “civilized”) and whose “vicious”.
I would also like to point out that from your original description of the book’s images in your review, it does not seem that you are seeing their visual representation of slavery so differently from those criticizing the book.
Quotes from your review: “magnificent rendering of a southern plantation mansion, enveloped by trees…” “slave mother (sic) and her daughter are blackberry picking and are delighted by the activity” “evocative splendor” “supper is then served to the white masters while the mother and daughter happily devour their own share of the food in the closet.”
The difference is in whether one sees this rendering of experiences of slavery as disturbing, brutally dishonest, and damaging.
Yes I did try and paint an idyllic picture of the blackberry picking experience, and yes it does contradict what others are seeing here. This is the way I read the book, precipitating my defense of it.
But your view is at least as valid as mine, and I am listening here and will continue to.
Sam, I remember you reviewed this book not long ago in the series. But of course it isn’t “controversial” enough to be addressed. it is a beautiful review.
https://wondersinthedark.wordpress.com/2015/11/07/caldecott-medal-contender-juneteenth-for-mazie/
Thanks so very much for posting this Frank.
To Commenters,
Thank you from one African-American mother and grandmother to all the those who voiced concerns with A Fine Dessert’s fantasy depiction of slavery. And to Ellen Oh for sharing the devastation and confusion books like this can cause for children of color.
Thank you for your passion. Thank you for not being silent.
To Sam,
When I first became aware of this book, I had doubts that after-reading discussions would deal with the truth about slavery. Those fears are realized in this thread. If no one discusses, including you, the realities of what it truly meant to be owned like cattle, the discussion did not happen.
And you’re right, the book wasn’t about slavery. However, the depictions of that institution within it’s pages are dishonest and disrespectful of African-American history.
In the utopia that you describe, I hope there are as many people of color in full-time teaching positions as there are white teachers. Statistically in America that is not the case. If it is not the case where you live either, then I might suggest the utopia (colorblind society) you see is a reflection of white privilege.
Debra—I assure you I am not color blind at all. Some of my favorite books have been written and illustrated by African Americans and a few of those even about slavery and its aftermath. Coincidentally I see Frank Gallo (above) has just posted a link to my Caldecott Contender review of JUNETEENTH FOR MAZIE by Floyd Cooper a book about one of the defining moments in our history – the date the slaves in Texas were freed as a follow-up to the Emancipation Proclamation. Last year I reviewed a half dozen other picture books about the black experience in America. Several of the artists are among my personal favorites. Because I chose to look beyond what many people on this thread have urged me not to in the spirit of shared happiness my respect or regard for African Americans is being questioned. This disturbs and saddens me as it couldn’t be further from the truth. My perceived utopia in A FINE DESSERT wasn’t the oppression in the second section by the unifying themed of shared happiness.
If I was short sighted to think in those terms and if I have offended some (I have for sure) I offer up my apologies.
Again Debra, you have been a very good sport here. Thank you.
As a white woman who teaches children’s literature at the university level, I looked through this book only once, saw those images, and thought, “Oh no.” In other words, I didn’t need any assistance in understanding the power of visual imagery in a medium that is intended primarily for children who are not yet literate or are working their way in that direction. Whenever I read a text, I engage in various readings: my own; the ones that I anticipate my 18-22 year old students will conduct; and the ones a variety of child readers would conduct. In the case of A Fine Dessert, I anticipated that I would have to teach my college-age students a great deal about the status of slave women before they would begin to apprehend the issues with the smiles. And as far as very young children were concerned, I cringed to think of how this text could be a source of embarrassment to children of color, and how it could reify certain ideas that white children receive from so many other sources: for instance, the idea that members of under represented groups really don’t mind their structurally-enforced disadvantages and that they may even enjoy them. Even though this is not the point that the author and illustrator are TRYING to make, this is the interpretation that could be taken away from this text by an unsophisticated or very young reader. In my opinion, it would be better to introduce my students to a text such as Carole Boston Weatherford’s Birmingham, 1963 — one that they could use immediately with their students without having to go into a detailed explanation of the concept of “the happy slave.”
All I can conclude is that many people need to pursue further education when it comes to our slave past. For instance, the institution of slavery itself was initially created by legislation in the Virginia colony that progressively limited the rights of African-born women and their children. This legislation allowed any man — free or slave — to impregnate a slave woman with the understanding that the resulting children would take on the status of a woman: in other words, this legislation, passed during the first half of the 17th century, validated the rape of African women by white men who could then turn those children into PROFIT. This is the reality — along with decades of experiencing many other forms of oppression — that has been handed down from generation to generation in the families of African descendants. These stories have sometimes found a hearing in the public realm, but to this day, members of under represented groups have struggled to gain access to the means of production in order to have their stories told by themselves…and they have had to see themselves rendered in stories written by white people that often miss the mark.
Towards the end of your review, you mention that authors and illustrators are going to have to be more vigilant — and you say that as if it were a bad thing. Honestly, if an author and illustrator team wish to put forward a meaningful, nuanced, and respectful text, then they will need not only to research their subject matter, but to consult with a wide variety of experts, especially if they are writing about cultures that are not their own. I took the time to earn a PhD that included a deep emphasis in African-American literature — and I took that time because I felt that if I wanted to teach American literature and to write about American literature, I needed to become truly cognizant of more than just white male authors. Moreover, I wouldn’t presume to teach multicultural children’s literature if I didn’t acknowledge my own privileged status, if I didn’t constantly try to stay abreast of important criticism in the field, and if I didn’t continuously consult with my colleagues and friends who are closer to the realities faced by people of color in the US than am I. That the least that I can do, and I don’t think that it is too much to expect this same sort of commitment by authors and illustrators who are engaged in writing for children.
Finally, I want to point out that debate surrounding a cultural artifact should not be a cause for dismay. People who sincerely view literature as a service to youth should want to become better educated about how they can do that with more skill and sensitivity. Thus, I commend the response of Jenkins and Blackall, both of whom appear to view this as a painful, but valuable, learning experience. What I find harder to understand is how critics can worry more about Jenkins and Blackall’s feelings than the feelings of young children who may be negatively impacted by texts that reify, whether intentionally or not, one of the biggest lies to bolster “the peculiar institution” — that of the contented slave.
Gwentarbox—-
I am honored at your attendance here. As a graduate university Professor you bring so much to the discussion. I have never myself taught above the high school level, but I did complete two graduate courses in children’s lit. I completed African-American Studies I and African American Studies II during my undergraduate years in the mid 1970s at Jersey City State University. Those were two of the greatest courses I have ever completed.
Much of what you say in this superb and comprehensive post can’t be contested, and your historical context on slavery was a fascinating read. I will only therefore deal with the few matters that I need to clarify. It is NOT a bad thing at all for authors and illustrators to be vigilant. My statement was more in the vein that two women unintentionally offended part of the readership. This may impact their future decisions to publish “safer” books. That could be read as good or bad.
As to this:
What I find harder to understand is how critics can worry more about Jenkins and Blackall’s feelings than the feelings of young children who may be negatively impacted by texts that reify, whether intentionally or not, one of the biggest lies to bolster “the peculiar institution” — that of the contented slave.
I don’t know this to be true. Certainly few from the WOC who have appeared on this thread are feeling that way, and nothing in the firestorm of the past weeks indicates their is a groundswell in behalf of Jenkins and Blackall. The critics who reviewed the books originally did not see what others out there have now seen after this uproar. I know many of those critics are holding their ground regardless. It wasn’t sympathy for Jenkins and Blackall, rather it was because they were genuinely ravished by the book. You could certainly argue that they are literature and art critics and not attuned to individual perception.
The matter of people being advised to study much more of our slave past is of course right on, though I don’t need to confirm that.
Thanks again for such scholarly engagement.
Fair enough Debbie.. Good idea. Thank you.
Sam, there’s one more thing that needs to be said:
In your review and comments, you convey a belief that people are ganging up on this book or “had to be “told” by” others to change their initial opinion of it. Like it’s almost a fraudulent, made-up business to see something amiss in A Fine Dessert. That really bothers me; that you think there’s a certain lack of authenticity to the outcry.
