Multicultural Review

Multicultural Review: Young Adult Literature for Incarcerated Teens

Multicultural library services must reach out to all groups in the community, including teens that are incarcerated or re-entering society after incarceration. Not only do juvenile detention populations have a disproportionally high percentage of minority youth, but also once incarcerated, juvenile delinquents are further marginalized by society. Incarcerated youth are an outcast social class.

This collection of fiction and nonfiction is what I call the “anchor collection” of essential books about and for incarcerated youth and troubled teens. These books are appropriate for juvenile facility libraries, public libraries, and most high school libraries. Each book features main characters from various minority groups, with portrayals that are realistic and avoid stereotypes. Depending on the reader, the subject content may be completely shocking, or hit close to home. Either way, this collection should appeal to those that would like to learn about the life and culture of incarcerated youth from various backgrounds, and those who know it all too well.

Fiction

Buckhanon, Kalisha. Upstate. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2006. 256 pp. ISBN 978-0312332693, $12.95 (pb).

“When I get out we can get married real quick and start a family and buy a house where you can do hair or make clothes in the basement and I can have a music studio…We can get through it and this can happen for us. I just need for you not to be mad at me and not to leave me…” (p. 30).

Buckhanon’s debut novel about two teen sweethearts in Harlem and the pain of growing up and growing out of love is at once heartbreaking, humorous, and hopeful without sacrificing its realistic story.  Before text messages, emails, and instant messengers, people wrote each other letters – remember those? Upstate does, as it begins and ends with letters between Antonio, locked up for the murder of his father, and Natasha, his faithful girlfriend on the outs. While they believe their love can make it through absolutely everything, including Antonio’s incarceration, a near decade of correspondence might prove them wrong.

Enter Harlem, January 1990. At seventeen years old, Michael Antonio Lawrence II is awaiting trial for the stabbing death of his father. His girlfriend Natasha promises to stick with her man even as her family, neighbors, police, and classmates grill her with questions about the murder. Both teens already face less-than-ideal lives. Antonio’s family lives in the projects, and until recently dealt with an alcoholic, wife-beating father. Natasha, also from the projects, lost her own father at a young age, and now must contend with a good-for-nothing stepfather that emotionally abuses his wife and makes Natasha’s life hell. Antonio and Natasha keep each other’s spirits up by reminiscing about the past and the prospect of a future together once Antonio gets out.

Things don’t always work out the way we think it will - that’s just how life works. When Antonio’s trial goes awry, he decides to accept a plea deal for involuntary manslaughter, which gets him 10 years in prison. Natasha and Antonio might promise forever, but between family tragedies on both side, educational opportunities knocking on Natasha’s door, and Antonio doing his best to get what education and work experience he can in prison while maintaining his sanity, staying together becomes more difficult as the weeks turn into months and move into years.

This truly is a beautiful story, outlining the thrill of teenage love and the difference between saying “forever” when you’re sixteen years old to realizing exactly what “forever” really means as an adult. Buckhanon’s characters are well rounded and believable, and they use enough slang to keep the dialogue sounding natural without pushing the book into hardcore urban literature territory. Perhaps this book’s only potential flaw is the author’s treatment of the main characters’ success as adults – it’s not overly optimistic, but it does wrap up a little too neatly.

For those that enjoy YA works, and even for those who don’t, Upstate is definitely worth a look for the love story alone, and is recommended for readers that want a glimpse into the lives of youth growing up in the projects and in prison. For the teenage boys that are already incarcerated and want a good romance from their juvenile hall library, then this book deserves a read.

Myers, Walter Dean. Monster. New York: HarperTeen, 2008. 281 pp. ISBN 978-0064407311, $8.99 (pb).

“You’re young, you’re Black, and you’re on trial. What else do they need to know?” (p. 79)

Where Kalisha Buckhanon used the epistolary form for Upstate, Myers chooses a screenplay format, sprinkled with journal excerpts, for the fictional trial of Steve Harmon, a 16-year-old on trial for murder. Monster, the work’s title, is what the prosecutor calls Steve, and it’s also what Steve decides to name the imagined movie of his trial: “Monster! The Story of My Miserable Life.” As the reader works their way through the cuts, fades, and voiceovers in the screenplay, they, along with the jury, defense attorney, and Steve’s family, must ask themselves this: is Steve Harmon really a “monster”?

