IBARW: Why I Love LeVar
byFor those of you who live under a rock, it's International Blog About Racism Week here on this little planet we like to call Earth.
So I thought I'd start out by talking about LeVar Burton. You see, LeVar was my very first crush when I was like 3 or 4. My love of LeVar was considered kind of strange given that I was a 3-year-old white girl who lived in Central Oregon (97% white people). LeVar was on two of my favorite shows as a young child, Star Trek: TNG and Reading Rainbow. This two shows largely imprinted themselves on my morality, my ethics, and my world view, both the good and the bad. And some of these views have been about race and racism.
What I love about LeVar was his intelligence. (He's also hot, but I'm trying to do not just squee.)
On Star Trek, Geordi was the blind pilot who was quickly promoted to chief engineer and who was the only one who could fix Data properly. By the time I was 7, there were stories about the amazing adventures of Geordi and his wife, Mary Sue. I do think his character was sorely underdeveloped and he only had 2 love interests over the 7 seasons and 3 movies. Star Trek tries to be the ultimate "colorblind" show so race is never discussed unless their teaching aliens; while I do believe this attitude leads to racial meta problems, Geordi does not get treated differently because he's a COC. He does, however, get treated differently because of his disability, which is largely (again) the writers' faults. Overall, I do think that Geordi was a well-rounded character and I loved that his greatest brilliance - his ease with machines - was his greatest flaw - he connected better with them than with people.
With Reading Rainbow, LeVar reads books and also does themed exploration based on the book. There was a behind the scenes Star Trek episode and another one where he went to a Renaissance Fair, among other things. The book choices on the show were always varied when it came to the race of the authors and the characters. From the PBS site, "The series targets 4-8 year olds, and is based on research that identifies these early years as the optimum time for children to learn to read, and to adopt positive reading habits, skills and attitudes." Because of LeVar, I learned to love to read at an early age and many of my early books recs were from the show. The promotion of reading made LeVar a rock star in my book.
I had the privilege of seeing LeVar at my local library several years ago doing a promotion for Reading Rainbow. He read a book and then signed autographs. He was awesome and amazing, and I thanked him for his influence on my childhood and life.
In honor of LeVar, here are some book recs either written by PoC or featuring CoC. And maybe even both.
Both written by PoC and starring CoC:
Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje - In this novel, Ondaatje writes about his native country Sri Lanka and its ongoing civil war, which has been happening on-and-off since 1983. Almost all the main characters are native to Sri Lankans; the main character Anil Tissera is a forensic anthropologist and her investigations show the horrors of war, among other things.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker - Okay, I still can't believe that I didn't read this book until this year because I can still see the characters' worlds in my head. An epistolary novel, that follows the lives of Celie and her sister Nettie and how they each find empowerment in their lives. Celie gets married off, lives in the South, and experiences discrimination because of her race, gender, and sexuality. Nettie runs away, ends up in Africa, and experiences a different, yet similar, discrimination.
Women of Sand and Myrrh by Hanan al-Shaykh - This novel follows the lives of four different women and how they cope with the gender-based restrictions in the wealthy, unnamed Middle Eastern country. The writing is beautiful and their stories are woven together wonderfully. al-Shaykh's work is banned in Lebanon, her native country, for obscenity.
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie - An autobiography of sorts, the book is about two childhood friends who read and smuggle Western books into a post-cultural revolution Chinese reeducation camp. It's about the power of ideas and stories, while at the same time, is an interesting critique of Western vs Eastern vs Maoist ideals as the backdrop for a coming-of-age story.
Starring CoC:
Gotham Central Vol. 2: Half a Life by Greg Rucka - A TPB comic centered around Detective Renee Montoya, who's Hispanic. I'm recommending this comic because 1) it's all about Renee; 2) it's the best coming out story I've ever read (that's right she's also a lesbian); and 3) it also shows her relationship with her parents and her interactions with the Hispanic (and general working class) community of Gotham City.
Written by PoC:
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin - While this novel follows the life of David, who's a white American living in Paris, I couldn't not include something by Baldwin on this list. It's a beautiful novel that deals with sexuality, pre-gay rights movement. This is what I wanted Tropic of Cancer to be, while I was reading it in Paris. The prose is beautiful.