Well, I’ll tell you my story of how I came to my view of this text – a book I very much wanted to love.
I happened on the book in the summer, when I was planning my units of study for the school year. I included it in my resources list sight unseen, so confident was I in the works of these two children’s books creators.
When I did sit down to browse the book, I immediately felt disturbed. I couldn’t shake the feeling and tried to see if there was anything to allay it further on in the book. Nothing.
(I was alone while experiencing this disturbed feeling. No “plaintiffs” around.)
I considered the feelings of my students on seeing, hearing and reading this book themselves. They are so sensitive and would pick up on the scene where the girl and her mother are hiding while the white family gets served and I knew this would bother them. There would be questions and I love questions but I don’t love when the questions make them feel like the other again and again and again until they see themselves as not readers enjoying a story like everyone else and learning about times changing and delicious desserts but like people always having to explain who they are and why they are and what the hell is going on that makes them less than others. See Ellen Oh’s experience above.
The question that came to me was, “just WHO is this book written for?”
I decided I wouldn’t use it in the context I had planned – to introduce history and timelines to seven year-olds.
It was only a couple of months later that I happened on the online discussions of A Fine Dessert. When I read of others who felt this dismay as keenly as I had, I felt affirmed that my initial readings were justified. Until then, I had made a personal decision not to use this book in my classroom and hadn’t shared this with anyone else. To hear that others felt similarly just made me feel like I was a part of the struggle to bring equity and diversity into the publishing world. I felt less alone in my hope for better.
People getting together with similar critical views is not a case of ganging up. It’s an attempt to join our voices together so that it rises enough to be heard and listened to. That’s how change happens.
That even the author herself bravely opened her heart to the concerns of others is beautiful and shows she understands that readers and writers care that the book world becomes a beautiful world for everyone, not just some.
Sam, I hope you will listen and see as she has. I hope you see that it is because we care about children, diversity and justice that we speak up.
Like Daniel José Older, I’m not going to get into a protracted argument with you, Sam. You have been given a gift by several thoughtful, kind, generous and sometimes frustrated POCs (and a few white people as well). Apparently, you see this gift as an attack, to which you strike out with disrespect, condescension, aggression, and downright racism. For instance, your response to mclicious: “You came on this thread looking to burn down the houses of white people, because said people happened to like and defend a popular book. And you pulled the race card aggressively.” Who would write something like this to a Black person, other than a white person who has the privilege of not having to listen to anything a POC says? And I will not repeat what you wrote to and about Debbie Reese, a respected educator who has been doing this work and walking her talk for many years.
A FINE DESSERT is a beautifully written, beautifully illustrated and beautifully designed book that is problematic because, as Debra wrote, “it’s dishonest and disrespectful about African-American history,” and it perpetuates a system of oppression. If you look around, Sam, you’ll see that long-time critics and educators—for the most part POCs—continue to interpret the symbolism in this particular book as well as other problematic children’s books.
I know: Some of your best friends are Black. You have tirelessly supported the causes of minorities and you worked for and voted for Barak Obama. You have been a teacher for many years, and many of your students were Black. You have shown A FINE DESSERT to hundreds of Black students (and their teachers, some of whom were Black), and everyone loved it.
You’re just not listening, Sam. You’re not even listening to Emily Jenkins (the author of A FINE DESSERT), who issued a heartfelt apology in which she owned that her good intentions were not enough. She asked for nothing, and she donated her royalties to We Need Diverse Books.
But instead of listening, you’re vociferously defending your right NOT to listen. This is exactly how racism and privilege (including internalized racism and institutionalized privilege) function in this society. You get to have the last word. You get to be part of maintaining the racist status quo.
Perhaps you’ll want to read Professor Joyce King’s excellent essay, “Dysconscious Racism: Ideology, Identity, and the Miseducation of Teachers,” in Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 60, No. 2 (1991): http://www.jstor.org/stable/2295605?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.
So here’s the thing, Sam: You can continue to be part of the problem, or you can do the hard work to become part of the solution. It’s your choice.
But instead of listening, you’re vociferously defending your right NOT to listen.
Beverly, that’s not quite right. I am listening and I have been listening right along. I have absorbed the insults against me because I am white, and am “privileged” (my wife got a laugh out of that one!) Look back at the initial comments by “Mclicious” “Darlitura” and some of Debbie Reese’s earlier comments and tell me I wasn’t under a siege here. You tell me these comments were “gifts” and then you chastise me for defending myself. I am always up for a civil and thoughtful discussion, but when I am insulted in the fashion I was earlier it makes that kind of discourse exceedingly difficult. As you have read on this long thread there are many black and white authors and illustrators who support this book. Or if not 100% acceptance at least a conviction that the outcry has in their opinion been over the top. My review of A FINE DESSERT is only one of seventeen (17) I have written in my presently running Caldecott Medal Contender series, and I plan maybe a dozen before the awards are given out. This is the third year I have done this series. Needless to say this is the first time one of my reviews has caused this kind of a response. Like so many this book’s theme and aesthetic beauty exerted seductive powers, and I have defended it as I have all the others in the series. I knew of the controversy when it first broke the the book’s Horn Book review in the Calling Caldecott series and subsequently on the Reading While White post, where I was rudely greeted by one of the site’s proctors after I had the temerity to defend my use of and perception of A FINE DESSERT. Only until this current thread did I understand the true depth of the outcry. While many here have been scholarly, erudite and quite reasonable some others went for my jugular with aggressive race baiting. That doesn’t help the situation at all, it only heights the tensions. I am not ashamed that I am “white” and am not part of the past historical horrors that have made our past so shameful. Not only did I vote for Barack Obama twice and have taught and continue to teach minority students in an ethnically diverse community, but when I taught high school and Jr. High School I used novel and poetry by Richard Wright, James Baldwin, W.E.B. Du Bois, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and others, and my favorite playwright of the past decades is August Wilson. I state all this to show I am not a likely suspect of one who would deliberately foster or perpetuate a work that would slight, demean or insult African Americans.
I have learn quite a bit here Beverly. I only ask for civility and fair play in the discussion. You don’t know me personally, you came here on the information/advice of others, so I didn’t expect you to look at it from my side. But my strongly worded defense has been in response to insults.
Hence, when you say I am not listening as I highlighted in italics at the top of my comment here, that is not true. What I am “vociferously defending” or have been for a while is my right to express an opinion, which I did in my original review.
I believe I have since made my peace with Debbie Reese who I know is a tireless supporter of minority rights and a distinguished scholar. It took a kind of baptism under fire to reach that realization, but I have reached it now.
I will read Professor Joyce King’s essay and I will report back here today on this thread with my reaction to it.
Thank you.
I’m working with two colleagues in Education and Library Science on an article that will address A FINE DESSERT. We are foregrounding the reactions that consider the lives of those who were enslaved. This one (posted by Solaris at Reading While White) is especially powerful:
“What I see as a Black woman is a skilled house slave training a slave girl how to be a proper house servant for the master’s family. This skill actually would make her more valuable on the market, so it is important that she learns well. The master would usually have them doing small things like picking up garbage at 3 and fully laboring by 7 years old, so you have the age right. It’s likely she would have never known her mother and was being trained to be a proper house slave by a woman she didn’t know. The woman would likely be strict, maybe even beating the girl herself if a mistake was made on this dessert, for she too would suffer if it were not right. The girl would know she was property by then and the “beat” you mentioned would be the pace of her heart, for fear of the punishment, if she made a mistake.”
It includes information about the lives of enslaved people, too, like this:
“Enslaved house servants cleaned windows, cleaned and pressed draperies, took up and beat carpets, dusted and polished woodwork, furniture, banisters, rails, bookshelves, mantles, window and picture frames. They swept floors, changed, laundered and repaired bed linens. They turned and repaired mattresses, replenishing washstands with newly laundered and pressed linens and fresh water. They laundered and repaired clothing, in addition to spinning and sewing clothing for slaves and the master’s family. They carried in wood and maintained fires. They nursed, fed, diapered, rocked, walked, and dressed infants. They dressed, fed, watched over, and entertained children, and assisted adults in dressing and personal care. Seasonally, they packed and moved the master’s household to and from city homes or ones on the coast. Women were careful not to complain, because punishment for complaints could result in being demoted from the work inside the house, to work in the fields. Women were also vulnerable to sexual exploitation and frequently bore children fathered by their master’s.”
