Challenging Bias: Addressing the Lack of BAME Representation in Children's Literature

Only 4% of children’s book heroes are BAME:

Based on the video of Shruti and Shambron (2019), it can be stated that UK has been reported to have high number of cases of stereotyping, discrimination and bias in children’s literature. As stared by Baxter (2017), BAME stands for Black and Minority Ethnic. By analysing the content of the video, it can be stated that in the only 4% of protagonists in the children’s books are from Black and Minority Ethnic background. As mentioned by Fountaine (2018), the reason behind this poor percentage of the black and ethnic community people as compared to the UK origin people in the Children’s literature is high level of discrimination, partiality and bias based on the body complexion, language, gender, caste, race and ethnicity , which makes the black people who belong to lower ethnic background unable to have proper education, social and health care facilities in eth UK. in case of children’s literature there is also no exception in which there is few numbers of BAME people who are the writers or heroes of children’s books in the UK as compared to the large number UK origin whitish writers as well as characters. The discrimination makes the BAME people to get poor support from the government as well as from society which makes many of their written books remain unpublished. Recent evidence-based report has stated that, in the UK there are talented children’s book writers who are from BAME background but are neglected by the authority while selecting their books and articles for the school children. in the UK people from BAME background face severe discrimination while comparing with the whitish people in whitish people face extra benefits and privileges in spite of having same merit and writing skill as that of the BAME people. therefore, it can be sated that stereotyping and the discrimination are two main reason behind the fact that why only limited people are the writers as well as characters of the Children’s books in the UK.

Guardian article by Flood (2019):

Based on this article it can be stated that, BAME people in the UK are neglected as well as discriminated in having any privileges as well as facilities in publishing their literature. Due to their ethnicity and dusky complexion they are neglected in terms of having any kind of facilities as well as opportunities in the educational as well as literature field (Henaku, 2018.). In case of publishing the books in UK people belonging to BAME background face severe bias and partiality which nit only impact on the physical strength but also on their mental ability. stereotyping is the common reason on the UK which makes people belonging to BAME community to get the minimum opportunities as compared to eth whitish UK origin people. in most of the cases, in spite of having better knowledge, high level of English-speaking skill and good writing skill, the people from BAME community are neglected society as well as by the UK government is getting privileges and benefits while publishing their books. in this context it can be stated that UK government needs to take necessary step in eliminating these stereotyping and discrimination in terms of maintaining transparency in academic process.

Reference list:

Baxter, J., 2017. Women leaders and gender stereotyping in the UK Press: A poststructuralist approach. Springer.

Falbén, J.K., Olivier, J.L., Golubickis, M., Ho, N.S., Persson, L.M., Tsamadi, D., Marinopoulou, E., Bianciardi, B., Cunningham, W.A. and Macrae, C.N., 2019. Stop stereotyping. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 81(5), pp.1228-1235.

Fountaine, S., 2018. Book review: Judith Baxter, Women Leaders and Gender Stereotyping in the UK Press: A Poststructuralist Approach.

Henaku, N., 2018. 'Women Leaders and Gender Stereotyping in the UK Press: A Poststructuralist Approach'by Judith Baxter. Gender and Language, 12(4).

Konitzer, T.B., Iyengar, S., Valentino, N.A., Soroka, S. and Duch, R.M., 2019. Ethnocentrism versus group-specific stereotyping in immigration opinion: cross-national evidence on the distinctiveness of immigrant groups. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(7), pp.1051-1074.

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