Ghosts

So... We all love Raina Telgemeier. I love her, you love her, young people love her, older people love her - all of her books hit best selling charts these days and she is almost single handedly redefining what comics look like to your average reader.

But with great power comes great responsibility, and much like say J.K. Rowling, Telgemeier's obvious attempts to be more diverse and inclusive end up being more problematic then not. Not that I think her, or any of her sometimes overly defensive readers, actually mean anything by it but this book brings Telgemeier's naivete to center stage. Reading about her own lived experiences with Dias De Las Muertas, it's clear that Telgemeier is coming from a colour-blind post racism space where everyone gets along and celebrates life together as equals. Unfortunately that is not the reality that we live in.

This fact was perhaps most driven home by the way in which Telgemeier depicts the mission ghosts. Full disclosure here, upon first reading this error went completely over my head, but on further reading I agree with many other writers that this is a seriously egregious error. The truly violent history of colonialism cannot be ignored.

Personally, you probably couldn't pay me enough to try and touch this particularly divisive holiday with a ten foot poll. I was honestly shocked when I got to the part of the story where this turned into a thing - I had no warning and it is certainly the last thing on earth I expected to be reading that day. Looking back even now, there is little to no reason that this particular holiday had to even be used in the story. I am no expert on Dia De Les Muertas, but as many other people who are have argued Telgemeier's misuse of ghosts in Ghosts clearly illustrates that "respectful" or not the inclusion was totally unnecessary.

And that really is the issue at hand I guess. As I attempt to become a better ally, is that a lot of this simply boils down to the fact that people who are outsiders to these things (myself included) should not be making money off of these things, and we should probably not be including them in our work almost at all. We need to leave it to people who are not outsiders to do in their own time in whatever way they want to do it. People who come from similar backgrounds to me and Telgemeier have a nasty habit of feeling like we HAVE TO try everything, and it's really quite entitled of us. We ask why can't we wear crosses, use henna, wear headdresses, or celebrate dia de las muertas and are upset when we are told we are taking other peoples religions and traditions too lightly and more often then not for profit. Which is perhaps the most disgusting thing for me personally!

What would this dialog look like if no money was involved? Maybe the same, maybe different. But one of the biggest issues here, and in the restaurant industry as well, where indigenous cultures are slandered and denigrated and forced into poverty and then have their culture stolen to make money for colonialist powers that "discover" them. It's frankly disgusting!

All that said, thematically this book is a convergence of several different strengths for Telgemeier. The way she tries to address death in a child-friendly way is inspiring. She seems like a reasonable person, so I hope that she learns from this experience and moves on to less appropriative subjects. I did read one or two notes by people who also felt that her use of cystic fibrosis was equally problematic (and a few more comments to this effect that were unfortunately sarcastic). As someone who knows even less about disability politics then I do about race politics this is a direction I really need to develop into.

To read some people who are actually smart and stuff, check out these links:
https://booktoss.wordpress.com/2016/09/18/ghosts-swing-and-a-hard-miss/
https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.ca/2016/09/not-recommended-ghosts-by-raina.html
http://readingwhilewhite.blogspot.ca/2016/09/on-ghosts-and-magic-of-day-of-dead.html