Make sure you also read what Gwen Tarbox wrote above. In particular, she wrote about legislation in Virginia:
“This legislation allowed any man — free or slave — to impregnate a slave woman with the understanding that the resulting children would take on the status of a woman: in other words, this legislation, passed during the first half of the 17th century, validated the rape of African women by white men who could then turn those children into PROFIT.”
All of this is the context driving the objections to A FINE DESSERT’s depiction of the lives of enslaved women. It is the information that the people on the Caldecott–and all the people on the mock Caldecott’s, and all the teachers and librarians across the country–need to have in order to understand why this book is unacceptable.
It is the information that Don Tate and Varian Johnson have. These two men, I believe, are amongst the African American writers/illustrators that Sam Juliano is referring to as supporters of the book–but I think it is unfair to them to cast them that way. Earlier in the thread I shared a link to my site, where I’ve been compiling a set of links to discussions of the book. I’ll share that here, too:
https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2015/10/not-recommended-fine-dessert-by-emily.html
Debbie, thank you for adding this thoughtful and provocative comment. I will read those links momentarily. As far as the last part, yes those people are among those who have stood by the book, but of course there are others. I also know first hand there are many white authors and illustrators who have both defended and praised the book as well.
Despite the overwhelming response to this book on this thread I do know that many teachers nationwide have expressed admiration for the book.
I continue to absorb what everyone here is saying. I will say it has affected me in profound ways.
My husband and I just got back after an unexpected trip south. I have read this entire discussion and must say I am appalled at the intimidation tactics being employed against Sam Juliano, who is one of the finest human beings I’ve ever had the fortune of meeting. When he responds to someone who is disparaging white people at every turn, he is taken to task by others who think as host he should just absorb all the insults.
Shame on Sam for liking a book that so many others have praised and liked as much. Because he has arrived at a personal opinion based on the classroom lessons, he is now “part of a bigger problem.”
I know how fierce and uncompromising black activism can be and this thread is frankly an embarrassment to that cause. Some of the women are a disgrace.
Margaret, thank you for the kind words in my behalf my friend. It has been an experiencing, but it looks like we are all coming together now in this long and enlightening discourse.
I’m curious as to how this is kind: “I know how fierce and uncompromising black activism can be and this thread is frankly an embarrassment to that cause. Some of the women are a disgrace.”
Ya know hamburglars, you make it hard I must say. The “kind words” were what Margaret said about me as a human being. I think any impartial observer would be able to see as much. As far as her other admittedly sharp words I said that we were all beginning to come together, hence avoiding them. I don’t want to continue addressing the negativity, can you understand that? I don’t want any more contentiousness from any school of thought here.
Sam, I hate to tell you this, but the person you are calling “hamburglars” is an internet troll. He or she is purposefully trying to counter everything you say even if what you say is positive. This by definition is a troll.
Jim, my name is Sarah Hamburg. I’m not a troll. I *am* pointing to the double standard in responses here that marks words like this as “kind”. I’m not sure how quoting someone’s words is trolling.
Sam– I know those words were said in support of you. But support that requires the denigration of black women is not kindness.
Sarah, as I said earlier the “kindness” comment was in direct acknowledgement of Margaret’s framing of me as a fine human being. I purposely avoided dealing with anything else she said in her comment. She is a lifelong friend, but we don’t always agree. Hence there wasn’t a double standard. In any case saying that black activism is “fierce and uncompromising” is an opinion (not one I necessarily agree with) but an opinion, not a personal attack or mode of denigration.
Sam, I think you should go to the classes you read this book to and tell them it has been decreed it they must change their minds and forget they were read it.
Why don’t some of these people just admit they want this book to be censored. One person even advised you to heed the advice of the author of the book (Emily Jenkins) who basically was strong armed into giving back the money she made in fear of retaliation.
How can any person think that mclicious helped this discussion in a constructive way?
She was all about white bashing from her first words, and she continued to generalize in a race attack. She also made it clear that she thought the objectionable illustrations in the book were deliberately planned.
I am one of the author-illustrators that Sam Juliano and some others have referred to on this comment thread. I am one of hundreds out there who are fully sympathetic to Ms Blackall and Ms. Jenkins, and I was saddened that the latter threw in the towel. I know many of the most popular names in children’s literature are aghast at some of the charges, which have tried to deny artistic license.
I will not divulge my identity for obvious reasons, but I feel I must express my views on this heated subject. The translation of “You are not listening” is “You are not allowed to have your own opinion, not to voice your own sensibilities.”
I have been at my craft for over forty years, and have never seen anything like this. It might not have reached the extremes of Fahrenheit 451, but there are some who seem to be favoring such progress. One person suggested that intent was irrelevant. And that it doesn’t matter if the book is successfully taught and appreciated.
This entire affair is tantamount to a witch hunt. When we try and figure out the problem, we must first and foremost look at the uncompromising nature of those who are putting forth a social agenda. As an artist I am sickened by this. This is fascism, and it will surely fail.
Mr. Juliano wrote a beautiful review. I would love to see Caldecott recognition if for no other other reason than to roundly reject the art of bullying practiced by far too many pushing ideas that conform to their own constricted mind set.
Nobody is saying anyone must read and promote this book. But to tell others how they should think is unacceptable to put it mildly.
The bullying is a show of power. There are plenty of ways to look into the illustrations. But their way is the only way they think. When you tell them that they tell you that you are part of the problem.
Talk about calling the kettle black.
Good Morning,
I thought I was done with this discussion yesterday and said as much. But then I opened my email and saw Margaret’s insulting post.
Margaret, I hope black activism is never compromising in the fight for equality.
Sam,
Black children grew up in the 50’s and 60’s consuming white culture through books, movies, and television. It was common on a Saturday afternoon to hear Tarzan calls echo throughout the neighborhood. The voices belonged to black children. Children who had just watched a white man destroy an entire village of black people, killing many as he went.
The cognitive dissonance required for black families to watch this horror and then identify with the perpetrator is unimaginable. Unimaginable, outside of American white supremacist culture. Within the culture, it was an adaptive response. The movie wasn’t made to hurt black people. It was made with absolutely no thought given to a black audience.
What does that have to do with A Fine Dessert? Acceptance of the images of slavery depicted in the book requires the same level of cognitive dissonance from children and adults. This is damaging for all, but particularly to people of color.
No one objects to your love for A Fine Dessert. This is a book written and illustrated by two white women for the consumption of white people. It is designed to appeal to you.
What many of us have objected to is the consumption of this book by the black and brown children you teach.
Books that misrepresent historical crimes do have an agenda. They make people feel better about their ancestors and themselves. They accomplish this at the expense of others.
Debra, when you say that “no one is objecting to my love of A FINE DESSERT you are unconsciously making a high suspect statement. This entire monster thread came about as a result of my rave review and defense of the book. In fact I LOVE all the 30 or so books that are part of my Caldecott series. I am sure the other 29 will not be given a second thought. I was well aware I was in for some grief weeks ago when I steadfastly chose to stay with this title. You are one of this thread’s most understanding yet very firm commenters. I wish I knew you personally. I really do like you.
“This is a book written and illustrated by two white women for the consumption of white people. It is designed to appeal to you”.
I don’t quite see it that way Debra. I am an African American fifth grade teacher in urban New Jersey school district. I have used the book with my students, and am happy to report the sessions were effective. We had a discussion about slavery and white culture. None of my students thought the slaves were smiling because they were content to know their place. I think the book’s illustrator keeps everyone smiling in the book to denote the reactions to making a dessert. You may feel offended and have a right to be. But I am not. And I think this book was made for whites and blacks. My elderly father saw the book and feels the same way.
There is nobody more self- righteous than the liberal Sam. During our discussions over the years you have defended your candidates, but can’t you see what this is leading us to? I bet just about every person in this forum voted for that POS Obama. This arrogant man hates America, he’s trying to destroy it from within.
And you have black people telling you how much they hate you because you are white.
