Author’s Korean Connections

Parenting Across Race

Posted by Shadow Guide on Apr 5, 2013 in Author's Korean Connections, On Other Resources for Educators, On Transracial Adoption | Comments Off on Parenting Across Race

A new essay I wrote,”Raising Yunhee” on transracial adoption and parenting across race, has just been published at Korean American Story.

“Adopting Yunhee was one journey; raising her was another. My own passion for Korea, which became my second homeland and the source of my second culture and second language, made me determined to give Yunhee a sense of her birth legacy. But how does a white American, even one who grew up in Korea, raise a Korean American – on an island in Maine?“

Yunhee was the model for Brianna in Brianna, Jamaica and the Dance of Spring

The essay examines how we attempted to give our daughter not just a sense of where she came from, but also encouragement to voice her experience of growing up as an American of color, and the challenge that posed for us as white parents:

“Talking about race gave Yunhee permission and language to unpack her own observations and experiences, and a structure for understanding the nuances of racial identity in America. At various ages and stages, it helped her find her voice to express her grief, her rage, her confusion (at age six, “Why couldn’t somebody in Korea take care of me?”)… It was essential for me not just to convey that all her thoughts and feelings were welcome, but also to become aware enough of the filter of my own white and non-adopted privilege that I could respect Yunhee’s authority in naming realities as she perceived them. I had to work to not inadvertently discount her observations and difficulties just because I wished they weren’t true.”

Korean American Story is building a fine and useful archive of narratives across the spectrum of Korean American identity, a significant contribution to exploring what it means to be American.
Go take a look.

Tribute

Posted by Shadow Guide on Sep 23, 2012 in Author's Korean Connections | 3 comments

To the man whose life and works built the foundation on which I stand:

John Rawson Sibley

October 7, 1926 – June 24, 2012

He taught me in words, but more powerfully in deeds, that we are all one family, that every person I meet is my sister or brother, that each of us has infinite and equal worth and value.

And that, given this truth, we can only respond to the world as it is with fierce compassion, a fire for justice, and a desire to alleviate suffering wherever it is found.

He modeled a hunger for and delight in connection across differences of race, class, religion, language and culture.

He dared to imagine a better world, to see visions of what was possible, and to give his all in pursuit of a dream.

He inspired me to shine.

Encounter

Posted by Shadow Guide on Mar 12, 2012 in Author's Korean Connections, On Other Resources for Educators | Comments Off on Encounter

Yesterday I spoke on a panel for an SCBWI New England event on using marketing consultants at the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts. Lovely to make the trip with Kirsten Cappy of Curious City, and writer-illustrator Cathryn Falwell.

During lunch we got to spend a few minutes viewing the exhibit of Kadir Nelson paintings published in the book, We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball. The illustrations are stunning, and the exhibit far more so, because the actual oil paintings are huge.

Entering the gallery, you encounter the life-size figure of catcher and slugger Josh Gibson, who hit 75 home runs in 1931. The painting (also the book’s cover illustration) is hung so that the ball player and museum visitor meet eye to eye. Gibson has a powerful, almost mythical presence, rendered with extraordinary lifelike detail, from gleaming flesh to fraying fabric around the collar. Brushstrokes in the surrounding sky suggest motion, as if the air around the still figure is vibrating.

The paintings are striking in their strength, depth of color, contrast in light and shadow, and stylistic distortions that make them more expressive and memorable than if they were photo-realistic. As a group, they are a vivid and indelible account, bringing the players of the Negro League alive. An added delight is the display of rough thumbnail sketches.

This summer, the paintings will be on display at the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum in Pittsburgh. Three, including the portrait of Josh Gibson, have been purchased by the Muskegon Museum of Art in Michigan.

The artist is quoted in an exhibition brochure:

“What I found most striking was the story of the Negro League; its overwhelming success despite the daunting odds against it. The spirit of independence, having made something out of nothing at all. Armed with only intellectual and athletic talents, and the sheer will to play the game that they loved so dearly, this group of men assumed control of their destiny. After being pushed out of the game by an overwhelming majority, African-Americans, rather than giving up, formed leagues of their own, successful leagues that lasted almost thirty years.

