It is important for children’s librarians to understand the differences between diversity and inclusion issues involving children’s literature. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, diversity is “the state of having people who are different races or who have different cultures in a group or organization.” This would involve including stories with text and illustrations depicting children of different ethnicities and cultures in children’s literature. Librarians should look at their collections and search for stereotypes and racial inaccuracies of non-white ethnicities or other cultures. Additionally, the children’s materials collection should contain stories as diverse as its community. The collection should not feature an all “White” appeal or perspective, for all children need to learn the reality of their world through a multicultural lens. If librarians and educators lift their veil of white privilege and demand more diverse reading materials from publishers, publishers will provide, for they sell “primarily to the institutional markets . . . [and they] control the first gate in the production of children’s books” (Atkins, n.d.).
Inclusion is the idea that when children read books, they should be able to identify with the characters and events in the story. Through these characters, children should be able to relate the beliefs, actions, and emotions to themselves (DiAngelo, 2011). Bishop (as found in Koss, 2015), relates this idea to looking through a window and looking into a mirror. The idea is that when children see other children similar to themselves in literature, it is like looking into a mirror at themselves. When children see the lives of others in literature, especially those unlike themselves, it is like looking through a window. Currently, due to the predominance of White children pictured in storybooks, White people see themselves pictured as heroes, heroines, role-models, and teachers consistently. Unfortunately, non-whites are not often included in these pictures. This sends the wrong idea to both White children and non-white children.
The title of Verna Myers’ (2012) article “Diversity Is Being Invited to the Party; Inclusion Is Being Asked to Dance” simply explains the difference between diversity and inclusion. A book that has non-white characters is a good start to diversity, but a book that shows the interaction of deeply evolved characters from a variety of ethnic backgrounds goes even further in the quest for true multiculturalism. This same article confirms this idea by stating: “Diversity is about quantity. Inclusion is about quality” (Myers, 2012). We need to go past just diversity where differences are celebrated and also make sure children can see themselves reflected in books which are inclusive. There needs to be quality literature with well-developed characters that celebrate the “whole human” and not just differences (Hegamin, 2015).
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