美国国家公共电台 NPR A Teen Faces Colorism At School And At Home In 'Genesis Begins Again'

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

The new book "Genesis Begins Again" is about a 13-year-old African-American girl who dreams of having smooth hair and skin many shades closer to her light-skinned mother and grandmother. Genesis says a prayer every night - Lord, turn it good. The prejudice and colorism she encounters don't just come from strangers or kids at school; her own family judges her for her dark skin. The book is for children around Genesis' age. It's the first book that Alicia Williams has ever written. By day, Williams is a teacher. And she told me that she relates to Genesis personally, and she's seen kids like Genesis in the classroom.

ALICIA WILLIAMS: In kindergarten, every year, we would have our kids come in. Whether they're Indian or African or African-American, they will come in - and in our classrooms would be multicultural¹ crayons. Never, never, never do our kids of color choose a skin tone that's close to theirs. They go as light as possible. So even when we try to encourage them to - OK, honey, just - how about this brown one? - they would never, never, never shade it in hard.

SHAPIRO: What do you say to a kindergartner who is choosing a lighter² colored crayon because they don't want to draw their own skin color as dark as it is?

WILLIAMS: This was the hardest part. But with the teacher I was working with, we would definitely - you know, honey, this is your color. And we would show - oh, this is my color - first model how it looks on us. Oh, look at my skin. I found the perfect color. But when the resistance is still there, I will find these ways to say - oh, my goodness. I just love your skin. It's so pretty. Oh, my goodness. When you color it, I just love it - so those encouraging words. And when there's other students around that might hear that, I'll find something else to compliment them on so not to make them feel any less than. But I just wanted to find little seeds to build them up.

SHAPIRO: Yeah. You know, I was thinking - Toni Morrison wrote "The Bluest Eye" in 1970, and it deals with some of the same themes. A character with dark skin is made to feel that she's ugly. She develops low self-esteem. Do you think we're still more or less where we were when that book was published almost 50 years ago?

WILLIAMS: Oh, my gosh, yes. Yes. I've seen it growing up, not just within my family. I've seen it within, you know, our community. And it's unfortunate that even - you think, OK, the thing like the brown bag doesn't happen; and oh, no, no one still goes around measuring the color of a baby's ears to see how dark they will be - or the cuticles³. But...

SHAPIRO: I should mention - you say the brown bag. This is something where you hold a bag up to a child or a person's skin and see whether they are the color of the brown paper bag or lighter or darker.

WILLIAMS: Yes, the brown bag. Thank you for explaining that. Whether it be a brown bag or measuring - looking at the darkest part of a child, still having this idea - oh, honey, this is how dark your baby is going to be. And it's a negative connotation; you don't want your baby to be that dark. But that's it. We still talk about light skin versus⁴ dark skin. We still do that. So yes, we're still in the same place. When we have on - #TeamLightSkin and #TeamDarkSkin and that's for our kids who still use social media, it's like this whole thing starts all over again each generation.

SHAPIRO: You know, there's not a lot of risk in pointing out racism⁵ outside of your own community. But when you portray⁶ racism within somebody's immediate⁷ family - you know, somebody's parents, somebody's grandparents - judging them based on how light- or dark-skinned they are, that seems risky⁸. That seems dangerous. Like, it's a thing you don't do. And in this book, you do it (laughter).

WILLIAMS: I'm terrified.

SHAPIRO: Really?

WILLIAMS: I am so terrified. You know how you say, you don't talk about this in front of white folks? You don't let them know what's going on in your house? I'm nervous about giving people words or ammunition⁹.

SHAPIRO: Yeah.

WILLIAMS: I'm so nervous because, as a writer, you start thinking - is this going to be a good thing? Will I do more damage? Or will I help? Am I going to help? Because the whole thing was - how can I help heal some children? How can I heal them? How can I let them know they're good enough? Not just the ones that is dealing¹⁰ with colorism - but will they get that it's not just colorism that I want to heal them from but to let them know they're good enough?

Whether they're tall or short, you know, there's going to be somebody that's picking on them and saying - you're not going to be. You know, you're going to be in a box. You have your Jewish uncle's nose, and you have your red hair like your Irish auntie, and you have those freckles¹¹ that won't ever go away. You know, there's always something that we're - across each ethnicity, there's always something. And I know my story's through colorism, so I'm just so nervous, though, that we'll focus on this minute thing and not see the broadness of it.