Steve is in a rough spot. He’s gone from being a budding high school filmmaker to the accused lookout for a robbery in Harlem that left the convenience store owner, Mr. Nesbitt, dead. It’s difficult to tell if his defense attorney, Kathy O’Brien, believes he’s innocent, but she does her best to convince the jury that Steve is different from the other three defendants – James King, Richard “Bobo” Evans, and Osvaldo Cruz - the guys that held up the store and wrestled the gun away from Mr. Nesbitt. As each courtroom scene unfolds, Steve has to convince himself that he’s sure he didn’t do anything wrong.

Never mind convincing the jury to separate Steve, a decent-looking kid, from the rest of the accused crew – try getting the reader to pull for Steve. The story itself is vague about Steve’s innocence from the beginning, which makes for a slow start to the plot. This is complicated by the fact that the main character isn’t completely sure if he’s innocent or not. For example, he testifies that he wasn’t in the convenience store on the day of the robbery, but his journal says otherwise. The ambiguity of Steve’s innocence or guilt is what drives the book at times – you’ve got to keep reading and evaluating the facts in order to come to your own conclusion.

One of the many ethical issues Monster brings up – and there are many - is the issue of equal guilt. Is a lookout considered just as guilty as the guy that actually held up the convenience store owner? This is something that the reader may especially wrestle with.

This reviewer notes that Monster is the most popular Myers book on the shelf at the Orin Allen Youth Rehabilitation Facility Library in Byron, CA. One ward mentioned that he thought the vagueness of Steve’s innocence or guilt really made the story – he liked that it kept the reader guessing. I agree. The book is admittedly a little slow, but guessing Steve’s outcome is enough incentive to follow the story all the way through. Recommended for readers that want to know what it is like to be an African-American teen on trial in today’s justice system, and for incarcerated youth looking for a good relatable, realistic story.

Nonfiction

Sanchez, Reymundo. My Bloody Life: the Making of a Latin King. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, Inc., 2001. 320 pp. ISBN 978-1556524011, $26.95 (hc).

“This is how Latino youths classify each other – gang member first, human being second” (p. 42).

The title says it all. My Bloody Life: the Making of a Latin King, recounts the brutal youth of Reymundo Sanchez (a pseudonym), a Puerto Rican immigrant in 1980s Chicago that joined the Latin Kings at the tender age of 14. Often hopeless, and chock full of violence, Sanchez presents an honest, ugly look at the painful paths that lead to a life in gangs.

Sanchez seemed doomed from birth. The son of a teen mother and a father in his 70s, Sanchez was born in the back of a pickup truck in Puerto Rico. His father died when Sanchez and his sisters were very young. His mother remarried, and life went downhill from then on. A cousin raped Sanchez at the age of five. His first stepfather physically abused him, as did the second stepfather, and finally his own mother joined in. The violence at home caused his grades to drop and incited him to act up at school, which only resulted in more beatings. Eventually left with his stepfather’s son, a drug dealer, Sanchez began experimenting with drugs and alcohol at age 12, and moved on to his first hit at age 14. That same year, he became a Pewee Latin King, known by his nickname “Lil’ Loco.”

It’s difficult to say what’s more heartbreaking about this book – Sanchez’s empty and loveless childhood, or his teenage years as a violent gang member. Is it any wonder that he joined a gang? Like so many abandoned and abused youth in his neighborhood, Sanchez joined the Latin Kings because they provided him with the protective and seemingly caring family that he never had. No matter that other Kings underwent vicious beatings for violating rules or wanting out, or that anyone could turn on another member at the drop of a hat.

Before this book is written off as completely inappropriate for teens, especially incarcerated teens, bear in mind that this book in no way puts a glamorous spin on gang life. The author is able to look back on his gangbanging days and recognize the many, many things that went horribly wrong. For teen and adult readers that have no clue what goes on in the life a gang member, My Bloody Life will be an eye-opening read. Want to know why kids join gangs? Want to know why it’s so hard for kids to leave the gang? Look no further.

