In celebration of Black History Month, I’ve decided to bring you this blog about the importance of reading diversity. Because I do write YA horror too, and have younger readers who I hope to inspire, I’ll explain the “why” in why we should be reading diversity.
Diversity has been and still is a widely discussed topic in the literary world — and for good reason. Just as it is important to read outside your preferred genre, as I talk about in my blog here, it is and will always be important that we read a variety of authors from a variety of backgrounds.
Some of these backgrounds may include gender and or sexual orientation, race and or ethnicity, age, social class, and origin or nationality. It is often easy to pick up a book with characters who are similar to us. So, it is important that we seek out books with main characters who are different, written by a variety of authors.
“But why?” you might ask. The answer is simple really. When we read diversly, we are learning about other people and their cultures. We learn what it is like to be them, what their lives are like, their families, their culture, and their struggles. It helps us to understand other people and why they feel the way they do about certain social issues, and it creates empathy and understanding in the reader. Afterall, if we only read books by people who look like us, how will we ever learn? The only opinions about others that we will know are of those around us, those who look like we do, speak like we do, and have had the same struggles as we have.
Therefore, our view of the world is minimized. We are only seeing one grain of sand in an entire beach, one star in the galaxy, if you will. If we only knew one star, we would miss out on all the cool planets and other exciting stuff.
When we only read authors who are like us, we miss out on an entire world of culture and experiences. Plus, learning about others is a good thing. It makes us more empathetic and compassionate. It destroys all those hateful things like racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, sexism, etc. And that, my friends, is an awesome thing.
What easier way to fight back against hate than to read? That’s simple, right? So, the next time you are asking yourself “How can I fight back?” or “How can I change the world?” Pick up a book and learn. You might be surprised at the things you thought you knew but didn’t. You might learn a little more about other people, and the next time you hear those hateful lies, you’ll have the mental ammunition to fight back.
Here is a list of books written by black women to get you started. I do hope you enjoy. And who knows, maybe you’ll learn something new.
Xoxoxo
Happy reading.
