We have some very exciting news to share: we have acquired Tu Publishing, an independent press focusing on diverse fantasy and science fiction for children and young adults! Founded by Stacy Whitman last fall to address the need for more books featuring diverse characters and inspired by non-Western cultures, Tu is becoming Tu Books, an imprint of LEE & LOW. Several manuscripts are already in the works, with hopes of releasing the first books under the new imprint next year.
Black History Month Giveaway Winners!
Our Black History Month giveaway is finished! We’ve tallied the entries and randomly picked our winners.
(drumroll, please!)
Barbara S. will be receiving Set 1: The Secret to Freedom, I and I, Children of Long Ago, George Crum and the Saratoga Chip, and John Lewis in the Lead.
Majority
Recently I was in Hawaii on vacation and one of the things I noticed right away was how Asians are the majority of the people living there. In the city of Honolulu on Oahu, street signs are in English and Japanese. Generally rice, and even miso soup, are served with all meals, including breakfast. I learned from attending a luau that immigrants from Japan, China, and the Philippines make up a big part of Hawaii’s cultural diversity. When I got back home, a quick web search revealed that Hawaii is the only state in the United States where whites are not the majority of the population.
Paying Homage to Duke
Video Thursday: Difficult Conversations
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maUkLyJeGQM&w=475]
These children, honestly answering questions about race and racism, illuminate some of the problems we have talking about race in America. We know that children as young as 6 months old respond to skin color, so when the kids at the beginning of the video don’t know the words race, ethnicity, or racism, that’s a problem: they don’t know how to address their own reactions and experiences. They’re not having the conversations they need to understand the complicated culture in which they live.
Dear Olympics, I love you but…
I LOVE the Olympics. I’ve spent many (er, too many) hours over the past week mesmerized by ice dancing, ski cross, super-giant slolom, half pipe. . . these athletes make it look like somebody literally turned off gravity in Vancouver for the week and the laws of physics no longer apply.
Still, it’s hard not to notice how white the US Olympic Team is. If this is a team sent to represent one of the most diverse countries in the world, well, it doesn’t look all that representative. Take a look at this year’s 218 Team USA members and you’ll see what I mean. I could count the number of African Americans on one hand. Out of 218! What about Latinos, Asian Americans? Some…but not that many.
This Week in Diversity: Biases in a Weird Universe
Welcome back for another week of links!
Valentine’s Day can make a lot of us see red, but even more so with Time Magazine‘s looks at racial preferences—or biases—shown on online dating sites.
Meanwhile, America Ferrera—the Latina star of Ugly Betty—gave an interview in which she talked about race and casting in Hollywood. The whole interview isn’t available online, but Jezebel has some highlights.
Video Thursday: “Every time they called me some name, I hit it farther.”
On The Daily Show, baseball great Willie Mays talks about being the only black man on his baseball teams, and how he responded to racism:
Poll of the Week: The Olympics
The best kind of winter only comes once every four years: the kind with the Olympics! What’s got you excited?
Black History Month Book Giveaway!
In addition to giving away signed copies of Janna and the Kings on the main site, we’re giving away three sets of six books each on this here blog at the end of February. Why a Black History Month giveaway at the end of February? Because Black History is still worth teaching all year long!
Here’s how it works:
- You enter the contest by midnight, February 28th, 2010. There are four ways to enter:
- Tweet/ReTweet it on Twitter (make sure you include @LEEandLOW).
- Comment on this post, telling us your favorite Black History Reads or why you want to read these books.
- Subscribe to this blog (make sure you tell us in comments, so we know it’s you).
- Post about this on your own blog (if you’re not hosted by WordPress, make sure you tell us in comments).
You get one entry per action—do all of the above and you have four chances to win.
- We randomly pick three winners.
- We send each winner one of the three sets of books, shown below.
- The winners use these awesome Black History books all year round.