For incarcerated teen boys, this is one of the “rawest” books they’ll find in a juvenile facility library. I work at a juvenile facility library twice a week, and this is one of the most sought-after books at the library. Many wards want a book that “goes crazy” and is about gang violence, guns, and sex – this is the first book I hand to them. Yes, they like the violent action, but for those that come from abusive homes, have joined a gang or considered it, the book hits close to home. Not only is it an interesting and informative read, but it also provides some redemptive value, as the author ends his ties with the Latin Kings and wishes to attend college in his new life.

Kuklin, Susan. No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2008. 224 pp. ISBN 978-0805079500, $17.99 (hc).

“Death row is no place for a kid” (p. 89).

No one needs to tell that to Roy Burgess, Jr., sentenced to death row for murder at 16 years old. Or Mark, sentenced at 14 years old. Through interviews and letters, Kuklin allows readers to glimpse into the lives of prisoners who were sentenced to death row as teenagers, to listen to stories about their upbringing, the actual crime, and life in prison.

It’s one thing to read Walter Dean Myers’ Monster to get an idea about life in prison.  It’s another to peruse the interviews in No Choirboy and walk away with real stories about the sense of community on death row versus the cutthroat nature in the general population, the wide availability of marijuana, and serious eruptions of violence. There are the screams of protest from death row inmates one hour before every execution. Then come the questions from death row inmates about capital punishment itself. Inmates can’t take their crime back, but how monstrous does a person have to be to take their life?

The book isn’t just about death row inmates. Kuklin also tells the story of Beazley family and their grief over the execution of their son, Napoleon, given the death penalty when he was 18 years old and executed at 25 years old. The Beazley story is hard to digest. While Napoleon did kill John Luttig, the father of a federal judge, his trial was marred by racially biased jurors and self-serving evidence from the two accomplices that testified against him, only to recant their testimonies years later. At the time, it was almost certain that a Napoleon, an upstanding student with no criminal record, would be handed the death penalty.

No Choirboy doesn’t take an official stance on capital punishment, but the interviews and stories presented raise several important questions about the death penalty. Is it justified? What about for juveniles that are tried as adults? How do we justify the punishment we think criminals deserve?

This is the type of book that should be circulating in high schools and juvenile hall. It not only forces the reader to ask questions about juveniles, crime, and the death penalty, but it may redirect the path of teens that are already incarcerated. There’s no going back once a crime is committed. Life without parole is a long, long time.

Rodriguez, Joseph. Juvenile. Brooklyn: powerHouse Books, 2004. 160 pp. ISBN 978-1576871386 (hc).

“Lance was in the system for 13 years, from group homes to juvenile hall, starting at age five.” (no page numbers)

Never deny the power of photography. Joseph Rodriguez, a photographer and former juvenile delinquent, documents the individuals that make up the California juvenile court system. There are few words that accompany this black-and-white collection of photographs. As it stands, the photography speaks for itself.

One of the saddest pictures is a photograph of a teen boy that mutilated his arms and legs. The picture’s caption notes that he hadn’t seen his mother in 13 years. That’s why he cut himself.

Oddly enough, while the pictures document the journeys of juveniles working their way through the California juvenile court system, a majority of the commentary is not done by the incarcerated teens, but by those that a part of the court system: social workers, probation officers, and judges. Their insights are not out of place in the book, but the commentary might be more effective if a majority of it came from the teens.

Naturally, this book is a quick read, as it is mostly photographs. While the previous four books are all well written stories and give excellent peeks into the lives of incarcerated youth, photography can tell a story in ways that the written word cannot. This time around, readers can actually see where these teens are coming from, their living conditions, and their faces.

Readers will appreciate this short read for packing a hefty punch with each photograph. Incarcerated youth will appreciate the photographs of teens like themselves – teens from all different backgrounds that share the common bond of being locked up. 

Scholarly Review #4

"LIS schools purport to offer unlimited possibilities for social advancement, but they simultaneously maintain structures that severely limit the probability of advancement for those at the bottom of the social scale, or for those who are different than the mainstream" (455).


Dr. Ismail Abdullahi, currently an associate professor at North Carolina Central University, is no stranger to education in the LIS profession. A graduate of the Royal School of Library and Information Science in Denmark and the University of Pittsburgh, and a former faculty member of Clark Atlanta University and the University of Southern Mississippi, Dr. Abdullahi has written and lectured about international LIS education, multicultural services, and the digital divide - just to name a few - in several countries. As a notable member of the American Library Association's International Relations Round Table (IRRT) and the recipient of several awards, Dr. Abdullahi continues to research the international library field.


