Since the first book was released in 1986, the Babysitter's Club series by Ann M. Martin became a worldwide children's literature phenomenon. I personally devoured these books as a preteen, and confess to have a continued fascination with them to this day.
The premise for the book series was simple: a group of middle school aged girls from Stoneybrook, a fictional Connecticut suburb, form a babysitting club. Each book is told from the perspective of one of the girls, and the plot is both about babysitting and what is going on in the girl's personal life. The girls are characterized as smart and responsible, and the problems they face (divorce, death, disabilities, etc., etc.) are meant to reflect picturesque suburbia.
This blog will focus on Jessi Ramsey, the only black girl in the club. She is introduced in book #11, when her family moves to Stoneybrook from New Jersey. During her first day of school, she is described through the eyes of her soon to be best friend Mallory:
"I wondered what being the only black student in your grade would feel like. I guessed it would feel no different from being the only anything in your grade. I was the only one in our grade with seven brothers and sisters...But I knew that wasn't quite the same. The kids couldn't tell that just by looking at me" (Martin, p. 14).
As Mallory gets to be friendly with Jessi, she hears about how Jessi's family has been received in Stoneybrook:
"'I don't belong in this school, or even this town. Neither does my family.'
'You mean because you're, um...'
'You can say it," Jessi told me. "Because we're black."
'Have people done things to you?' I asked.
'Nope.' Jessi shook her head. 'Well, a few things. Like Benny Ott shooting rubber bands at me in class. And I've overheard Rachel Robinson and her friends talking about me. Mostly, though, it's what they haven't done. The neighbors haven't introduced themselves to us, haven't paid any attention to us. Except my dad. His company asked him to take his job, so the people he works for are okay. But do you know you're the only kid who talks to me?" (Martin, p. 69-70)
These are the tensest moments in the series in terms of conflicts over race. In later books, the problems Jessi faced here are portrayed as already resolved:
In book #17:
"The Ramseys moved to Stoneybrook very recently...The Ramseys are black, and there aren't many black families around here at all, and non in Jessi's neighborhood. Jessi is the only black kid in the sixth grade, if you can believe it. However, things are setting down and getting easier for her family" (Martin, p. 17).
In book #25:
"I might as well be straightforward...and say right out that Jessi's family is black. They moved to Stoneybrook near the beginning of the school year and they're one of the few black families here. A lot of people gave them a hard time at first, but things have gotten better" (Martin, p. 9).
In book #26
"[Jessi and Mallory are] similar in some ways and different in some ways. The biggest difference is that Jessi is black and Mallory is white" (Martin, p. 12)
In book #83
"Jessi moved from a racially mixed town in New Jersey...I'm sorry to say that the Ramsey family faced some really stupid prejudice when they arrived here. Fortunately things have smoothed out since then" (Martin, p. 19-20).
What interests me about these descriptions of Jessi is that they are really the only mention of race or racism that appear in the books. Of course, there is no need for Jessi's function in the books to be solely based on her racial identity (in the books she is also characterized as a babysitter, an avid reader and a talented dancer). But the Ramsey's experiences of prejudice are extremely abbriviated in the series. Almost every one of the quotes above describe racism to have been a problem once, but not anymore.
In addition, no mention is made about Jessi's personal experiences moving from an entirely black neighborhood in New Jersey to a practically entirely white town in Connecticut. The series discounts the fact that Jessi might have needed to learn a new set of social codes in becoming part of an all-white social group, or that her life (other than how others in town treated her) has changed. There is no mention of her feeling like the odd girl out in a club full of white girls.
Looking at this phenomenon from a sociology perspective, Gordon Allport's Theory of Contact seems to apply. According to the theory, the idea that contact between two groups that hold prejudices against each other will get rid of those prejudices is FALSE. In fact, when two opposing groups make contact, levels of prejudice will actually rise. The writers of the Babysitter's Club series seem to be operating on the myth that if the town of Stoneybrook just gets to know the Ramsey family, tensions will decrease. This is the value assumption the writers are working with--they believe prejudice is a simple problem that will go away with simple contact. Not only that, but they value the Ramsey family's ability to slide right into majority white culture. As long as the neighbors come to see the Ramseys as a family "just like us," they have no trouble erasing the prejudice.