Wake up Sam. You have a lot to learn. You support these people your whole life and this is what you get in return.
I don’t care for this book and I’m a conservative, a Latino one at that.
Ah Archie Bunker is back. Jim, you know I go back a long way with you, but we will never agree on politics. I always appreciate your friendship but these comments are really not helping. You are my favorite “conservative” but this is way too far.
Sam, you I love ya, but one day you’ll wake up and smell the coffee.
Rev. Al Sharpton would fit right in with some of the people in this discussion.
I’m curious. Has anyone read this SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL post by the distinguished Betsy Bird titled “You Have to Read the Book” published on October 29?
http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2015/10/27/you-have-to-read-the-book/
Hi Marcia,
We disagree on the intended audience for A Fine Dessert. However, I will certainly acknowledge your right to not be offended by the book.
I am heartened to know that in your classroom the reading is accompanied by a discussion of slavery and white culture.
That is and has been my major concern.
“None of my students thought the slaves were smiling because they were content to know their place.”
I do not think you will find those words or sentiments in my posts.
What I said and meant was this: Well fed, well dressed slaves with smiling faces presents a dishonest portrayal of life under slavery. And I object to it in this book, because there is no depiction of slavery that offsets that narrative.
In my opinion, these images equate slavery with servitude. Slavery was ownership, as you know.
My last objection is the use of an interracial couple as a representation of progress. It is at best clueless and at its worst self-serving.
If the intent of that image was to showcase African-American progress post slavery, surely there was a better way to depict it. I bet your class could come up with a list.
Whooo! I just finished reading the entire forum.
Sam, I know you spent so much time, and expressed yourself passionately in the belief that everyone would hold up their end of the bargain.
These people don’t want a conversation, they want you and everyone else who shows up to tell them they are right. Glad to see you were able to deflect all this ugliness. They speak for the children and even their parents, not for the teachers. I have used this book as well (4th grade, ethnically diverse)
All I can say is if you look hard enough you’ll find something to complain about. The criticisms tell us more about the person than about the work being measured.
Let me get this right. The people criticizing this book are “deciding” for the kids that it isn’t wholesome. The kids will never have the chance to see the book and make up their own minds because a decision has been reached and no disagreement is tolerated. This isn’t being militant.
This is being ignorant.
We have been educating librarians, teachers, and parents for decades to speak with children and provide context for books of all kinds.This is another one that deserves such contextual discussion from the people who know the children best. I trust them to do what they’re trained to do, and I don’t know why others don’t trust them. I don’t know if “A Fine Dessert” is going to win the Caldecott or not, but it surely deserves serious consideration.
Markle, this is surely one of the ace comments on this thread. How right you are!
Why thank you. I would also point out a strange irony. That is, the strongest voices against this book are the very same educators and multicultural/diversity professionals who have spent decades training the librarians, teachers, and parents to talk to children about books in context.
Trust your work, friends. You’re pretty good at what you do.
Hi, Debra—
Here’s a face palm of sudden awareness from me to you: Because of the trenchant observations, generously shared by you and others (mostly WOCs), it occurred to me that what bothered me most about A FINE DESSERT was the author’s and illustrator’s portrayal of an African woman and her young daughter in 1810 South Carolina as SERVANTS rather than as ENSLAVED PERSONS. This is, of course, a huge difference. If caught (as servants) sneaking into a closet to lick the owner’s spoon (which would have been seen as theft), it’s probable that both mother and daughter would have been chastised or even fired on the spot and sent away. If caught (as enslaved people) doing the same thing, the consequences would have ranged from horse-whipping in front of the whole enslaved community (and their owners), to unbelievable torture, to having the family split up and sold, to out-and-out killing: all of which would have been entirely legal, since enslaved people were property THAT (rather than WHO) could be disposed of at their owners’ whim.
Yes, an enslaved African mother and her child may well have been able to steal a few moments of joy now and again. At the same time, they lived every day in fear for their lives, and would have been hyper-aware of the consequences of every word they spoke and every move they made. To portray them hiding in a closet, as Sam wrote, “happily devour(ing) their own share of the fool in a closet” is to lie about the African experience of slavery in this country.
And to follow it up with a scene of an ethnically mixed family, also enjoying this “fine dessert” together—an implication that “that was then and this is now”—makes matters worse.
To perpetuate this lie about the history of Black enslavement here may not have been the author’s and illustrator’s intention—rather, it was probably one of those unfortunate oversights common to white people who somehow don’t know the history or don’t think it’s important. But intentionality doesn’t really matter—this should have been caught before publication and wasn’t, which stands as an indictment of the whole (white) publishing industry. And the dismissive and arrogant comments from many of the (white) critics on this thread—after hearing from so many patient, generous, and frustrated POC (and some white) educators—is indefensible.
Yes, A FINE DESSERT is a beautifully written, beautifully illustrated, beautifully designed picture book that belies the historical and contemporary realities of slavery and racism here. It should never have seen publication.
To portray them hiding in a closet, as Sam wrote, “happily devour(ing) their own share of the fool in a closet” is to lie about the African experience of slavery in this country.
Beverly, I know and fully respect that you directed this comment to Debra, who I am sure will respond to you soon enough. But since you mentioned my name and a passage from my review I wanted to briefly address that. I am not sure that happily devouring fool in a closet signifies anything other than the bliss any human being feels when you are reaping the rewards of their labor especially in this kind of delectable immersion. There was no overriding slavery theme intended to project that slaves were content. Everyone in the book is smiling, no matter what time period they are in.
I am not even going to address that holier than thou repudiation of the books supporters and embrace of those tearing it down. I was basically called a racist and and part of a Caucasian conspiracy and other comments about me personally made my skin crawl. I must say I am delighted that so many have seen that and have responded today en masse. Sign me up on the ‘Down with Censorship’ petition. You talk of “arrogance,” take a look at some of the comments placed on these thread by some of your own people, some of whom have been repeatedly dismissive of anyone who voices their opinions. I’ve heard from a number of artists yesterday and today directly on this matter.
My “own people,” Sam? Who might they be?
Beverly, I meant the WOC group you had complimented for showing up. No slur meant there at all, especially as you have been very fair and very polite to me. I have no problem at all with you and actually like your passion and deep rooted convictions. I know I sound patronizing, but I mean it.
Sam, (1) I didn’t “compliment them for showing up.” I support the struggle for equitable education and have for many years. (2) The commenters to whom you’re referring aren’t a “WOC group.” They are mostly WOC and, as far as I know, they’re not a group. (3) Thank you for your approval of my “passion and deep rooted convictions.”
Beverly, that is more than fair enough on all counts. Thank you.
Wouldn’t it be sweet vindication for Emily Jenkins if the book did win the Caldecott?
The previous commenter is right. It is “beautifully written, beautifully illustrated and beautifully designed.” The only difference for me is that I applaud the publication and condemn subjective thinking that results in censorship.
Why not let everyone come to their own conclusions? I teach in the Rockland, New York public school system, and like others I have read the book to my classes. Mostly white in a largely Jewish district but a smattering of minority students. There has been a concerted effort by some to deny this book further exposure. That is suppression and censorship, a far worse crime than what appears to be an unintended misconception.
I am very happy to see many have come to the rightful defense of this exquisite work and have rejected the desire of others to conform to their program.
Sandra—
Your comment that your students are “mostly white in a largely Jewish district with a smattering of minority students,” you “applaud the publication” of A FINE DESSERT and you condemn “subjective thinking that results in censorship” leads me to share a personal story with you.
My Yiddish name is Henya Brocha. “Brocha” is from Baruch, my father’s father, who, as a young Bolshevik just before the Russian Revolution, was killed by the Cossacks. Baruch left a young wife (my paternal grandmother) and her six children, one of whom was my father. They fled and managed to get to the US. I have one photo of Baruch. He was a handsome young man and I never got to meet him. “Henya” was the name of my great-aunt (my maternal grandmother’s sister) who, I’ve been told, was religious and charitable, two valued qualities in her community. In the Polish stetl in which she lived, she took in all the orphans, as well as young people who were having trouble with their parents. Her big heart and small house were always full. Henya and her husband were killed in a place called “Oswiecim,” Auschwitz. I have one photo of them. They were a handsome couple and I never got to meet them.
