Bridging Cultural Differences Via Books

 On my way home from shopping at the Target store in East Harlem, I saw a poster taped to a lamppost on 116th Street. At the bottom of the poster it announced the formation of the Brown Boys Book Club. The aim it said was "to make reading cool" and to promote the reading of "books by us for us." It wasn't clear who the "us" was it was referring to. African-Americans or Hispanics? Or was the reference to both groups?

Going by the name of the club, I think it's safe to assume that membership is exclusively for young males of color. It's a well-known fact that women and girls read more than men and boys. In fact, I've seen more women and girls than males reading on the bus, in the subway, and on park benches. So it's a good idea to encourage boys to be as quick to pick up a book as they are to pick up a basketball.

But I don't think these boys should be limited to reading "books by us for us," especially in a city as racially and ethnically diverse as New York.

I am a lifelong reader and my literary tastes, like my musical tastes, are very broad. As a kid, I read stories about Robin Hood and Sherlock Holmes; stories by Edgar Allan Poe; the Hardy Boys mysteries; The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, etc.  My introduction to Truman Capote was in a Reader's Digest Condensed Books volume that contained his The Muses Are Heard, a nonfiction book about a troupe of African-American actors who travel by train across the Soviet Union to perform Porgy & Bess. Years later I began reading James Baldwin, Richard Wright, John A. Williams, Chester Himes, Ernest J. Gaines, Alice Walker, and other African American as well as African writers.

There's nothing wrong with reading about people who look like you and share your ethnic background. But there are other cultures out there to learn about and to learn from. To do otherwise would be to deprive oneself of many wonderfully told stories as well as seeing the world through the eyes and experiences of others. And through literature you can learn that despite our many cultural differences, there are certain characteristics and feelings we all share and can identity with.

Note: There is a Brilliant Brown Boys Book Club in Chicago that was formed earlier this year. It may be the model for the New York book club.