Post by title1parent on Feb 18, 2009 6:18:49 GMT -5
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1436458,6_1_NA18_WAUBONSIE_S1.article
A very (ful)filling lunch
Author helps teens talk about image
February 18, 2009
By TIM WALDORF twaldorf@scn1.com
The 20 or so Waubonsie Valley High School students who ate lunch with her Tuesday say there's a reason they could have talked with author JC Conrad-Ellis all afternoon.
"I like how she kind of came into our world," said sophomore Tosha Chippley of Conrad-Ellis' "Boys, Beauty and Betrayal," the first offering in her "Black Diamonds" fictional series for young adults.
For instance, in her effort to bridge the teenage racial divide and make adolescent girls realize they are more alike than they are different, Conrad-Ellis tackles the stereotype that "black girls eat, white girls don't."
That's a regular topic of discussion among the "Lunch Bunch," a group of five junior black girls and two of their white teachers who meet for lunch once a week and discuss such controversial matters.
"A lot of my family is more big boned -- like jiggly," said Jowharah Harris, to a roar of laughter from her friends.
"Quiet! I'm being honest! Gosh!" added Harris. "Like, when we lived in the city -- in Chicago -- before we moved here, most people there, you didn't see them working out and running. But when we moved back here, we'd see people doing it every day. We'd see young people -- even old people -- jogging everywhere."
"Not even that," said Millie Scott. "You know how they say African-Americans are more likely to eat take-out food and stuff like that."
"And white people count calories and all of that," interrupted Harris.
"They try harder to be fit," said Ciara Ingram.
Special education teacher Stephanie Cassa said it is all about body image.
"I always think of J-Lo and her big butt," Cassa said. "That's what these girls are asking all of the time: Why do black girls want a big butt ... and you see it all of the time. Every white model is like anorexic, and that's the white body image."
During an informal Q&A with those students, most of whom were black girls, Conrad-Ellis -- a black woman herself, and the keynote speaker for the school's Tuesday evening African-American History Month celebration -- explained the complications that race, and the exploration of issues associated with it, have presented in her writing.
"I was in a bookstore, taking a look at the shelves, and I realized there was a large selection for young adult fiction that was written for the mainstream audience, and then there was a small section that was dubbed African-American young adult fiction," she said. "And I was like, 'OK, why are they segregating the books?'"
While she knew her subjects would be black girls, Conrad-Ellis said she didn't want to be confined to that small section. Rather, she wanted to "write in a voice that I thought all girls could relate to."
Fearing that sort of pigeonholing by potential readers, she even fought to keep her own photo out of the book.
"I think I'm cute, and I photograph well," she said, "but I didn't want girls to open it and go, 'Oh, it's written by a black person. Maybe that means it is about black people, and maybe I shouldn't read it.'"
Those concerns even played into the selection of the book's title, said Conrad-Ellis. It wasn't always "Boys, Beauty and Betrayal." She said she almost called it "Black Girls Eat. White Girls Don't." She settled on this title when her friends said that was "too in our face."
"I thought 'in your face' could get me on Tyra, The View, maybe Oprah," she said. "But I decided not to do that because I didn't want to offend."
But that fear of offending isn't going to stop her from exploring that and other issues in future installments of the "Black Diamonds" series -- notably her second book, "Camp Colorblind."
"They held this stereotype," she said, "but then these girls get exposed to something a little different, and then they challenge their own, fabricated stereotype in I think a healing way."
A very (ful)filling lunch
Author helps teens talk about image
February 18, 2009
By TIM WALDORF twaldorf@scn1.com
The 20 or so Waubonsie Valley High School students who ate lunch with her Tuesday say there's a reason they could have talked with author JC Conrad-Ellis all afternoon.
"I like how she kind of came into our world," said sophomore Tosha Chippley of Conrad-Ellis' "Boys, Beauty and Betrayal," the first offering in her "Black Diamonds" fictional series for young adults.
For instance, in her effort to bridge the teenage racial divide and make adolescent girls realize they are more alike than they are different, Conrad-Ellis tackles the stereotype that "black girls eat, white girls don't."
That's a regular topic of discussion among the "Lunch Bunch," a group of five junior black girls and two of their white teachers who meet for lunch once a week and discuss such controversial matters.
"A lot of my family is more big boned -- like jiggly," said Jowharah Harris, to a roar of laughter from her friends.
"Quiet! I'm being honest! Gosh!" added Harris. "Like, when we lived in the city -- in Chicago -- before we moved here, most people there, you didn't see them working out and running. But when we moved back here, we'd see people doing it every day. We'd see young people -- even old people -- jogging everywhere."
"Not even that," said Millie Scott. "You know how they say African-Americans are more likely to eat take-out food and stuff like that."
"And white people count calories and all of that," interrupted Harris.
"They try harder to be fit," said Ciara Ingram.
Special education teacher Stephanie Cassa said it is all about body image.
"I always think of J-Lo and her big butt," Cassa said. "That's what these girls are asking all of the time: Why do black girls want a big butt ... and you see it all of the time. Every white model is like anorexic, and that's the white body image."
During an informal Q&A with those students, most of whom were black girls, Conrad-Ellis -- a black woman herself, and the keynote speaker for the school's Tuesday evening African-American History Month celebration -- explained the complications that race, and the exploration of issues associated with it, have presented in her writing.
"I was in a bookstore, taking a look at the shelves, and I realized there was a large selection for young adult fiction that was written for the mainstream audience, and then there was a small section that was dubbed African-American young adult fiction," she said. "And I was like, 'OK, why are they segregating the books?'"
While she knew her subjects would be black girls, Conrad-Ellis said she didn't want to be confined to that small section. Rather, she wanted to "write in a voice that I thought all girls could relate to."
Fearing that sort of pigeonholing by potential readers, she even fought to keep her own photo out of the book.
"I think I'm cute, and I photograph well," she said, "but I didn't want girls to open it and go, 'Oh, it's written by a black person. Maybe that means it is about black people, and maybe I shouldn't read it.'"
Those concerns even played into the selection of the book's title, said Conrad-Ellis. It wasn't always "Boys, Beauty and Betrayal." She said she almost called it "Black Girls Eat. White Girls Don't." She settled on this title when her friends said that was "too in our face."
"I thought 'in your face' could get me on Tyra, The View, maybe Oprah," she said. "But I decided not to do that because I didn't want to offend."
But that fear of offending isn't going to stop her from exploring that and other issues in future installments of the "Black Diamonds" series -- notably her second book, "Camp Colorblind."
"They held this stereotype," she said, "but then these girls get exposed to something a little different, and then they challenge their own, fabricated stereotype in I think a healing way."