Here’s the story at http://www.hungermtn.org/color-me-perplexed/, but if you don’t want to read the whole thing, here’s the gist:
Author goes to a speaking event and is approached by a librarian who says: “I love your work! I only wish I had more African American students so that I could use your books.”
God help me if I have to wait for Asian readers before my books take off, but then, I didn’t wait to TURN Asian before I read “Romance of the Three Kingdoms.” (I’d still be waiting!) Half a million gamers didn’t wait to check their ethnicity before they turned on their phones, t.v.s and other such gadgets and role-played to their hearts’ content, either.
I KNOW I am not the only person out there bashing her head on her desk because of statements like this. I can’t imagine what Nikki Grimes felt like at the time, but I’m glad I wasn’t that librarian. Responses like hers frustrate the heck out of me. I think I will go look up something by Nikki. It sounds like her books are good reads and that’s really what it should be about.