Come Together

This week I have the honor to share my thoughts about two books who break stereotypes and show the importance of learning about each other's ethnicities and backgrounds.

Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship

The first book I am going to talk about is, Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship written by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, and illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko. Starting with cultural authenticity, both of the authors of this book are representing themselves by depicting their own personal experiences and races. They speak on what it is like to be a part of racism- whether they are the target or the oppressor. Their poems depict real life moments where children often become confused and judgmental, and how they are confronted with their pre-existing convictions. It was unique to see a counter-narrative style poetry book where the characters are both being confronted with racism. Stories (or poems) from a white girl and a black boy in the face of racism obviously have different tones, but it gives the reader more opportunity to relate or to find connection with the poems. Both of these characters learn more about themselves, each other, and they ways they have either promoted or demoted racism (whether they realized it or not). Just like the authors, the illustrators have the same relationship of one being a Caucasian girl and one being an African American boy. This brings the entire book-producing crew closer to the text.

The title page and illustrations in the first half of the book are mainly black and white. The background is white and the text is black, representing a part of Irene's poem in the beginning: "...It's not black and white." "But it is. Charles is black, and I'm white." This color scheme is represented through the first half of the book where I think both characters are reluctant to work together. As they learn more about each other and their differences and similarities, the pages become more colorful. This begins on page 16 where Irene and Charles are both left out during recess and they chose to hangout together and work on their poetry.

The addition of color is a great way to show the importance of this unity. This theme is consistent throughout the book despite the color that is added in the second half. The authors note, the illustrators note, and the dedications are all in black and white as well. I think this was intentional by the illustrators to serve as a metaphor to the message in the story.

I thought Charles' poem titled Forgiveness was a beautiful way to challenge stereotypes. There was a character in the book who is a white boy and he said something to Charles that was hurtful: "Why do you always try to act like one of us?" This character comes to Charles in this particular poem and apologizes because a group of African American kids asked him the same question he asked Charles. This is challenging stereotypes because many times it is difficult for kids, even people, to own up to their wrongs and apologize for something they did. It is very rare for someone who is white to understand or have something happen to them that happens to African Americans, so this is challenging as well. It brings a sense of community up though, showing readers that recognizing your mistakes when it comes to racial remarks is powerful, especially when you apologize for them.

In light of this poem book, I wrote a poem about my hair that I would like to share. I am not a professional poet, don't get me wrong, but I tried to connect the readings this week to my own personal hair as well as I could.

The last thing I would like to touch on is the short film titled "Hair Love" written and produced by Matthew A. Cherry. The power that this short has from culture to family is so deep and significant. I was very moved by this short, especially because of personal experiences I have with my dad and my hair. My mom and dad divorced when I was fairly young, and I have many memories of my dad trying to braid my hair and failing horribly. Just applying that experience to this short to try and understand further how these characters are feeling made it even more powerful. I do not understand what it is like to be African American but I do understand the importance of styling and braiding hair in their culture. Although we have different hair, we are just people. It is not hard to take a moment to put yourself in other peoples shoes.

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story

The second book up for discussion is Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story written by Kevin Noble Maillard and illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal. This moving piece is about the diversity that indigenous people have within their entire expanded community. There are varying representations of all of these tribes- location, tradition, food, history, and time, but through the Fry Bread, they are a diversifying community. A community of people who come as one.

Kevin Noble Maillard is an indigenous person making this text fully authentic and true. Reading his interview with Kim Rogers was helpful in understanding how diverse he and his family truly is. A specific quote said by Kevin in this interview reminded me that as an educator, I need to break stereotypes of indigenous communities and teach my students thorough information about their history and lives: "I simply wanted a book for my own very young kids about Native people that were alive, modern, and not mythical." This book The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award for most distinguished informational book for children.

Juana Martinez-Neal is a fascinating illustrator, and every time I get to read a book with her drawings I am always infatuated. Something I found most comforting in this particular book was the unity and positivity in every picture. The group making the fry bread are always smiling and working together, displaying a sense of community and appreciation. I found it especially inspiring because each illustration has children of all ethnicities and races. This accompanies the importance of coming together, no matter your heritage, which I think is a huge takeaway from this book.

Like stated above, this book reminded me of the importance and duty we have as educators to break down stereotypes of indigenous communities and teach our students about their history, their tribes, and the what they represent differently. In Debbie Reese's article "Critical Indigenous Literacies: Selecting and Using Children's Books about Indigenous Peoples" Reese touches on some important things to remember when teaching and reading these books in the classroom. I have listed some below that I found especially important:

• Avoid only teaching about Native people in November (Thanksgiving, Indigenous People's Month)

• Avoid teaching stories that promote myths and legends

• Use books written from Native authors (#OwnVoice)

• Use present tense verbs when discussing indigenous people

• Teach this literature all year long

Unfortunately I can say that I have never read a book about Native people that is so normalized, modernized, and unified. The sense of community in this book is so strong, and every book I have read before has been more feathers and hunting than anything else. This book has made me realize how important the teaching of Native people (in the right way) is, and how I as an educator need to learn as much as I can to prepare myself to be able to teach my students truthfully. To be honest, most of the books I have read in my life have further ostracized indigenous people, and this book is one of the first that actually unites them with people of all backgrounds. With that being said, I would teach this book any day, of any month, of any school year.