In his paper Diversity and Intercultural Issues in Library and Information Science (LIS) Education, Abdullahi acknowledges that although the treatment of diversity in LIS education is superficial and not reflective of the current level of diversity in society, there is a way to successfully and systematically improve LIS educators and curriculum to include diversity issues. At the center of Abdullahi's paper are four distinct characteristics that "define the culturally responsive LIS teacher" (453), which include the following: being socioculturally conscious, maintaining affirming views of students with diverse backgrounds, feeling responsible for educational change, and finally, using knowledge of students' background to give their students adequate access to learning. Not only should these characteristics be central to LIS educators, but it is argued that the future LIS curriculum inherit the same characteristics. 


The author breaks down the four characteristics further, exploring their importance to LIS educators and new LIS professionals. Sociocultural consciousness challenges information professionals to understand their students or patrons by first exploring their own sociocultural identity, which includes race, cultural groups, language, and gender. Sociocultural consciousness as described by Abdullahi is not so different from examining the "tiles" that make up one's cultural mosiac. Educators must also maintain an affirming view of their students from diverse backgrounds by validating the existence of differing perspectives. This goes beyond tolerance of different backgrounds, as affirmation involves supporting and including these students in the classroom and viewing their background as assets to the classroom experience, rather than viewing them as a hinderance that needs to be replaced by the dominant world view.


The last two characteristics, the commitment to act as an agent of change and the willingness to incorporate culturally responsive teaching practices go hand-in-hand together. Libraries have the power to change society, provided they can get past the bureaucratic tape. LIS educators also have the ability to influence change, by challenging injustices and inequalities in the library profession, and socializing their students, the budding LIS professionals, into agents of change. Once the LIS educator has committed to change their profession, curriculum, and their students by bringing diversity issues to the center of the classroom, then the educator can incorporate culturally responsive instruction practices. A large part of the culturally responsive curriculum encompasses empathy, inclusiveness, and knowledge of each student's diverse background.


Abdullahi creates a clear and realistic framework for promoting and including diversity education in the LIS profession beyond the current trend of pushing diversity education to the sidelines. This vision of an increasingly diversity-inclusive multicultural services may not happen immediately, but if every LIS educator exhibited those four characteristics of a culturally responsive educator, it may happen sooner than later. If every LIS educator started out each semester with a cultural mosiac exercise, then perhaps the importance of diversity issues in LIS education and the amount of culturally responsive LIS educators and students will match the increasing diversity of our society.

References

Abdullahi, I. (2007). Diversity and intercultural issues in library and information science (LIS) 

education. New Library World, 108(9/10), 453-459.  

American Library Association. (n.d.). Notable IRRT member Ismail Abdullahi. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/rts/irrt/notablemembers/abdullahi.cfm.

Social Bookmark #4: Library Booklists - Young Adult Diverse and Multicultural Fiction

Librarybooklists.org: Young Adult Diverse and Multicultural Fiction

This annotated booklist of diverse and multicultural fiction comes from Librarybooklists.org, a website that includes booklists gathered from libraries throughout the nation, and original bookslists created by the websmaster for the Waterboro Public Library. This is possibly the most diverse annotated list of booklists that I have come across on the Internet. Five booklist categories cover ethnicity and race, religion, gender, sexuality, and disability. Most entries in the list note when the list was compiled or last updated, and many lists are no more than four years old. Some interesting booklists include: From Strangers to Neighbors: Race, Dignity and Acceptance Beyond To Kill a Mockingbird: For Older Children, Aboriginal Books for Teens, and Rebound: Teens Dealing with Disabilities. For all of the list's positive aspects, do watch out for broken links - it may take some digging around on the library's website to find the updated list.

Social Bookmark #3: Racialicious

Racialicious

The Racialicious blog, covering the intersection of race and pop culture on the World Wide Web since 2004, is what del.icio.us would be if all the links focused on race and pop culture (hence the blog name). In fact, readers of the blog and users of del.icio.us can plug the "for:racialicious" tag in del.icio.us links to send Racialicious tips. This resource isn't specifically geared toward librarians, but all librarians - especially librarians that work with diverse populations - should consider reading Racialicious at least once a week in order to stay informed about current issues regarding race in pop culture and mass media. Explore the book reviews (Broken Arrow: Native Men's Writing, Art and Culture), the news links of the day ("Google Bans 'Latina' from Search Results"), and coverage of new music (Korean-American sisters from the group Misnomer(S) break down hip-hop stereotypes). Content is not limited to news in the United States, but any important news involving race throughout the world.

