Must Writers of Multicultural Literature be Insiders?

“You can do anything you set you mind to”

From early childhood far on into my college career, my life has been surrounded by people using this quote. It’s inspirational for all ages and I can almost guarantee that you have heard it at least once in your life. People, mostly the adults in your life, which you look up to, wanted you to believe in yourself!

Do writers have to be “insiders” to write about a culture?

As I have always been told, anything you set your mind to can be done. I feel that any writer can write about a culture if they set their mind to it. If this is not the case then I have been mislead my entire life.

Although I believe this is true, there are restrictions to the rule. When one sets their mind to something they should strive to do the best they can do. In the case of writing about people of another culture, an “outsider” should fully research what they are writing about. A well equip mind has the ability to write a well equip story. Also, I believe that it is very important to make sure that what they are writing is accurate and not offensive to the culture. If you don’t know ask and if your afraid to ask don’t both to attempt to represent a culture in the story.

As for the readings this week

I never knew that there were so many definitions of multicultural literature. As Harris and Shannon say, it is obviously more then just the issue of race. There is just so much involved in deciding what is considered multicultural.

I have never thought of the issue that came up in the Cai article about the definition of “multiple + culture = multiculturalism” (313) before this reading. On one hand I believe that all books are multicultural because each one is about a group of people from a different culture. On the other hand including “the mainstream” as part of multicultural defeats the purpose of the creation of the category. Multicultural literature is to help each other understand one another, in the simplest of terms. If people see “the mainstream” everyday, even if they are not part of ‘the mainstream” they still have learned a lot about the culture. Therefore, I would have to say that since multicultural literature is to get to know, accept, and understand a culture then the mainstream should not be included.