Good evening and welcome to America. Who traveled the farthest to get here tonight? Congratultions! You win the award. #bookhenge

I have never given much thought to awards like the Coretta Scott King or the Pura Belpre and what value they contribute to the literary world. I suppose I never much separated the art from the author. I love Maya Angelou, Amy Tan, Langston Hughes, and Lorraine Hansberry. The fact that they do not check off the box labeled Caucasian on the census form makes no difference to me. Their compelling writing of poetry, plays, short stories, and novels are the crux of the matter. While it is true that their unique experiences shape their writing and without these experiences their stories could not be told, is the same not true of all writers? Does ethnicity matter when it comes to exigent prose? Harper Lee is proof positive that one must not necessarily be African American to write a powerful novel about racial discrimination.

I do not believe there is any malicious intent behind the awards, nor do I believe that Aronson condemns the awards for their promotion of authors of different ethnicities. Much to the contrary, I feel that Aronson is trying to find equal footing for these authors, but if the basis of an award for literary quality lies within the writer’s birthplace, it devalues the work, the author, and the reader, thus creating bias, the very thing these awards set out to equalize.  Andrea Davis Pinkney does raise some valid points opposing Aronson’s argument, however. She reminds us that we don’t live in an ideal world and that three Newberys and a handful of honors in 79 years do not mark progress (2003). Perhaps without an initial push to expose multi-cultural books, they might not get the recognition they deserve. However, now that the genres have been established, it’s time to raise the bar and stop using race as a yardstick.

What place does ethnicity have in an award for literary excellence? Should it be the key criterion or should it even play a role at all? For all intents and purposes, awards like the Coretta Scott King extol the virtues of literature based on the author’s ethnic identity. This hardly qualifies as literary excellence. Certainly, there is no shortage of talented writers who are African American, Asian, Hispanic, or any other nationality, for that matter, so the notion of using ethnicity to denote the quality of literature does indeed seem peculiar.  “By insisting on testing the racial identity of its winners, the CSK shifts its focus from literature to biography. Your community, your ethnicity, comes before your talent.” (Aronson, 2003).  Since this is the case, the CSK award is judging the relevancy of background rather than the ability to weave it into a story. The question remains how to maintain the integrity of an award for literary excellence without exclusivity.  Perhaps Aronson’s conclusion is on the right path, “Keep the CSK, Belpre, and Asian American Awards, but honor content alone, not identity” (2003).