Scholarly Article #2: White Privilege

“9. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.”

McIntosh, P. (1990). White privilege: unpacking the invisible knapsack. Independent School, 49(2) 31-36.

Lateness without association to race is a white privilege? Of all the privileges Peggy McIntosh mentions under her “daily effects of white privilege” list, the above item stands out over the others for being a pointed example of exactly how white privilege permeates everyday activities. The idea that an act as simple as arriving late to an appointment can be connected to one’s race may seem absurd to some, but for those that have come up short on white privilege, it is very real. This reviewer cannot count how many times she has heard someone was late because they were running on (insert minority group here) time. So-and-so is late because they run on Black time. Samoan time. Filipino time. Try inserting “white” into that phrase. It does not work as well.

Welcome to McIntosh’s white privilege, a set of advantages that are largely denied, protected, and unacknowledged by whites. To better understand white privilege, the author compares white privilege to the not-so-different male privilege, in the sense that it is an advantage that is denied, unacknowledged, and for the most part, unconscious. For example, men will readily agree that yes, women are disadvantaged, while simultaneously refusing to recognize their own advantage of male privilege. It is a convenient sort of protection – as long as the privilege goes unacknowledged, there are no ways to end it.

Just as males are trained to ignore their own privileges, so are whites taught not to recognize white privilege. From a white perspective, it is easy to see minority groups at a disadvantage due to racism. According to McIntosh, however easy it is for whites to acknowledge racism putting others at a disadvantage, it is equally difficult to admit that white privilege exists and gives whites an advantage that they unconsciously enjoy on a daily basis. The author turns to her own schooling to explain why these advantages are unconscious: as the dominant social norm, whites are taught that they are the norm, that racism is an individual act.

In order to work toward ending white privilege, McIntosh penned a list of white privileges in her daily life. It is an attempt to firstly describe and identify white privilege, and secondly, once accountable for white privilege, find a way to reduce the unfair advantages. McIntosh prefaces her list of white privileges with the observation that while she can count on these privileges in her day-to-day life, her African-American acquaintances cannot. The list itself is exhaustive, and it is depressing to find that much of the list constitutes privileges that should be the norm in society.

McIntosh firmly believes that acknowledging and identifying the many benefits of white skin will change the social power system in a way that changing attitudes about racism will not – calling out the disadvantages of other social groups but not the advantages of other groups protects the ones in power. This article, originally published in 1988, notes that systematic change takes decades, and 22 years later, how far has acknowledgement of white privilege gone? For those in the LIS profession, there is much emphasis on multicultural services, diversity, and the like.; after reading McIntosh, one must wonder if there is a place for discussions about recognizing white privilege and how acknowledgement can lead to its end.

Social Bookmark #2: A History of Mixed Race in the U.S.

A History of Mixed Race in the U.S.

Courtesy of News21, a national journalism program, comes The New Voters: Identity and U.S. Politics and their innovative coverage of the fastest-growing set of new voters: mixed-race, Latinos, and youth. Produced by 12 University of Maryland journalism fellows, The New Voters uses interactive and mixed media to tell the stories of these growing groups of voters. While all of their stories are worth viewing, A History of Mixed Race in the U.S. stands out for its combination text, audio, and images to create an interactive timeline of mixed race in the United States. The timeline starts in 1614 with the first interracial marriage in America, Pocahontas and John Rolfe, and ends with the 2010 Census, significant because it will continue to allow respondents to select more than one race category. Brush up on America's mixed race history and find out when each state banned interracial marriage; read about Pace vs. Alabama; listen to audio of President Nixon discussing Roe v. Wade and the necessity of abortions when "you have a black and white."

(Seriously, though, be sure to check out the other videos and stories on the site - it's good stuff.)

Scholarly Review #1: Diversity, inclusion, and underrepresented populations in LIS research.

“Only a small number of LIS programs have committed to diversity as a key educational focus. While the American Library Association accreditation guidelines for MLS programs include language that issues of diversity need to be covered to some extent in instruction, few LIS programs have made diversity an explicit pedagogical focus” (p. 179).