Having shared this story with you, I wonder what you might think of a beautifully written, beautifully illustrated, and beautifully designed children’s picture book that portrayed happy and well fed concentration camp prisoners—say, a mother and her young child—wearing black-and-white striped pajamas and sporting tattoos on their arms, “happily devour(ing) their own share of the fool in a closet”? Would you use this picture book in a classroom of young students—Jewish and not—who may or may not know the history of the Nazi Holocaust? Would you say something? Would you do something? Or would you “condemn” in this case, “subjective thinking that results in censorship”? Just wondering.
Beverly, that is a very moving story. I knew what direction you were going in when I started reading it, but that’s OK, I could see that point of view.
The only problem I would have is that there is a distinct difference between people who basically are condemned to death and American slaves, some mistreated, some treated well, though always in captivity. The slaves for the most part were not given death sentences. And taken in the circumstance of A Fine Dessert I could at least see the intentions of the author.
My answer is that I would have to look at the picture and see how it is being used or incorporated into the book. Each case would be judged accordingly.
Sandra, respectfully, your comment is indicative of the depth of the issue at hand. Critics of A FINE DESSERT have been saying over and over, with tremendous clarity, force of intellect, and knowledge of history, both national and personal, that the book perpetuates an image of American slavery as something less destructive, horrifying, and monstrous than it truly was. You’ve done exactly that by describing slaves as people who were either “mistreated” or “treated well,” even in the presence of so many other erudite comments to the contrary, even in the face of documented historical reality. I personally think it’s unimportant to assess your statements in terms of individual failure, because the point of the dialogue around A FINE DESSERT is much bigger than that. The safer, softened impression of slavery that you’ve expressed here (and that so many others have believed and continue to believe is true) is a societal failure, and by trying to silence those who speak up against that societal failure, we ensure its continued existence. Thankfully, we are in the company of those who will not stand by and allow that to happen. We are in the company of people who will not be silenced.
Mike, I will leave Sandra to respond to you directly if she chooses to do so, but as I just now cleared this comment out of moderation, I would like to add my two cents before retiring for the night. Your comment is as superbly reasoned and erudite as any you’ve glowing acknowledged including those from the many who have defended the book on this long thread. The way I interpret what Sandra said was strictly comparative to the extreme example Beverly related. I don’t Sandra was implying that the treatment of slaves was anything less than abominable -their captivity alone would shamefully confirm that- but rather that in the context of A FINE DESSERT which never in any manner passed judgement on this national calamity. To assert that Sandra perpetuated a “safer and softened impression of slavery” or that A FINE DESSERT is sanitizing same is in my view a misconception. As I have stated several times on this thread A FINE DESSERT was concerned about a communal activity than span generations. The time machine in the story made a stop in Charleston, where it non-judgmentally incorporated people in captivity enjoying a family activity.
I have thought it an overeach to assert that those who love the book (including Sandra, myself and many others) are showing disrespect and ignorance for what happened in the long period where it was practiced. We know what a sensitive subject this is and are not downplaying the damage it wrecked on American society. I am with you when you say “We are in the company of those who will not be silenced” and I condemn anyone who perpetuates a softer view of slavery.
However, unlike those like yourself I did not see that happened in this book. A FINE DESSERT was a celebration of life in defiance of our shame, a resilient testament of how even in the worst times there is a love of family. I don’t say you are wrong to feel the way you do -geez how could I?- but I don’t see any of this as intended or necessarily factual both in what we see on the printed page or how we perceive it. Liking A FINE DESSERT does not as the critics of the books contend, mean we are ignorant of American history or that we are unable to see this exceeding darkness. My review was a defense of my own convictions as they apply directly to this work, and not a commentary on the brutalization of a race, and how it has been downplayed. We can strongly agree on how slavery has been a scourge and how many whites have failed to grasp this crime against humanity, but that does not mean we can or should agree on the matter of how obvious it was violated in this particular book.
I’ve taught American history for three years to middle schoolers, have read numerous volumes on slavery, (books by Steven Hahn, Tini Morrison, Gloria Whelan, Craig Wilder and Craig Wilder come to mind compellingly) and have embraced text and picture books like , To Be A Slave, Moses, Dave the Potter, Henry’s Freedom Box, Freedom River, and a number of others. Of course the enemy in these books are the white people.
Alas, my view of A FINE DESSERT is not in agreement with yours.
Sam,
You wrote in reply to me up the thread that, ” All I can do is to give it my all and make sure everyone understands the vital social concerns before forging ahead.” My argument, and that of Mike Jung and Beverly Slapin, is that doing all that you can do, for your students in your current situation, is to be aware of the larger structures in which they are leading their lives. I was going to reply up there, but it’s clear from this that you’re still not thinking about how the use of this book fits into a a structure of racism that your students live.
What happens in our classrooms isn’t insular. It’s part of the narrative of our students’ lives, and, for your students, that means living in a place where they have been structurally excluded from an integrated schooling system. For instance, the per capita income in your borough is $25.6k and in the county it’s $43.2k. That’s a significant difference, and one that affects their lives. Their families are also 26.1% less likely to own their homes (US Census). They have felt the impact of these things, even if they haven’t experienced a neighborhood outside your borough yet. They bring these lives into the classroom, and what we do there either helps them to empower themselves by acknowledging their reality, or helps to entrench the system of discrepancy in which they live by obfuscating it.
Your teaching of A Fine Dessert is a vehicle through which you are showing the world of a child of color to your student, and multiple people of color have told you that failing to interrogate that world creates cognitive dissonance for them–for your students, this is the entrenching of the racism in their world. If you really want to “[understand] the vital social concerns before forging ahead,” I think you need to consider how this book plays into the reinforcement of structural racism for your students, and help them to push back. Too often, we expect our students of color to experience the world the same way that we do, but that’s failing to acknowledge our blindspots. The history of de jure and de facto segregation in America creates barricades between our experiences and, rather than ignoring them, we should help our students dismantle them by giving them the tools to question things they view as unfair, and showing them that we’re doing the work too.
Most of the children in A Fine Dessert had agency in choosing the dessert that they’d make that night. Aside from the constraints of narrative structure and local ingredients, they could have made blackberry cobbler, or pie, or tarts, and their parents would still have lovingly given them the bowl to lick. The little girl in 1810 didn’t have that choice. She did not have that choice because she was enslaved. The people who viewed her as property decided on dessert, and the dessert wasn’t for her and her family to enjoy, it was created for the pleasure of the family who owned her. The choice to make a blackberry tart would not have simply ruined the narrative arc, it could have resulted in her and/or her mother being sold, literally, down the river. The fact that they are depicted eating their dessert in a closet is an implicit acknowledgement that the author and illustrator understand that eating it openly would have been punishable. People do not, after all, regularly choose to eat in closets.
I am not telling you to not teach A Fine Dessert if that is what you want to do. I am asking you to, if you continue to teach it, teach it to empower your students. Don’t ask them to just see the happy things while erasing the tell-tale signs of pain in the book. Acknowledge them. Help your students to question them. Again, eating dessert in a closet isn’t normal, and even in first grade, they recognize that only one family does that. Ask them if they can figure out ways that the situation could have been depicted without losing the message the authors were trying to give. (Using free Blacks instead of slaves; moving the narrative forward until after Emancipation when the mother could have eaten the fruits of her labor for the first time; acknowledging the danger; switching Boston and Charleston’s time periods [by 1790, there were no enslaved persons on the census in Massachusetts and slavery had been legally abolished in the state–this family would have been free if they were in Boston in 1810]; I’m sure your students could come up with more suggestions.) This doesn’t limit the pleasure your students receive from a text you enjoy, but it does acknowledge that their lens for viewing it is likely different from yours, and allows them to talk back to the text honestly. For students in classes like Sandra Prudy’s, this exercise asks them to look for places to practice empathy. Seeing other people as inherently deserving of freedom, equality, and justice is good for all kids.
