This was originally published May 3, 2018 and updated January 24, 2020

Yup! You read that correctly. Cultural appropriation in children’s books.  But how is that even possible? So, let me take a few steps back and then we will get into the nitty gritty of this unique topic.

So, this morning I was corresponding with my cousin who just welcomed his first baby and I wanted to send him a gift.  Me being me, of course I wanted to send him some children’s book but I didn’t want to send the usual suspects.  I wanted to send them something fun, modern, and with a touch of hip hop! I immediately thought of several books that I looked into to buying for my shop thedopekid.  However, there was this other book that I noticed in passing through researching hip hop themed children’s book. So, I checked Amazon for the book and it was currently unavailable.

Yes, I know you are saying to yourself, the book is not available, just find a new book and move on.  But after spending so much time researching children’s books, reading thousands of children’s book, and understanding some of the nuances of the industry, I didn’t want to let this book that displayed diverse characters go that easily, especially when the characters are African American ones.

According to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, there were 3500 children’s books published in the United States in 2017. Of these 3500 books, only 319 displayed an African American character or roughly 9.1%. Even more astonishing, only 3% of these children’s books author were also African American.

Given these statistics, I do my due diligence with regards to purchasing diverse books. So, in my quest to buy the book “AB to Jay-Z” by Jessica & Danny Chiha, things took a dark turn.

I first noticed the comments section on Amazon.

Okay! You can’t believe everything you read on the internet. Thus, I did some more digging and found an Instagram post.

Yet again, I try to give people the benefit of the doubt and want to really figure out if it is true and I found what match sparked it all!

Erica Dinero Kelley (@sweetfacedinero) emailed a distributor on Facebook and asked a simple question “Is the company black owned”. This company decided to answer “Does it matter?”

Well, yes it does matter. Remember the statistics from earlier… African American characters are only displayed in 9% of children’s books. Thus, our representation is very limited. Therefore, a children’s book that represents us should come from an authentic voice. In the cases for African American’s in children books, this authentic voice is only represented 3% of the time.

So, how we are represented is important, especially if it is not from an authentic voice!!!

http://www.justmeomaya.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/img_6449.mov

For example, we own the book “Jabari Jumps” by Gaia Cornwall. It is about a young African American boy who is conquering a fear of jumping off the diving board. The first thing that struck me about this book was the name Jabari. I went to school with a Jabari. There was a trend in the African American community to name children with African names like Aaliyah, Ashanti, and yes Jabari! Even though, she is not African American, she shows cultural understanding and respect.

She does not view African American culture through a lens of cultural appropriation which is defined as the taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture.

 

I applaud the authors like Gaia Cornwall that choose to represent us given we are so sparsely represented.

I cannot applaud Jessica & Danny Chiha and their book “AB to Jay-Z” because they are clearly lacking any understanding of Africans Americans and our culture.

Someone who understands anything about African Americans would never post this picture to their business Instagram account.

Anyone who loves and respects Hip Hop culture would never wear it like a costume like this …

Or write an article that explains upgrading your friends with African Americans as the example of people you should upgrade from. Read his lovely article here! 👉🏾Danny Chiha: Co-Author

 

Or promise to give proceeds to charity … read more here

With minority’s representing so little of the market in children’s books, this has allowed an Australian couple to carelessly disrespect and degrade a group of people without issue.

Maybe if there were more authentic voices being published, a book like this would have already been in the marketplace or there would be such a wide variety of books available, authors like Jessica Chiha and Danny Chiha would not receive funding.

However, therein lies the bigger issue. According to a study conducted in 2015 by the publisher Lee & Low Books, that examined staff diversity in publishing, it was discovered that almost 80% of publishing staff members identify as white. Thus, if you are not part of a community, you may not look outside your own community.

Nonetheless, after this exhaustive discovery, I did not purchase this book!

Here are some measures you can take to stop the momentum of the Chiha’s books AB to Jay -Z and 1,2,3 with the Notorious B. I. G and their cultural insensitivity

1. GET MAD! If you have trouble putting into words how angry you are, Michael Harriot has eloquently expressed that here

2. Comment on all of their Facebook and Instagrams posts consistently. Yes, they will delete them but not before you have scared off a potential buyer. Their link on Facebook and their link on Instagram

3. Repost any image from above and use the hashtag #ABtoJay-Z

4. Pressure retailer Nordstrom to stop carrying their book. (Update May 8, 2018; Nordstrom pulled this book)

5. Pressure Shopify to take down their website

6. Sign this petition Change.org

7. Donate to We Need Diverse Books to see more representation in literature!

8. Don’t Quit!

 

Enough is enough.

It’s 2018.

Let’s have compassion and love for one another.

Not hate.

 

 UPDATE: As of December 4, 2019, Hip Hop Billionaire Jay-Z has sued the makers of AB to Jay-Z for “use of his name, likeness, and references to ‘99 problems’ in the book and other Little Homie products is ‘a deliberate and knowing attempt to trade off the reputation and goodwill’ of the rapper, and uses his intellectual property ‘for their own commercial gain.’”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.blackenterprise.com/jay-z-suing-little-homie-for-copyright-infringement/amp/

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Maya

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