Authors Jaeger, Bertot, and Franklin (2010) highlight the imbalance between librarianship’s professional commitment to deliver services and outreach to increasingly diverse communities, and the actual amount of diversity within the librarian profession – specifically, the lack of diversity among librarians, library administrators, and library and information science students. Latinos and African Americans account for less than 10 percent of practicing librarians and LIS full-time faculty. As for other diverse groups – those with disabilities, individuals that are socioeconomically disadvantaged, and individuals representing gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender groups – the authors note a distinct gap in studies that attempt to track the representation of these diverse groups within the LIS profession.

The findings in this article are consistent with the results of the American Library Association (ALA) study titled Diversity Counts. Released in 2006, this “comprehensive study of gender, race and age in the library profession” (ALA, 2010) used 1990 and 2000 census data to survey the diversity of almost 110,000 librarians. The result: a majority of the librarians were between the ages of 45-54, female, and white. While the data used in Diversity Counts is a decade old at this point, Jaeger, Bertot, and Franklin’s article cites studies from the past four years, studies that continue to point to the lack of diversity in the LIS profession.

Besides turning the spotlight on diversity within the LIS profession, this article also focuses on the importance of LIS research about underrepresented populations, and the seemingly endless opportunities to research this topic in relation to LIS. Pick an underrepresented social group and explore their information needs. Research the affects of a study on a social group. Connect a diverse population to an LIS issue or policy. The article gives numerous examples of possible research topics relating to diversity and LIS (SLIS students, take note), giving the reader the impression that many of these topics have been and are currently being pursued by LIS scholars. The problem, according to the authors, is that LIS scholars are doing the exact opposite: they are not researching diversity.

There are no negatives in promoting the importance of increased LIS research about diversity and underrepresented groups. If librarians are to continue to provide quality services to diverse populations (and the United States is not getting any less diverse), then they need to increase their knowledge of diversity-based research. Likewise, LIS students would better serve their future patrons by including some form of diversity research in their studies – this also means that directors of ALA-accredited LIS programs must do their part by including and emphasizing research about diversity in their MLIS curriculum. Finally, increased research about diversity has a direct affect on increasing diversity within the profession – if individuals from underrepresented groups see themselves as important in LIS research, then they might begin to identify with the field. A lack of research about diversity and inclusion tells underrepresented groups that they are unimportant and invisible, which is something that should not happen at the hands of LIS scholars.

The focus on diversity within the LIS profession at the staffing and research level poses a number of questions for the reader to consider. For LIS students, both past and present, think about the diversity of the faculty and the emphasis of the courses at your school – how many course readings covered topics related to diversity? Did your program help you become more comfortable with meeting the information needs of diverse populations? Did the courses help you become more comfortable with diversity in general? It is time for LIS scholars and schools to move faster in terms of diversity research and education, as the article states, in order to keep up with our nation’s diverse population and ever-changing needs.

Sources:

American Library Association. (2010). Diversity counts. Retrieved from http://www.pla.org/ala/aboutala/offices/diversity/diversitycounts/divcounts.cfm

Jaeger, P. T., Bertot, J. C., & Franklin, R. E. (2010). Diversity, inclusion, and underrepresented populations in LIS research. Library Quarterly, 80, 175-181.

Social Bookmark #1

(reposted from Delicious)

Biracial Identity Flint Public Library

The Flint Public Library provides an annotated bibliography of biracial identity resources. A majority of the bibliography consists of nonfiction books owned by the FPL. The nonfiction titles tend to focus on black/white biracial identity, but titles highlighting mixed-raced Asian Americans, mixed-race Latino Americans, and multiracial identities are also highlighted (see What are you?: Voices of Mixed-Race Young People edited by Pearl Fuyo Gaskins and Among Us: Essays on Identity, Belonging and Intercultural Competence edited by Myron W. Lusting and Jolene Loester). The bibliography ends with three major websites geared toward those that consider themselves interracial; unfortunately, the link to Interacial Voice is broken and the online news journal ended in 2003. However, the links to Mavin and The Multicultural Activist work, and both websites are updated regularly. Overall, this bibliography is a good starting point for those needing multiracial identity resources.

If you know who you are, it makes it easier for everyone else.