Listening to what others had to say led many other reviewers to change their opinions, not because they were bullied, but because they chose to look at the text through a lens that is not their default. Structural racism wouldn’t be a problem if it were overt. It’s because it exists as a series of unspoken agreements to look the other way, to accept things as the way they are because they’ve always been done that way, to ignore or tone-police the voices of people of color who ask us to question why they continue, that structural racism persists. I hope that you are sincere in giving your all for your kids, and I think that for them, that means helping them to break down this system in which we unfairly ask that they live.
I am not telling you to not teach A Fine Dessert if that is what you want to do. I am asking you to, if you continue to teach it, teach it to empower your students. Don’t ask them to just see the happy things while erasing the tell-tale signs of pain in the book. Acknowledge them. Help your students to question them. Again, eating dessert in a closet isn’t normal, and even in first grade, they recognize that only one family does that. Ask them if they can figure out ways that the situation could have been depicted without losing the message the authors were trying to give.
Fair enough J.R. Your long and exceedingly thoughtful comment is strictly master class, and I have absorbed it all. I used the book TODAY and was planning to post the video of it here on this thread. However, my wife feels I would be opening myself up to a new line of interrogation, though she was please with the results. I am not sure what I will do now, as far as that goes, but I’d like to let you know that I spend a good part of the (verbal) annotated discussion of the book talking about that closet illustration. After my slavery lead in I asked fourth graders to explain why they were not licking their bowls of fool at the kitchen table. The students were sharp enough to understand the situation. I will say this. Though I have and continue to defend this book for a good many reasons, I would not have used that illustration. It just gives cause for some of the outcry we’ve seen. Some will say it can be negotiated, but as long as there is a sizable and fierce objection-as there has been there can never be closure. I do completely understand why it is being interpreted as demeaning. In any case I did lets the kids run a good part of the discussion. In the end my condemnation of the white race was uncompromising. The reaction of the African Americans were in the line of “no matter what you do to us we will persevere, and we will still enjoy our moments with your family. No matter what you have done or will do to us, you will never break our spirit.” Not exactly a happy ending but an acknowledgement of the slaves’ humanity.
I am getting dizzy reading some of these responses. The same points are being made again and again, and it all comes down to one’s view of whether this book has crossed the line. So, the dissenters say it has. The supporters say it has not. Many of the supporters are teachers, who have used the book. One person suggested that it should come down to the teachers who are being paid to do a job. The detractors continue to make claim that anyone who doesn’t see it the way they do are “part of the problem”. The supporters aren’t trying to convert the detractors. The detractors think this is a “cause” and a “mission”, but can’t grasp the concept of “opinion” and how different experiences will be had for anyone who uses the book.
Their view is fully consistent with the installation of censorship. It is similar to being guilty without a trial.
Some will re-read the book and may eventually profess substantial agreement with J.R., Mike and Beverly. Others will in effect say thanks but no thanks.
I’d like to think that everyone who has checked into this discussion are well equipped to put forth their own opinions on the merits and substance of A Fine Dessert.
Add my name to the growing scroll against censorship, the worst affront to freedom of expression. If fighting for justice and equality involves suppression based on personal opinion, I want no part of it. I know. I know. I need to listen to others and vacate my deeply held beliefs. Of course.
“A FINE DESSERT is a celebration of life in defiance of our shame, a resilient testament of how even in the worst times there is a love of family”.
Sam, this is so beautiful and a complete rebuke to negative perception. I wonder if they are “listening”.
Thanks very much for that Jeffrey.
Hi Sam, another children’s lit professor here. When I started to read your review, I thought, “Wow, here is a guy who loves children’s literature.” And it’s clear that you do, and that you’re dedicated to the field — and as a peer who also loves CL, I disagree with you six ways to Sunday about what the controversy about this book really means.
This thread, whether read in its entirety or excerpted, makes it painfully and robustly clear how very badly we need diverse books — and genuinely informed, thoughtful, privilege-aware people to write, review, teach, and sell them. As a White woman, I can sympathize with how difficult it is to feel like you’re being attacked, particularly when you feel that you are far more progressive in your teaching and worldview than some of your colleagues. You mentioned some of the Black writers you’ve taught over the years, and their presence is important — we both know that a truly diverse, representative curriculum remains a dream at many schools. I would argue, though, that while visibility is important, it isn’t enough in & of itself. Context is absolutely critical.
Again and again, commenters on this thread have raised the issue of context, but unless someone says, “Well, I read it and didn’t see a problem” — in other words, their context mirrors yours — those comments have been dismissed. And that’s where you lose me, because to suggest that those of us who take issue with the book’s re-imagining of slavery are pro-censorship or anti-author/illustrator is to willfully miss the point. There is a larger historical context that this book purports to represent, and a larger context within which this book was written, published, and reviewed. There are really useful, specific criticisms here that have focused on the ways in which the illustrations render that context invisible or “sanitize” it in ways that make it more palatable for readers.
It’s interesting to me that some people are so quick to label criticisms of this book as “censorship” and “a witch hunt” — they can see how reactions to an objectionable representation might hurt one or two people (author & illustrator, whose work I know well and actually like a great deal) at one very specific moment in time — yet they cannot see how that same objectionable representation, which is countered at every turn by historical fact, might hurt a wider audience for a much longer time. And when people speak of this damage, they are dismissed as making much ado about nothing.
It’s not nothing. When you have well-established, well-published, well-respected writers and scholars pointing it out (Debbie Reese, Beverly Slapin, DJ Older, and Ellen Oh are a few of those folks who showed up here), you ARE being given a gift. Here’s an opportunity to move beyond what you knew yesterday — which I don’t doubt is a great deal — and complicate your understanding of these issues in a way that our 21st century society absolutely demands.
I really hope that you’ll give this some thought, Sam. I know it’s hard. I fumble with my White privilege all the time. Sometimes it’s really hard not to feel insulted when I’m called out. There is something much bigger here, though, than this thread. There is something much bigger here than whether or not you take this personally (which I really hope you can get past because I would love to have you as an ally). This conversation says as much about our complicated relationship to history, in particular our continuing unease with how to talk about slavery and racial dynamics in this country, as it does about anything else. It is absolutely a conversation that needs to continue.
Gabrielle this comment is masterful, though of course it doesn’t need my validation to confirm that. Yes I have urged a continuation of the conversation indeed, and I will respond to you later today. There is certainly much food for though. I am presently negotiating a reading of A FINE DESSERT to middle schoolers in another building of our school system. My 19 year old daughter, a film student at SVA would film the lesson, and I will post it on this thread. Unorthodox for sure, but I feel it would bring something to this conversation, and confirm my approach. Stay tuned. 🙂
Thank you!
My reading of A FINE DESSERT to a fourth grade class in Lincoln School is completed. My daughter filmed it and is now downloading. I will post it here (hopefully) in about one hour.
Gabrielle, I haven’t forgotten you. I want very much to address your great comment, but have had an unusually hectic day at school, intensified further bu my video this morning. I had switch some things around. I will be back on here later this afternoon my friend.
As a White woman, I can sympathize with how difficult it is to feel like you’re being attacked, particularly when you feel that you are far more progressive in your teaching and worldview than some of your colleagues.
I am finally back Gabrielle. I saved your comment for last among the ones I addressed here later into the evening than I had originally planned. At this point I am not so sure I’ll go ahead an post the video of my morning reading of this book to a fourth grade class. My wife is advising against it for reasons not connected with the actual results of the lesson. She feels it may open up further scrutiny. Be rest assured I have not taken any of this personally (I am quite the other extreme actually, and after an hour I am the way I was before the row) and I can see we have much in common. I have no issue with any of the four people you mentioned here, in fact I have a great measure of respect for Debbie Reese and was very moved by Ellen Oh’s story about her childhood. Your final two sentences are impossible to deny, and I am all for the ongoing discussion here at at other places where there are issues about race injustice. As I stated to J.R. I have deliberated with myself over the last two days and have come to understand the legitimacy of the objections. As you know I have maintained a fondness for A FINE DESSERT, as I feel he has a lot of offer students. We need to continue the talks. Your respectful and astute observations about how I feel and some of what goes through my mind are deeply appreciated. This is the kind of comment that is entitled to me deepest respect. I can’t thank you enough for the time and sincerity you invested in this response Gabrielle.
