Do We Really Need Representation for our Students ?

When multiple news outlets projected the winners of the 2020 presidential election on November 7th, Kamala Harris made history as the first female elected to national office in the United States.  She also is now set to become the first African-American and Asian-American vice president. As part of her victory speech, Harris said, “[W]hile I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last. Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities.”

As Mr. Biden announced his Cabinet picks, the firsts kept piling up: if the nominees are confirmed, the US will have its first woman treasury secretary, its first Black secretary of defense, and more. After watching the news together the evening of one of these announcements, my wife turned to me and said, “This shouldn’t be such a big deal because it should have happened long ago.”

Certainly, I agree with my wife (because, well, I value my life). Thankfully, more and more of these gender and racial barriers are being broken down every day, but many of them are long overdue for a diverse country that likes to market itself as the land of opportunity. And of course, it is for that very reason that when these glass ceilings shatter, the Earth similarly seems to shatter for so many. For so long, they have been asking for a seemingly small mark of respect: representation.

What is Representation?

The idea of representation simply means that whatever groups with which you identify, whether it be racial, ethnic, gender identity, etc., you should be able to see members of that group represented in a variety of careers, in film, on television, and in books. More importantly, these characters should be portrayed in a variety of ways and not according to stereotypes or the same tired tropes (e.g. not having the Black person die in EVERY horror movie.) To put it another way, every group’s worth should be respected enough to be featured.
Many would claim that our society is already inclusive, and that the idea of representation does not rise to the level of needing a hashtag or a Barbie campaign. However, the examples above demonstrate that many professions are dominated by white men. And while it is true that characters in American film, television, and books have become more diverse in recent years, there is still room for more progress. Probably what most underscores this point is the research on children’s books. The Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been tracking representation in children’s literature since 1994. In their  analysis of books published in the U.S. in 2019, they found that 41.8% of books featured a primary character that was white. Yet, only 29% of the remaining titles featured non-white primary characters. What accounts for the discrepancy? 29.2% of children’s books published in 2019 feature animals or other non-humans as the primary characters. Thus, non-white children are statistically more likely to read a book about a non-human than to read a book that features a character that resembles them. While it is important to note that these latest numbers continue the trend of the representation of BIPOC characters slowly improving throughout the years, there is room for growth.

Why Does Representation Matter? 

I will admit that as a white male, I can understand at an intellectual level why these ground-breaking moments of representation are so important. However, I don’t feel it in my bones in the same way as a member of the under-represented group. I don’t feel the weight begin to lift off my shoulders as hope and optimism settle in its place. I don’t have to rip through the shroud of doubt to begin to realize that maybe, just maybe, I belong.

This sense of belonging is one key reason why representation matters. Speaking to the UK House of Commons in 2017, Muslim actor and rapper Riz Ahmed commented, “What people are looking for is a message that they belong. Every time you see yourself it’s a message that you matter, that you’re part of the national story.” I liken it to when I am with a group of mothers who begin to tell the stories about giving birth. It’s not that I can’t contribute in some way to the conversation.  However, do I truly feel that I belong to that conversation, that I share the same experience that is connecting the group at that moment? I can’t say that I do (well, I can say that I do by pointing out how valuable fathers are during the birthing process, but that doesn’t go over well.)

Many studies have shown that belongingness directly impacts children’s self-worth, which becomes the second reason why representation is essential. When they see others who look like them in various roles, children are instilled with a self-affirming belief that they too can take on that particular role. In this way, media becomes “mirrors” for students (a term made popular by both Emily Style and Rudine Sims Bishop).  And when children do not find those mirrors, they believe that they do not have a place in society or that there are roles in the society to which they cannot aspire. 

A striking example of this phenomenon is the research that suggests (one study is particularly well-known) that watching TV leads to a decrease in self-esteem in girls and in Black boys, while it leads to an increase in self-esteem in white boys. Why? Because, more often than not, white males are portrayed in a positive light whereas this is not necessarily the case for other groups. Dr. Nicole Martins from Indiana University, one of the researchers of this seminal study, explains the findings with great eloquence: “Regardless of what show you’re watching, if you’re a white male, things in life are pretty good for you. You tend to be in positions of power, you have prestigious occupations, high education, glamorous houses, a beautiful wife, with very little portrayals of how hard you worked to get there. Young Black boys are getting the opposite message: that there are not lots of good things that you can aspire to.” 

Consider another example. There has been an outpouring of support from young girls for films such as Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman. Virtually every female student I have spoken to in my school (I am an elementary school counselor) who has any interest in the subject identifies one of the female characters in these films as her favorite superhero. In this case, the mirror reflects glowingly, indeed.

Style and Bishop both use another term that represents the third reason why representation matters—it also serves as a “window” for others who are not part of that group. When a teacher reads a story about a character whose family performs a traditional Haitian ritual, it is not just affirming for a student of Haitian descent (and more broadly for any Black or brown child), but it also teaches every other student in the class something new and broadens their perspectives. It is an effective way to help dispel misconceptions and stereotypes and, eventually, help open a dialogue between different groups. Otherwise, children will draw their own conclusions from the limited examples they have, and they draw those conclusions remarkably early, as the infamous “Doll Tests” showed (these Doll Tests have been repeated relatively recently, and though the results have improved since the 1940s and 50s, a preference for light skin was still seen in young children.)

So, yes, even in a class of all-white students, there is value in representing all different groups. I should know. I grew up in a small town in northern Minnesota, which was almost exclusively white. I distinctly remember entering a store with my sister, who was five years old at the time. There was a Black man in the store, the first one my sister had ever seen in real life. My sister grew excited and shouted, “It’s Mr. Cooper!” referencing her only point of reference of Black people: the classic 90s sitcom. While I am obviously thankful that she associated the man with something positive (as opposed to a friend of mine who once visited from Turkey and was scared out of his wits when we encountered Black men because, as he later described to me, he assumed they were scary because that’s what he always saw in American media), a few more multicultural stories in the classroom certainly would have helped broaden her horizons a bit.

Given that the US has been a country for over 240 years, and that many of our barriers of representation have only been broken in the last 60, we are making exponential growth. Unfortunately, the pace can still feel glacial at times, and societal inequities will continue to persist as long as the inequities in representation do.  But it is only once we have eradicated those disparities that we will have truly lived up to the promise of this great nation. Educators and parents have a vital role to play by continuing to show positive representation of different groups to the point that it feels natural, not novel.  That influence can then spread to the rest of the country, and hopefully someday soon, we can be in a place where a deserving female candidate becoming the GM of a Major League Baseball team is commonplace enough that it doesn’t dominate the news cycle for days.

In other words, just to reiterate, I agree with my wife.  I’m no fool.

Jared Daigle has been an educator in the Milwaukee area for over 17 years, working as a High School English teacher, a School Counselor, and tutor. He has worked with a variety of age groups in urban and suburban schools.  He is passionate about eradicating the inequities that, despite good intentions and concerted efforts, continue to persist in schools. He is also passionate about eradicating the ones that continue to persist in society at large and loves the approach that Black Phoenix Ink is taking: to reframe the perception of what it means to be Black.