What Does Diversity Mean Anyways?

What Does Diversity Mean Anyways?   If you’ve noticed that I haven’t been posting and writing that much about the diversity movement lately…it’s really because I’m still trying to wrap my head around the goals of the movement. What I mean is, what I once thought was an important intention for children everywhere, has somehow turned into a promotion of diversity in the authors instead of focus being placed on the diverse topics and content of the books. I saw a recent article posted on Facebook from the WNDB Movement; stating that “Diverse books are: Books anyone can enjoy. Books that are inclusive of the stories of all people across ethnicity, socio-economic, language, gender, sexuality, religion, race, difference in ability, including mental illness. Books that invite readers to learn new ideas and share experiences. Books that avoid stereotypes, and instead are authentic and research-based.” This sounds wonderful in theory, but in reality, they aren’t really asking for books about diversity, but instead there is such an emphasis placed on who wrote the book and if the author is considered and defined as “diverse”. Why is there so much press about the need for diverse authors, I thought this was about the books! I continually see contests, awards and prompts specifically asking for authors of diversity…what does this mean? Are we all not diverse? Shouldn’t any author of any culture, gender, race and sexual orientation be welcome to write about these experiences and social issues/situations regardless of whether they actually do or have lived with that particular diversity? Aside from any contest, the problem here is that there is exclusion going on as well, just like anytime when you distance one group of people from another. I thought the priority here is to educate, inspire, motivate and inform children about diverse people, topics and lifestyles. My impression has always been that a diverse author is ANYONE that writes about diversity ...this is why I am confused with the goals of the diverse books movement. I thought the idea was not to segregate and have certain people standout, but to bring together diverse people, topics, lifestyles and ideas and make them mainstream.   Isn’t bringing attention to a certain race, gender or culture causing us to set these people apart from the rest of everyone else? Isn’t this in a way segregation? What is this teaching the children…that certain people should get special priorities and be more celebrated because they are different and more unique than anyone else? I do not mean any disrespect to any group that has been underrepresented or not given opportunities in the past because of their race, gender or culture-this is wrong and I am ashamed of the way certain people in our society have believed themselves to be more supreme than any other…however, should we continue to segregate anyone who has been set aside in the past? That’s not making any positive changes. When do we start teaching our kids that everyone deserves a chance and everyone is just as diverse and special as everyone else? This is what I’ve been writing about in my books to children- that we have to try and NOT see each other differences, not judge other people by WHAT they are, but for who they are...people-all unique and yet very much the same!   We Need Diverse Books because children need to read about themselves, their families, friends, classmates, teachers, etc…lets start there and then we can educate, inspire, motivate and inform them about who wrote the books!