One of the problems with people who call for a “conversation” about crucial issues in life is that when an actual conversation takes place and they see that others hold different opinions from them, instead of an “Aha!” moment of insight that their point of view might not be as sturdy as first appears, there is a “Face plant!” moment where the idiocy of the other side is confirmed.
Any child will tell you that not being heard and understood gets tiresome. After a while, the instinct is to skip the lecture and go read a book.
Bingo, Markle. I couldn’t agree with you more.
Hello Beverly,
Thank you for continuing to add depth, insight, and historical relevance to this discussion. I am in your debt.
Thank you for sharing your story in this thread to help others view the gravity of slavery and the dishonesty of its portrayal in this book.
I believe that you are correct. A book that showed happy moments in a concentration camp would never have been written or published. The outcry of insensitivity would have been deafening.
I am amazed that some commenters have shown little understanding of life during slavery.
To Sandra Purdy:
What would it mean to be treated well, when you didn’t own your body?
When women were bred like cattle?
When you had no authority over your children?
When punishments for small infractions could you leave you with scars for the rest of your life? If you survived the punishment. Some were ingeniously cruel.
When you, or someone you knew, or loved could be killed to teach a lesson in obedience?
When you had to live with the knowledge that you could be sold any time the “master” decided he needed cash more than another slave?
When your child could be taken away never to be seen again?
When you were taken from the country and the people you knew in chains?
When you were dropped on a foreign shore and stripped of your language, your culture, your religion, and all rights?
Please tell me, which of those things constituted being treated well?
I am ever more convinced that some of the dissenters see slaves as indentured servants, which is exactly how they were portrayed in A Fine Dessert.
Please note, indentured servants owed their labor, not their person.
Slaves were people who were branded, slapped, whipped, tortured, raped, killed, and sold for profit. They served, but were not servants. They were property.
To Jeffrey,
I cannot imagine a mother risking her safety and the safety of her child to steal a lick of from a dessert bowl. I cannot see that picture as a joyous moment or an act of rebellion. The cost would have been too dear, and the reward too little.
As dismayed as I have been by some commenters here, I have been equally warmed by others. Thank you.
(Joel Bocko’s comment from above) reposted, as was in wrong spot:
I have not read this book and for the most part am simply reading rather than responding to the conversation. However, this is worth a response:
“Do you not realize the power differential in your role as a white teacher and theirs as young children of color whose parents–because today’s society is so dangerous for people of color–must teach them early not to speak back to white people in positions of power?”
This is a vast generalization and I can tell you that the teachers I know would beg to differ – they frequently must navigate objections of both parents and students, quite often objections along racial lines. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. In some situations it will lead to further growth on the part of the teacher, a realization that they misstepped somewhere along the way in dealing with a student of a different race. In other situations, the outcome may be less fruitful.
While I don’t doubt that many parents “must teach [their children] early not to speak back to white people in positions of power,” there are also many parents who not only teach their children – appropriately or not – to do so, but who will gladly speak back to those teachers as well. This is but a facet of a larger tendency of parents to speak back to teachers and to accuse them, rightly or wrongly, of mishandling their children’s education. It is something that comes with the profession of teaching and is a phenomenon present in all kinds of classrooms, public and private, multiracial and homogenous, rich and poor.
For you to make a blanket assumption that Sam’s students – and their parents – have no is as unwarranted as any assumptions that he has made elsewhere on this thread.
The problem with this discussion, and others like it, is that many people prefer to make sweeping statements rather than deal with concrete facts. It’s so much easier that way, allowing whoever is making the comment to set the premises of the debate as fundamental, when they are in fact highly questionable.
This particular example stuck out to me because I know teachers who are going through precisely this process right now, and have many times before. Alleging that they are protected from questioning by their white privilege and the dynamics of the classroom does not take into account how these situations actually unfold in the real world.
At the end of the day you cannot assert that Sam’s students have no ability to question his reading or that their parents will discourage them from doing so. Some will, some won’t. The rest of your accusations stem from a similarly arrogant assumption that you understand a particular teacher’s classroom dynamic from statements made by them on an internet comments thread.
Joel this is certainly a master class response and I am thrilled to have it here on this thread.
*”have no inclination or ability to speak back,” is what I meant to write in the fourth-to-last paragraph
I found Sam Juliano’s great Caldecott series on about his third post. I read all his review, and sometimes comment. Originally I was intimidated by the volume, figuring what I say would get lost in the shuffle anyway, but yesterday I discussed it with my life and work partner who is African American. We sold a fair number of copies of the book, and didn’t get any returns or complaints. Bill thinks maybe four were purchased by people of color. There are two copies in stock now. I showed Bill the offensive sections and asked him what he thought of them. The slaves smiling wasn’t anything worth arguing over since everyone in the book is smiling. He went on to say that the slave girl and her mother eating the dessert in the closet could be offensive, since it reminded readers of their role in life. He didn’t think everyone would look at that picture and be offended.
I do not wish to be dragged into this, and won’t be returning to this particular discussion. But I will continue to leave comments under Sam’s other reviews in this series.
Steve, thanks so very much for your kind words and your partner’s views on the book. I know you have been following the series and I much appreciate your splendid engagement in the comment threads.
Well Sammy you should have known the trouble reviewing a book like this would have caused because if you do anything with race in this country you are in an unwinnable battle. Don’t you remember this time last year when the news was all about blacklivesmatters? Everybody is extra sensitive because it’s a witch hunt against you if you are even thought of by one person to be against a race. This is why the country is so divided and Trump says keep the muslims out and some people hate him yeah but it makes other people like him even more because nobody is allowed to express an opinion without people trying to attack them. Sammy I know your favorite filmmaker is Spielberg and he made Purple Colors, you loved that movie when it came out and had tears in your eyes everytime you talked about it. Purple Colors the people were treated terribly and there were bad things but they smiled sometimes too, so what now with blacklivesmatters should people be picketing Spielberg’s house? And children they have to learn in segments you can’t explain everything to them all at once so if they see a book and there’s a happy slave they will relate to the person and then as they grow it can be explained that it was a terrible time and these people had to suffer but if you show them something that’s completely horrible and violent what do you think is gonna happen? they are just gonna have nightmares and it will be harder for them to learn about the history? When I saw the years of slaves a few years ago in the theater and old woman passed out during the whipping scenes is that supposed to be in a children’s book now? Give me a break.
Jack, you are a card. Spielberg is not my favorite filmmaker by a long shot (I’d have to go with Bergman and Bresson) but I do like several of his films quite a bit.
This is a children’s book for the lower grades. Why pray tell -and I address this to Mr. Juliano as well as all the people who are acting like the worst crime ever committed was the depiction of a young slave laughing with her mother while enjoying blackberry fool- would any teacher even want to discuss the evils of slavery with kids who won’t understand it until years later?
Why not let kids enjoy four stories about how to make and enjoy desert over many time periods. Some people on this thread think that they are saviors; actually their rants are more destructive than helpful. Happy to know the book is selling well.
Carol, you are not the first one to opine that the slavery aspect of the book should be downplayed in classroom readings.
The matter of censorship has opened a new can of worms. I have not honestly read this book, but have been following the discussion on the advice of a friend who has used it in her class. What some are failing to understand is that ‘intent’ is a vital part of the complainant’s argument. One person in the discussion said intent is irrelevant. I beg to differ. If it comes down to a matter of different interpretation, there can be no justification for censorship. From the time of Socrates there have been attempts at censorship. When one person says “this is what it means and another says “no, this is what it means” there is no basis for censorship. There wouldn’t be even if the infraction were intended and 90% of the people felt the book was indecent., much less something like this, where nothing has been proven or accepted. An outcry is not an excuse. The same people who are crying foul are the ones who would stand on the picket lines against censorship. But hypocrisy is their general mode of operation. I don’t actually have to read “A Fine Dessert” to know what is afoot here.
Joyce thank you for the comment. Just to clarify, none of the book’s opponents on this thread seemed to be calling for outright censorship (I think most people would be very careful to make such a request in print) but some of run posts at their sites strongly urging parents to avoid the book. This is basically semantics, but without using that word you have not entered that realm.
