Plastic coprophilic
The Kridana toy company lets desi kids experience the highest joy of growing up in America: acting out their ultraviolent fantasies in plastic. Breakdancing, ‘roided-out Hanuman-ji looks pretty good, except for the coprolite in his hand that’s supposed to be a mountain. Rama, on the other hand, looks like Princess Jasmine’s hair shagged Aladdin’s genie and had a baby with the face of Rajpal Yadav. Be not attached to the fruits of thy actions. Back to the injection mold for thee.
This wave of comics and novels for desi American kids is coalescing into some kind of movement. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
on Wednesday, November 21st, 2007, 2:13 pm in Art, Comics, Religion › 
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Firstly, thanks for the link-y.
As for a “movement,” the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) compiles annual statistics on the number of books published annually by and about people of color. Over the years, the numbers have grown, but multicultural literature (most generally) still represents a very, very small percentage of the overall number of books published for children and teenagers.
tamasha may have more thoughts on this.
[This might not be the best time for me to comment given a failed-Thanksgiving recipe, but let’s just ignore that.]
My problem with multi-culti literature is that I still feel like people of color are tokens. In my experience this is less the case with Black/African-Americans than it is with other people of color. Increasingly, libraries have sections of books in Spanish or Chinese, or whatever the “other” local language is, and I full support that. However I would, for once, like to see an Asian character in a book where his or her Asian-ness was not the reason for the character’s existence.
Pooja - Remember Claudia in The Babysitters’ Club series? I identified with her for so many reasons - yeah she was Asian but it wasn’t the only thing we knew about her, and it wasn’t the first thing I’d use to describe her. It was there, and yet not in your face. Perfect.
Every book with a Gita, Shobha, Chachaji has to do with primarily desi THINGS. That’s ok, but… I dunno. Can’t we have a book about a Manish which isn’t all about the fact that Manish is desi? Even just seeing names one is familiar with makes a kid (and adults!! I love the Krishnaswami family in the Verizon commercial! Even though they don’t talk!) feel good, recognized.
I know these are ridiculous demands. I should just write one myself.
ok. i dont know if that coprolite was a good design decision. it looks disgusting.
.
Oh.. please do** but please dont use obscure mythologial references. I read these desis who apply uber-desi references in letters to the editor and that’s just a bit weird. I mean, I know we’ve been culturally colonized ;-) into knowing abotu daniel and the lions, noah and his giant boogers and all that,,… but it’s a bit much to nonchalantly drop something like - “just like Sabri offering bers to Rama, the mayor offered seal jerky to the governor general”*.
*and rushdie’s attempts on the same are a little too studied. annoys me.
**Some suggestions.
the charming - meena and her single dad bake their first pumpkin pie, which is a disaster, but a good time is had and it’s all love all around and that’s all that matters. aaawwww…
the grotesque - meena’s mom takes a cleaver to dad’s neck and bakes it whole for thanksgiving when he pesters her about having a homecooked meal
the alternative - meena, her mom and her partner go duck hunting for the thanksgiving table but meena can not wring her wounded bird’s neck. They bring the duck home and have a tofurkey dinner
My apologies. the list tags didnt show up above.
And… Happy Thanksgiving folks. [I’ll be blocking the arctic winds for y’all up here]
Did someone get Rama confused with this?
Calling it coprophilic is a bit harsh… many of you have forgotten how much 3-8 year-olds enjoy playing pretend with dolls/action figures. The figures look no worse than the Ken/Barbie junk out there.
I know this book is YA and not kid’s lit but what about Sheba Karim’s Skunk Girl, which comes out in 2009? I heard Karim read an excerpt from it at the SAWCC litfest and LOVED it because it was a funny YA coming of age novel but the main character happened to be Pakistani-American.
Ooh TJ, I haven’t heard of that one. Look forward to checking it out.