Yang 1

Mulan Yang
Professor Cecelia Musselman
ENGW1111H: P1D3
4 October 2016
MLA Format
Word Count: 1766
Unwritten Assumptions
The African American author N.K. Jemisin was incensed when her book, The Hundred
Thousand Kingdoms, which Contains No Actual Black People, (Jemisin) was shelved in the
African American Fiction section just because she was black. Whoever did so was one of the
many people who assumed that [her] work is automatically of interest to black readers
and only black readers because [shes] black (Jemisin). Just like the assumption that what
men do is of universal interest, while womens occupations are trivial (Le Guin 242), many
publishers, booksellers, librarians, writers, and readers believe that only stories about white
people appeal to everyone, whereas stories about people of color only appeal to that specific
race. This common assumption that the audience for all literature is white, male, straight,
Christian, and young is addressed by Ursula Le Guin in her essay Unquestioned Assumptions,
which was published in 2004 (242-243).
Le Guin presents her argument in an interesting way: by listing most of her beliefs so
concisely that her readers find it difficult to contradict her. Incredibly, she manages to present the
first four common assumptions in only two pages. However, while doing so she sacrifices
detailing specific literary examples. For her fifth argument that childish writing and writing from
the perspective of a child are different, she cites David Copperfield, Huckleberry Finn, and
Catcher in the Rye, which forces us to ask why she didnt do the same with her first four points
(Le Guin 246). Perhaps Le Guin believed she didnt need to because the readers of her essay
could readily supply their own, potentially more pertinent, examples. Although the most recent

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work she mentioned was Catcher in the Rye, which was published in 1951, her readers could
come up with much more contemporary examples, even ones that occurred after her essay had
been published.
I could certainly think of multiple, more recent examples with which Le Guins points
could be made. For instance, after reading that the audience is usually assumed to be male, I
thought of many popular young adult novels that feature female protagonists, but include a
romance with a boy as a major plot point. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, Twilight by Stephenie
Meyer, and Divergent by Veronica Roth are all examples in which female characters are in
relationships with male characters. These plots might be created to appeal more to young female
readers, which contradicts the assumption that the audience is always male. However, these
novels also teach their audiences that, for women, falling in love is as big a priority as any other
aspirations, even surviving alien attacks in the case of The 5th Wave. This belief could be
attributed to traditional gender roles from times when women existed solely to get married and
have children. These gender stereotypes still pervade modern societies, in which women are
expected to want to find a husband and start a family, and women who dont are seen as bizarre
or even pitiable. Frequently, theyre expected to give up their career and other life goals to
prioritize raising children. Therefore, in the end, the plots of these books might still be centered
on how women act in respect to men.
If I am at my local library, it might be much harder for me to find a book about an Asian
woman than a Caucasian man, and in some cases, I might just settle for reading the more easily
accessed book. At least in the United States, society and the educational system seem to
condition people of minority groups to be satisfied with reading books initially intended for
white, male audiences. How many readers purposely choose to go beyond general interest

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novels and read books about people that they may not have much experience with? Even if they
identify as part of a minority group, they may be so used to works starring the stereotypically
straight, white guy that they dont even think to find stories about people like them. This
complacency contributes to our culture as a whole, and helps explain why the circumstances are
as Le Guin described them.
What else has contributed to the number of diverse books published each year over the
past twenty years [being] stuck on average, [at] 10 percent (Low)? Perhaps its because the
mentality that only books for certain audiences are universally interesting is also present among
publishers. In 2015, Lee & Low Books, a publishing company that is particularly focused on
publishing diverse childrens books, surveyed 34 publishers and 8 review journals to understand
exactly who comprises these organizations. It found that overall, 79% of staff are white, 78% are
women, 88% are straight, and 92% are not disabled (Low). Publishers want to print books that
they think appeal to a wide audience, and they tend to assume this audience consists of people
like those they see the most often. Just as authors tend to believe that everybodys like [them]
and [they] all think alike, (Le Guin 241) so to do publishers. Even if people of color manage to
get their book published, they may struggle to market it effectively because 77% of people
working in Marketing and Publicity are white (Low). According to Kima Jones, the owner of a
publicity agency dedicated to helping marginalized authors, writers of color have the burden of
feeling like a publisher doesn't know how to market them, how to talk about them, how to 'find
their audience (qtd. in Ho). Although many works directed at a diverse audience may exist, due
to the industry these stories may never be popularized. This creates an unfortunate cycle in which
we read books about white people because those are more common, and publishers see that those

