The world of multicultural literature has a lot of ongoing debates. Reading articles for this class I have come to realize that my semester will not be leaving me with a set knowledge about multicultural books and authors but instead with questions and resources that will continue to evolve as I go on to me future career. One of the debates we have begun to discuss and read about is the 'insider/outsider' debate over authorship. Who can write a truly multicultural book, and where can 'outsiders' really fit into this?
It is my position that outsiders have their own place in the world of multicultural literature, but this is not to say they always can write good literature on a group they do not identify as a member of. Sometimes outsider authors can mistakenly further stereotypes and do more harm than good by trying to market their writing as truly multicultural. I do maintain that with respect, and proper research outsiders can write very good multicultural books.
On the inverse of that is the fact that simply being able to identify as a group member does not instantly make someone a great multicultural writer nor should that be assumed of them. Just being a member of a cultural group does not mean that you will look, think, or act like every other member of that group, so no one should assume that you can or should.
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