SHAPIRO: Given your fear - given the potential that people could use this as ammunition, what made you decide that it was important to do this anyway?

WILLIAMS: I saw children directly affected¹² by colorism. I saw friends - I still felt the residue¹³ for myself, and I started developing different ideas about it. Whether, you know, people receive it or not, I know my intention and the impact that I want is to heal some people. It may not be for everyone, but I have to heal somebody. You know, they say there's one good book in you. I hope that this is not the only one, but this is the story because this is something I needed to hear. I needed to hear - I needed to hear that, OK, it's not going to happen overnight that I'm going to love myself. But you know, it's going to be OK. It's going to be OK.

SHAPIRO: There's an interesting thing you do in this book where, over the course of the story, you kind of sprinkle a trail of breadcrumbs of almost a reading list. You mentioned "The Color Purple," "Up From Slavery," "The Autobiography¹⁴ Of Malcolm X." An alert reader could walk away from this with a stack of books that they want to read next.

WILLIAMS: (Laughter) It's so hilarious¹⁵. I wasn't thinking about it when I wrote it, but that was brought up to me. And I'm thinking, yes, because I read these books, and I look at the characters. There are even more because - that was edited out.

(LAUGHTER)

WILLIAMS: If we were going to teach "Genesis," we can definitely put a playlist together as well as some books together (laughter).

SHAPIRO: Yeah. Because you mentioned a playlist, this book name-drops so many musicians, from Nina Simone to Billie Holiday and Etta James, so many of the greats. If we're going to go out on a piece of music, what would you like us to play?

WILLIAMS: Billie Holiday. I wrote the manuscript to her, majority of it - Billie Holiday, "God Bless The Child."

SHAPIRO: Alicia Williams, her debut¹⁶ novel is called "Genesis Begins Again." Thanks so much for talking with us.

WILLIAMS: Thank you, Ari. I so appreciate it (laughter).

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GOD BLESS THE CHILD")

BILLIE HOLIDAY: (Singing) Them that's got shall get. Them that's not shall lose, so the Bible said and it still is news. Mama may have...

1 multicultural   

adj.融合多种文化的，多种文化的

参考例句：

• Children growing up in a multicultural society.在多元文化社会中长大的孩子们。
• The school has been attempting to bring a multicultural perspective to its curriculum.这所学校已经在尝试将一种多元文化视角引入其课程。

2 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。

3 cuticles   

n.（手指甲或脚趾甲根部的）外皮( cuticle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The cuticles of most vascular plants are covered with a thin layer of largely hydrophobic constituents. 大部分维管囊植物的角质层都被有薄薄一层很疏水的成分。 来自辞典例句
• And there would have been traces of blood from his cuticles. 而且那会留下他的血迹和表皮痕迹。 来自电影对白

4 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

5 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

6 portray   

v.描写，描述；画(人物、景象等)

参考例句：

• It is difficult to portray feelings in words.感情很难用言语来描写。
• Can you portray the best and worst aspects of this job?您能描述一下这份工作最好与最坏的方面吗？

7 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

8 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

9 ammunition   

n.军火，弹药

参考例句：

• A few of the jeeps had run out of ammunition.几辆吉普车上的弹药已经用光了。
• They have expended all their ammunition.他们把弹药用光。

10 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

11 freckles   

n.雀斑，斑点( freckle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She had a wonderful clear skin with an attractive sprinkling of freckles. 她光滑的皮肤上有几处可爱的小雀斑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• When she lies in the sun, her face gets covered in freckles. 她躺在阳光下时，脸上布满了斑点。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

13 residue   

n.残余，剩余，残渣

参考例句：

• Mary scraped the residue of food from the plates before putting them under water.玛丽在把盘子放入水之前先刮去上面的食物残渣。
• Pesticide persistence beyond the critical period for control leads to residue problems.农药一旦超过控制的临界期，就会导致残留问题。

14 autobiography   

n.自传

参考例句：

• He published his autobiography last autumn.他去年秋天出版了自己的自传。
• His life story is recounted in two fascinating volumes of autobiography.这两卷引人入胜的自传小说详述了他的生平。

15 hilarious   

adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed

参考例句：

• The party got quite hilarious after they brought more wine.在他们又拿来更多的酒之后，派对变得更加热闹起来。
• We stop laughing because the show was so hilarious.我们笑个不停，因为那个节目太搞笑了。

16 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。