California Literature Project

Dear Chairman:

Recently our school received a letter requesting a list of our core literature written by authors "of color." It immediately seemed clear that you wanted black, Hispanic, or Native American authors, and I began to create that list. As a result of a poll of other staff members it became clear that we could only identify Maya Angelou and Gary Soto as being "of color" because we did not choose our literature on the basis of author’s race. Furthermore, we have nothing that lists the author’s race, including the Junior Book of Authors set.

In an attempt to delay writing this letter, I began an informal survey of staff and students to see of anyone else knew about other authors’ races. The following is a partial list of my findings:

-No one knows what race Scott O’Dell is.

-Most of the students feel Anne Frank was "of color"; all of the staff feel she was not.

-Asians are "of color" as are South Pacific Islanders, except for our one Hawaiian student

who swears he is white.

-Some felt Italians are "of color", but many were confused about blond, blue-eyed

Italians.

-Some Russians are "of color", maybe.

-India Indians are "of color", as are Turks.

-There is confusion about the status of Greeks.

-Arabs are "of color", but when I asked about Jews, an argument began which has not

ended.

-Not only do we not know the race of Jamake Highwater, we are not even sure of his/her

sex.

I realize this has not answered your question, and the closest I could come to a generalization is: "A person is ‘of color’ if he or she is of darker complexion than the person I asked." Therefore, I have sent you a complete list of our core and extended literature in hopes that you can sort this out.

Sincerely,

Katherine Sterling, M.Ed.

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