Young adult author and educator Ellen Oh, founder of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign, shares some of the personal reasons that compelled her call-to-arms for more diversity in contemporary literature.
So the first thing people ask me these days is how did the WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign come about? There's the basic answer -- the one about how I've been fighting for diversity and against racism for years. And then there's the series of events that all lead up to it. I haven't felt up to talking about the private stuff before. But I realize it is an important part of how I ended up here.
Earlier this year, my dad had a major stroke so severe that the doctors told my family to say our goodbyes. And then a miracle, he survived. But at what cost? He was paralyzed and his memory was so badly affected that he didn't remember our names, and sometimes even who we were.
As I tried to deal with the emotional turmoil in my personal life, I was overwhelmed by a feeling of helplessness. I couldn't fix my father. And the help I could give felt useless. I didn't know what to do but I focused on supporting my mother with my dad. It was in the midst of my personal despair that news about the BookCon Blockbuster's Read program hit Twitter and I remember talking to Malinda Lo about the continued lack of representation at these major book events. We kept talking about it and I began to feel a growing rage within me. And then something just snapped. I was just so angry and frustrated and feeling so helpless. I just wanted to hit something. I just needed to do something. I needed to channel my rage into something positive. And I kept saying over and over again "We need to do something really big. So big that no one can ignore us anymore." There were quite a few people who scoffed at me. Told me I was wasting my time. However, there was even more people who came to me and said, "What do you want to do? I'm in!"
I just cracked open