Passage 3
Marley Dias loves nothing more than getting lost in a book. But the books she was starting at school were starting to get on her nerves. She enjoyed Where the Red Fem Grows and The Shiloh series, found in so many primary school classrooms, were all about white buys or dogs-or white boys and their dogs. Black girls, like Marley, were almost never the main character.
What she was noticing is actually a much bigger issue: fewer than 10 percent of children’s books released in 2015 had a black person as the main character, according to a yearly analysis by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center. In November 2015, Marley set out to gather 1,000 books with black girls as protagonists(主角). Her campaign called”#1000BlackGirlBooks”was a big success. (79) She far exceeded her goal and collected more than 10,000 books!” Through my campaign, I want to give kids a stronger sense of identity.” Marley says. (80) ”The biggest thing I’ve learned is that kid’s voices need to be heard.”
In the future, Dias wants to be the editor(编辑) of her own magazine. She is already making the steps toward having a successful and meaningful career At 11, she’s aware of the racism in the publishing industry.
Like the television and movies, the publishing industry does not represent black girls or other people of color in positive ways. The whitewashing(漂白) in this industry extend beyond not having people of color as characters. In 2012, white men wrote 88% of the book reviews. In 2013, only about 2% of the books were about black characters. Then if there are people of color in the books, the publishers attempt to whitewash people of color on the covers.
However, Dias is making it a little easier for other black girls searching for a character that is just like them. Her project is a positive step toward young black girls seeing and experiencing their lives in books.
