A couple months ago at the library I saw something incredible. Something incredibly bizarre.
Wild Orchid by Cameron Dokey is a retelling of the Ballad of Mulan, the same tale popularized by the animated Disney movie. If you need a recap, the summary of the novel is as so:
“Wielding a sword as deftly as an embroidery needle, Mulan is unlike any other girl in China. When the emperor summons a great army, each family must send a male to fight. Tomboyish Mulan is determined to spare her aging father and bring her family honor, so she disguises herself and answers the call.” – camerondokey.com
Gosh, considering the historical context, it’s rather unlikely Mulan was a Caucasian.
At the time I found it more amusing than offensive, but as it turns out, putting white models on book covers contrary to the ethnicity of the characters themselves, isn’t quite as rare as I thought.
While I read Scored by Lauren McLaughlin a couple years ago, the cover-content discrepancy stuck with me. The main character is half-white, half-black, but it states that most people assume her to be full black from her skin tone. Yes, I suppose it doesn’t have to be her on the cover. Perhaps it’s a random secondary character? Or, as the publisher would surely insist, some sort of universal representation that we are all being watched—although, why is this “universal” aspect represented by someone white?
There are a number of further examples I’ve heard about via the hype from a number of bloggers, Silver Pheonix by Cindy Pon, Justine Larbalestier’s Liar, and Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore.
When you tailor a book cover in this manner, it implies that the reader base is deterred by books with POC. I hardly think that is true for the majority of the population.
I would have to guess it a matter of statistics. Perhaps novels with white cover representation do marginally better. Perhaps it is because there is too strong an association of coloured covers with some sort of relevant historical fiction, an assumption that any given character must be white unless there is a “adequate” reason for them to not be, some sort of cultural context which requires them to have an appropriate background. Or perhaps publishers don’t want to take a “risk”.
But no matter the reason, such an action is, quite frankly, racist. It only continues to perpetuate a homogenous view of society. I know that when I was little, despite coming from a biracial household, all the stories I wrote were about white people. (Well, actually mostly dogs.)
It’s disappointing that this remains an issue even as diversity in novels themselves increases (an illustrative example might be the explosion of ethnic side characters in that 2nd Percy Jackson series–although both mains remain white).
In the end, it’s the novel itself which leaves the impression. It’s true the cover is only on the outside, but such misrepresentation can’t help but slightly tarnish the content itself.