When I searched a few online blogs about Jessi's character in the Babysitter's Club books, I found at least two perspectives. The first challenges the fact that Jessi's primary character trait is her race. One blogger says "i REALLY hated reading bsc because everytime they mentioned jessie, they’d say. “Jessie is black.” that’s the whole sentence, then proceed to explain how cool she is despite that start reality. ugh."
The second perspective, though, acknowledges the absence of black protagonists in adolescent lit, and is appreciative that at least there is a black character in the series, period. One blogger describes it this way: "Jessi, the only black member of the Babysitters Club, was one of my girl idols back when I was a nerdy tween who had yet to blossom into full teenagehood." She also says "I related to Jessi’s struggles just to be a normal girl in a lily-white reality, with a white dominated hobby," even though I would argue those struggles weren't explored nearly enough. This blogger makes the point that the series of books popular with teenagers today (the Gossip Girl series) don't have a black protagonist at all.
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4 comments:
This is an amazing topic...amazingly important, amazingly complex, amazingly misunderstood.
Having lived with and in a mixed race family, I have some personal experience with the initial phases of racism in relationship - mine, theirs, and family's and friends'. It's far more sensitive than talking about religious beliefs, taxes or other subjects that lead instantly to bitter disputes between new acquaintances and old friends or lovers. It's about personal identity...the private kind that we walk around with, nurturing our categorical ignorance.
One of the more intriguing aspects of the few book series excerpts you gave us was the way that the treatment of this subject by the author revealed her agenda. Clearly she wanted to introduce a sensitive, vital aspect of growing up into her serial, but for some reason she seemed to have backed off from the value she might have delivered in terms of the development of personal identity in the age group of her characters. I'm only guessing here, but I can imagine an author dedicated to presenting the burning issues in the lives of her readers who introduced a character with only good intentions to address the impact of race on the development of teen identity, but she found herself with no inner material from which to draw.
The problem is universal for both whites and blacks in this country because of our unfinished past. MOst people simply don't have a personal cognitive experiential vocabulary to talk about this issue with any meaning. Barack Obama articulated this fairly clearly in his speech a few months ago:
"The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.
Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, 'The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past.' We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow."
And then there's the question of "making it." Without having read these books I can only draw from your post, but in many respects the author instantly limits herself by presenting Jessie as a character from a black family who has "made it" moving into a community of other families who have "made it." We mustn't bring up the messiness of the past (as it manifests in the present), especially in new relationships. And once we become comfortable with a living manifestation of unresolved past misdeeds we enter an unspoken pact never to speak about this issue.
Obama's insight into this dynamic follows later in his speech when he says:
"But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it - those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations - those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician's own failings."
So...I guess my point in the media literacy context is from the analysis of the authorial perspective and where that might go awry with otherwise entirely good intentions. Racism is a huge topic. If I were to have introduced this element into my storyline I would have probably started a parallel series of books to focus on and expose the realities of this issue that would have detracted from the intent of the original book series as it was originally conceived...
Joe,
Thanks for your response, and for including the Obama speech. Clearly, this issue is way bigger than a series of YA books from the 80s.
I think you raise two important points. First, the fact that the author of the books is white. I would absolutely understand if she felt she had to back off the topic of prejudice and racial identity because she felt she couldn't make it ring true in her writing. If we write best about what we know, maybe it's wise to choose not to write falsely about things we don't know.
Second, I think it's interesting that you would choose to write a separate series of books about Jessi and her issue rather than trying to embed her character in a larger series. I wonder what that series would look like, and how it would be received by the YA lit market today (the age of the Gossip Girl series).
Well...I imagine it would look something like the Ender series of Orson Scott Card. This is sci-fi that starts out from the point of view of three siblings. At different points in the series the author retells the same story from the perspective of different characters giving them each their own books to do so...
That's a very cool technique. I read Ender's Game in 8th grade, and I bought Ender's Shadow a couple of weeks ago for my bookshelf. I didn't realize it was the same story written from a different perspective--what an interesting way to explore an issue!
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