“Overall, I hope that I have done justice to these somewhat forgotten men and given them the tribute that they deserve. I don’t wish to deify them but rather honor them, portray them as the heroes they were and further solidify their place in history.“

They Didn’t Get That From Me!

Posted by Shadow Guide on Oct 25, 2011 in Author's Korean Connections, On Events & Presentations , On Other Resources for Educators | 2 comments

In our joint school visits, as author Margy Burns Knight talks, I often sketch the face of an imagined child in each session, leaving the school with a group of portraits of diverse children. Several years ago, presenting our book Africa is Not a Country at a Maine school, I was sketching a series of children who could be from African countries. As the collection of portraits grew throughout the day, we asked students, “What do you notice about the pictures? What’s the same about the children? What’s different?”

A second grade boy pointed to the image of a brown-skinned girl wearing a scarf around her head. “She’s so poor,” he remarked in a solemn tone. “And she’s sad, so, so sad.”

In truth, the portrait was of a smiling girl, at least as happy-looking as any of the other drawings. (To add to the intrigue of the comment, the student making it was brown-skinned himself, an African-American child adopted by a white family.) A conversation ensued, in language appropriate to second graders, about “funny ideas” we sometimes have about Africa, and perhaps brown people – such as that everyone is poor and sad.

Has a child in your care ever burst out with a racial comment that puzzled, embarrassed, or distressed you? The more we explore race with children, the more it’s likely to happen. One of the outcomes of getting children to share their observations is that if we’re effective, we’ll get to hear what children are actually thinking about race – and some of their ideas are not what we might wish. Our first response may be the horrified defense, “S/he couldn’t have gotten it from me!” The good news is, you’re probably right.

In our presentation, “Books As Bridges” (see previous post), Krista Aronson, psychologist and Bates college professor of psychology, shared research results that “children rely more on community norms than parental norms.” As an example, she noted that parents new to a community may speak with an accent, but their children will soon sound like their classmates.

So where do children’s ideas about race come from?

1. Socialized Roles

Children are keen observers. If they see people segregated in distinctly different types of housing, jobs, classrooms, positions of authority, etc., they absorb this information.

2. The Soup

All day long, all of us, including children, are surrounded by and bombarded with images and information. Children notice, without the skills to deconstruct why, who’s portrayed and how.

3. Silence

When adults respond to questions and comments about race with discomfort and shushing, or never raise the subject at all, children learn that race is something not to be discussed, like something bad or dangerous.

This is why talking about race is so crucial for children’s development. If we don’t engage kids in conversations that give them permission and language to say what’s on their minds, to voice the associations they’re making and the conclusions they’re reaching, all of this conditioning goes unchallenged. When we provide a safe place for children to speak, we get the opportunity to engage with them and offer them the skills to break the silence, to interrogate the Soup, and to challenge socialized roles.

Thanks

Posted by Shadow Guide on Aug 29, 2011 in Author's Korean Connections | Comments Off on Thanks

Wow, amazing to see that, as of this morning, this quiet little corner of the blogging world has gotten 10,000 hits . If I remember my stats correctly, more than half of them have come this year, the last quarter of the 2 1/2 years I’ve been posting.

I never set out to keep one of those personal up-to-the-minute blogs with daily I-can’t-wait-to-see-what-she’s-saying now posts. (I’m in an alternate universe: I don’t have a Facebook account, I don’t use Twitter, I don’t even use a cell phone.)

Instead, my intention has been to build an archive of thoughtful entries – and comments – that people could discover at any point and return to as needed over time when the topics addressed were useful to them. I also hope to expand the experience with illustrations that model the principles I’m exploring.

It’s very gratifying to know that those discoveries and returns happened 10,000 times. So if you’re reading this, welcome, and thanks for stopping by.