Chao, G. T., & Moon, H. (2005). The cultural mosaic: A metatheory for understanding the complexity of culture. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(6), 1128–1140.

Once upon a time in my undergraduate years, my sociology professor mentioned that society likes to categorize, because it creates a feeling of being in control. It’s easy. It’s comforting. It makes people uncomfortable and, in some cases, upset, when they are unable to categorize another person. The cultural values and identities that make up an individual are incredibly complex – so much so that a society that wants to fit individuals into neat, organized categories may find that task much more difficult. Chao and Moon (2005) propose that an individual is made up of a “cultural mosaic” and one’s cultural identity pulls from the different “tiles” – age, gender, family, religion, geography, etc. Our individual cultural mosaics are complex and made from many tiles. The question, “What are you?” has no simple answer when we are cultural mosaics.

In response to the question above, which I have heard several times throughout my life, here are my tiles.

Demographic tiles: 25 years old. My Filipino-Irish mother (who looks Italian) and Filipino-Chinese-Nicaraguan father (who looks Latino and racially unmixed) handed down dark hair, light skin, and a petite stature. Oh, and a poor aptitude for mathematics. My parents are children of immigrants. My paternal grandfather arrived in Georgia from the Philippines as a houseboy for a U.S. general. My paternal grandmother came from Nicaragua, but I can’t remember how or why. My mother’s father escaped from the Philippines soon after World War II, and her mother is a fifth-generation Irish-American and the only non-immigrant out of my grandparents. I do not speak Tagalog or Spanish, but I wish I did. I grew up eating vegetarian Filipino food and fried Nicaraguan cheese. Extended family gatherings included Filipino, Nicaraguan, Italian, Portuguese, and Samoan relatives. In the end, though, I mostly feel very American.

Geographic tiles: Born and raised in San Francisco, California. I grew up a block away from the Mission District, and lived next door to a gas station and across the street from Mitchell’s Ice Cream. My playground was in the Upper Noe neighborhood, where Sister Act was filmed. Weekends were spent at my grandparent’s house in Pacifica, five minutes away from the beach and always shrouded in fog. My elementary school, located in the Ingleside neighborhood, did not have a field for physical education activities. We ran laps in the parking lot.

When I was eight years old, my family moved an hour east of San Francisco to Antioch, CA and we’ve been here ever since. The suburbs are vastly different from San Francisco. The community is more conservative and predominantly Caucasian, although that demographic is rapidly changing with the influx of residents from San Francisco, Oakland, and Richmond. It is insanely hot – summers are vicious. Public transportation is terrible. I miss urban life.

Associative tiles: I am a shyer person, but I have my groups. The relationship with my immediate family has gone up and down – I mostly get along with them these days. My work group varies, since I’m a library substitute and work at libraries all over the county. I’m friendly with many of my coworkers, and I would consider myself friends with a handful of them.  My tight-knit group of friends includes longtime friends from elementary school, high school, and college. The Seventh-day Adventist Church fills my religious tile, although I lean toward the progressive side of the church rather than the increasingly conservative side.

What a hodgepodge of tiles that make up multicultural mosaic me.

Getting to know you

*waves to my fellow LIS 7370 classmates*

For starters, my name is Courtney and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I graduated from La Sierra University with a degree in English: Literature, and I've been interested in librarianship since taking a course in YA literature. This is my third semester at WSU, and my first semester taking a full load of courses - I really hope I survive. Provided all goes well, I aim to graduate next summer. After years of being firmly rooted in public librarianship and teen services, my current area of interest is in academic librarianship.

I currently work for the Contra Costa County Library  as a Library Assistant - Permanent Intermittent, which is a fancy way of saying that I'm a substitute in the library system, picking up assignments as needed and setting my own work schedule - it's a nifty way to balance school and work, but the downside is that substitutes do not get health benefits. On the plus side, I've had the opportunity to work at libraries all over the county, from libraries in wealthier areas with privileged patrons to libraries in poorer communities that include large homeless populations to community libraries that have patrons from all backgrounds and social classes. I've enjoyed working in culturally diverse community libraries (more so than other libraries) and I hope to use the knowledge and skills gained in this course to adequately meet the informational needs of patrons from all cultural backgrounds.

With what little free time I have, I like taking naps (bring back naptime!), reading manga, playing video games, and spending quality time at the beach.