written by Love Isn’t Enough columnist Liz Dwyer; originally published at Los Angelista’s Guide to the Pursuit of Happiness
One of the most inspiring stops during my whirlwind trip to New York City was the Studio Museum in Harlem. Located on bustling 125th Street, the museum features an amazing array of work by a diverse spectrum of African American artists.
A $7 donation gives you the chance to absorb pieces by Romare Bearden and photographer James Van Der Zee. However, I really loved seeing Elizabeth Catlett-Mora’s 1954 linocut on paper piece titled “Separation” and Ellen Gallager’s 2004-05 series of 60 etchings called “DeLuxe“, a thought-provoking commentary on standards of beauty, particularly the pursuit of light skin and long hair.
Of course, before leaving the museum, I headed over to the museum store to pick up some gifts for my sons. I decided to
buy the museum’s Coloring Book For Little Artists. Retailing for $7, the coloring book features about a dozen images created exclusively for the museum, like this 2006 drawing by Kadir Nelson titled “Cookieman”.
When my six year-old saw this image of a little boy eating a gigantic cookie, he immediately said, “I wanna eat that cookie!” and then, as he examined the picture more closely, he squealed, “Does he have an afro??? COOL!”
It got me thinking, not for the first time, how my boys love to color but it’s rare that they have the opportunity to color images of people of African descent – or for that matter, Asian or Latino folks. I’ve always bemoaned the lack of people of color in fashion magazines, but today’s coloring books are less diverse than an issue of Vogue.
My boys love superhero coloring books, but chances are slim that the images contained in one will be males of color – after all, most superheroes are white males (or white male mutants). Not that there isn’t diversity in the superhero universe, but it’s difficult to find it and not every superhero gets the attention that Superman, Batman and Iron Man do.
My two son’s self-esteem isn’t reliant on their being able to color images that look like them, but it means something for them to be able to do so. It would actually be a good thing for children of all backgrounds to be able to color diverse images. I just wish it was easier for parents to purchase coloring books -and really all media- with diverse images of adults, children, superheroes or cartoon characters.
In the meantime, I’ll be photocopying the pages from the Coloring Book for Little Artists. At $7 a pop, this coloring book isn’t cheap, and I want my sons coloring those pictures over and over.
Google ‘African American Coloring Book’, and you’ll come up with a lot. Dover has this one for $4.
Also, I have a great coloring book of Black Cowboys. I think this is the one.
Funny reading this post today. We were watching an episode of “Caillou” today. He was visiting a friend’s house, who is of black (of which descent, we are not given an indication). He had pictures on his walls, like a kid does of people, with stick arms and big heads. ALL the artwork, supposedly done by this child, was all “colorless.” My immediate reaction was “funny that he didn’t draw people who looked like him and his family!”
I think my daughter might be part Touareg – she keeps coloring people in blue.
Perhaps there’s a good source on the Web? I just googled for online coloring book and browsing around I found some good…oh, wow. Never mind:
http://www.thecolor.com/Coloring/Meeting-The-Natives.aspx
I wish we did have more coloring books and stories that weren’t so monochromatic. Quite frankly, this is the level that IS important–because it’s so ordinary and it SHOULD be ordinary to pick up a coloring book at your local toy store or supermarket and see people of different races not dressed up in their “native/ancestrally ethnic” costumes but just riding bikes and walking the dog and eating ice cream. Normal shouldn’t always be defaulted as white and unfortunately it now is (as in “I don’t think of you as Asian, I just think of you as normal!” I comment I got continuously by Well Intentioned but Dumb Friends.
If you want licensed Latino characters, there are plenty of Diego and Dora coloring books out there. That’s obviously not enough variety, but it’s better than nothing.
Thanks, all for weighing in. I want what Jennifer said – to be able to go to Target and pick out any coloring book for my boys and voila, there’s diversity right there in the pages. Every parent should have that option instead of having to order it like it’s a specialty item.
Wow, I might have to buy one of those! I teach English as a second language to Portuguese preschoolers and at the school where I was working last year, I had this student, this bright, beautiful African-Portuguese little five-year-old girl. She would always get really upset when there were no more puppets to choose than the black girl – which all the other girls always fought over, because her bow was pink. Even when I asked the class to do self portraits and family portraits, all she would draw was blonde, blue-eyed people, and she would always get really upset when I tried to suggest that maybe the mom on the drawing would look a lot more like her own mom if she used the brown crayon etc. She was the only black girl amongst around 200 children, but funny enough, her drawings didn’t resemble the Portuguese, who are mainly light-skinned, but with dark hair and dark eyes. (in fact, the only one looking even remotely like the people she was drawing, was me). Does anyone have any input on how else I could have handled this situation? I tried to talk to her classroom teacher, but she didn’t think it was important at all, and the school director was – “colorblind”.
I’m doing research on Native American coloring books; there are plenty available and they have become more accurate, but its always about life in the past. This gives kids the impression that Native people no longer exist and fails to educate them on present day social, political & economic issues.