Don’t even get me started on “white privilege!”
Minorities get food stamps, college privileges and job related passes simply because they are minorities. But this discussion is all about the disease in this country known as “liberalism”.
James, I cleared your comment as I do all I receive, but I will not dignify it with a response.
Without even getting into the affirmative action stuff, “Minorities get food stamps”?! The majority of food stamps recipients are white. There is also no racial quota on SNAP as far as I am aware.
The book’s detractors are all about Group Think. They have no proof that it has or will cause damage. That it is demeaning. That it is sending the wrong message to the schoolchildren. Someone mentioned that some people make “sweeping generalities” and ignore facts and actual classroom sessions.
Their pomposity boggles the mind.
Thanks very much for voicing your view Frederick, and for visiting WitD.
Sam, did you say you thought this book had a fair chance at winning one of the Caldecott Awards?
Peter, I actually did NOT say that. There is nobody out there who has any idea of what the Caldecott committee members are thinking. For sure it is impossible to conclude that they haven’t an idea of the controversy, but of course their deliberations are rightfully secret.
If the committee turns out to be bold or daring (some would say foolhardy I know) they could surprise, but I would imagine most committees would play it safe, not wanting to offend any groups. Still, there is plenty of love for this book, and it may yet end up in the winner’s circle.
I don’t understand the anger toward a book that is astonishingly detailed and beautifully illustrated and as worthy of the Caldecott as any other book that’s won. Kids don’t bring all this skewed, ‘white privilege’, problematic content, nonsense to the reading of a book. They enjoy it for what it is. Choosing to depict slaves was a bold choice and, I think, more accurate since there weren’t many free blacks. I didn’t understand the comment that they looked like servants and not enslaved people. There were house slaves who were treated very differently than slaves who worked the fields, so it’s entirely possible that hiding in a cupboard to lick the bowl would’ve been permissible. Other than showing them being beaten, I’m not sure what Blackall could’ve done to accurately depict slavery in an age-appropriate way within the confines of a picture book about a dessert. If it were a nonfiction book about slavery, go into as much horrific detail as you want. But it is not. It is a picture book about. a. dessert.
Charity, thanks very much for registering that most reasonable sentiment.
I love your site and will be adding it to my site sidebar right now. I also like the book BEYOND THE POND you are promoting. 🙂
Thanks! I like yours too and am going to have to catch up on your short list posts!
looks like a fine book Sam and reminds me of a Asian storybook my Korean-Japanese daughter had read to her by my Asian Neighbor – a universal story It was our neighbors attempt to share a universal story about a treat and picking the fruit together – she also tried to explain to my daughter why she was rejected in her home culture because of the Japanese/ Korean anger against mixed race children – then she had a complete cleft palate too. Child’s response is to be a wonderful cook and the most American person on the planet. I think those universal themes are vital for finding love and love for self Thanks for sharing and responding to all these comments
Thanks very much Patricia. That’s a telling and touching story you relate, thanks so much for sharing. And for the very kind words my friend!
I think there were people on both sides of this debate who came off badly. But most of the people who had issues with the book had their noses way up in the air. For people who spoke about white privilege these people sported an air of entitlement.
They rejected every legitimate point in favor of the book to concoct a perceived conspiracy among students, when these (young) kids wouldn’t have any idea what they are talking about.
And don’t you love it when someone has a problem with a book or anything else for that matter that they take it upon themselves to speak for others?
A Caldecott would be a strong rebuff against this kind of mean-spirited campaign, which is self-serving, and not anything about children of either color.
Thanks for voicing your views here Ron M.
This marathon thread has been brought to attention of SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL where Betsy Bird refers to the book as a “phenomenon” and one that has shown the book’s admirers just as impassioned as the detractors:
http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2015/12/17/why-this-book-the-conundrum-of-virality-and-a-fine-dessert/
Were most of the criticisms of this book “mean-spirited?” Did any of those who voiced an opinion different from that of the admirers of this book have something of substance to say about the depiction of slavery in this book…something that should have given the book’s admirers pause for thought? I have read the different blog discussion threads on this book. I think many of the book’s critics were articulate in expressing their opinions on the subject. I didn’t perceive those critics as being mean-spirited or as having their “noses way up in the air.”
The person who identified herself as “mclicious” was race baiting, effectively stating that every point being made in defense of the book was typical of “white” people. She made many generalizations, saying all one had to have was white skin to be guilty. Another person judged Mr. Juliano’s classroom performance over many years as detrimental, simply because he happened to like this one book. He was told by that person that his friendship was not welcome and that his retirement couldn’t come any sooner. If that isn’t mean spirited I don’t know what is. The business about “not listening” and being fortunate to receive “gifts” was smug and condescending. Being articulate is one thing, but the attempt to assert that their opinion is the only opinion compromised everything they said.
Ron, I have made my peace and moved on. I bear no ill will towards any of these people and have even tried (albeit unsuccessfully) to establish some facebook friendships. I think this thread has confirmed what I knew all along. There are passionate fans of the book who won’t be hesitant to express themselves. When it is all about having to agree with someone else and not being allow to defend an opinion, then we have nothing by way of conversations.
Ron M.,
I try to use my words carefully. I said I thought that MANY–not all–of the book’s critics were articulate in expressing their opinions on the subject…that I didn’t perceive those critics as being mean-spirited or as having their “noses way up in the air.”
I asked two questions:
1) “Were most of the criticisms of this book ‘mean-spirited?'”
(Do YOU think they were?)
2) “Did any of those who voiced an opinion different from that of the admirers of this book have something of substance to say about the depiction of slavery in this book..something that should have given the book’s admirers pause for thought?”
(DID the critics have something of substance to say about the book’s depiction of slavery? DID they voice some concerns that should have given the book’s admirers pause for thought?)
Elaine, I have to say yes to all your questions. It did give pause. And the majority of those who had issues with the book did express themselves in a civil manner.
I would venture to assert that Sam Juliano was frustrated with the small group that who were unwilling to entertain any opinion contrary to their own.
The book’s depicting of slavery has and will continue to offend some people. However, it appears to be evident that many others do not feel it was disparaging. Perhaps this is what either Sam or one of the other defenders meant when they said the book was polarizing.
I fully concur with this assessment.
Sam—Some more thoughts on the discussion over at Betsy’s blog:
http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2015/12/17/why-this-book-the-conundrum-of-virality-and-a-fine-dessert/
Debbie, I had read the initial comments, but now just read yours. That was a beautiful and moving commentary. The injustice you relate speaks for itself, and we do indeed need to common understanding. Everything you stand for I embrace. After all the disagreement expressed on this thread I have come away with far more than I thought would be possible. Thank you so much for the apology, I likewise apologize to you for my uncalled for sharply worded response, which I never meant a word of. You are a beautiful person through and through. I will continue to follow the discussion on the book at Betsy Bird’s thread and anywhere else it may surface. Thank you.
Wow. I just followed Debbie Reese’s link over to Betsy Bird’s blog. And after many paragraphs, this is what Ms. Reese wrote today —
“I wish the larger community was one that would
listen to us rather than try to refute what we contribute
to this discussion.”
Here is a trained librarian with Master’s in library science, and a doctorate in Education, essentially telling readers who care enough about literature to engage in a book discussion that if they don’t agree with her and her “we”-group, they should just shut up.
Bella, I don’t know how you’ve made the leap from Debbie’s extremely thoughtful comments at Fuse #8 to the statement in your last paragraph. The section you’ve highlighted is nothing more than her asking for respect, something not always given to people of color and First/Native Nations. As a matter of fact, as I read through this thread–and I’ve been following from the beginning–what I’ve seen happening repeatedly is that people of color and First/Native Nations are the ones being told, in so many words, to “just shut up.”
Sam Bloom – – –
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that you will say that the people who stand behind this book are the ones you consider the rebel rousers on this thread. You are after all, according to your previous comments an opponent of A Fine Dessert. We have seen race baiting, personal attacks and repeated assertions that people who are defending the book are “not listening.” We have also been told that if we have white skin we are privileged. You are reading only what you want to read.