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books sell, assume that those are the books people want access to, and continue to print similar
ones.
Authors that want to play it safe may write general interest books, and these are the
authors Le Guin is addressing her essay at. Because knowledge concerning the enormous
differences among people is there for any reader, (Le Guin 241) Le Guin finds it inexcusable
when authors dont write for a diverse range of people. Many adults isolated by geography and
poverty have known only people like themselves, (Le Guin 241) and authors from those
communities who write about racially or ethnically different protagonists can be extremely
problematic if they do not sufficiently research the culture and environment of their main
character. However, these writers must expand their horizons and gather the information they
need in order to write realistic characters, rather than write about heterosexual, white men
because that is what they are accustomed to. Not doing so in an age where information is so
widely available cannot is intolerable. Otherwise, authors belonging to minority groups are in an
awkward position. If a white author only writes about white characters, they can become
extremely successful. However, if a black author only writes about black characters, his or her
work will likely be marginalized and assigned to the African American category, just like
Jemisins was. Should they write about white characters to appeal to a wider audience? And if
they do, does that [perpetuate] the idea that white is better than black? (Race Manners) as
asked by a young, black aspiring writer in 2014. Instead, wouldnt it be better if writers and
readers create an environment in which diverse characters and settings appeal to everyone?
Readers are the ones who must interpret the writing and decide what the character looks
like and how he or she behaves. If an author doesnt describe every facet of a character, then the
readers will most likely imagine the character as white, male, and straight because that is what

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they are used to. Le Guin points out that it is wrong for authors to [mention] the skin color only
of nonwhite characters (242) because it implies that white is normal, [and] anything else is
abnormal (242). It is unfair to describe the skin color of only nonwhite characters, but is doing
so better or worse than not describing their skin color at all? An author must consciously decide
whether not specifying skin color means that they want the audience to interpret the character to
be like them, or whether they want the audience to default to assuming the character is white.
Even not describing skin color can lead to controversy, such as that surrounding the casting of a
black woman to play Hermione Granger in the play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Many
fans complained about the decision, forcing J.K. Rowling to specify in a tweet that she never
mentioned Hermiones skin color (@jk_rowling). In fact, she approved of the choice of actress.
Rowling may have expected readers to picture Hermione as whatever race they are, but other
authors may omit describing their characters skin color if they want the reader to assume the
character is white. In this case, it would have been useful if Hermiones skin color was
mentioned. Otherwise, some people likely presumed that Rowling didnt bother specifying when
characters are white, and felt justified in assuming that. Especially now that movie adaptations of
books are becoming more common, it is vital that authors consciously consider how much detail
they give about their characters, and how much can be determined by readers and Hollywood. If
the actor playing a character is a certain race, then people will often change their interpretation to
match that of the movie. Otherwise, they will constantly have to fight against the most common
perception of the character. If writers purposely described the identities of each of their
characters, it would lessen the confusion and help audiences stop assuming a default skin color,
race, religion, or orientation.

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Although I believe readers and publishers should note the issues that Le Guin states,
writers must pay special attention to her essay. It is naive to neglect to create works appealing to
more than the people of one race, gender, sexuality, religion, and age. However, readers must be
more aware of what authors explicitly state and what they dont. If the piece of writing doesnt
include all the details about a character, we must remember that straight, white, Christian and
male is not the default. In the years since Le Guin wrote her essay, I believe that our society as a
whole has improved in this regard. Not only are readers becoming more cognizant about these
assumptions, but there has been a push for authors and publishers to go directly against the more
common ones and create works that appeal to a much more diverse audience.

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Works Cited
@jk_rowling. Canon: brown eyes, frizzy hair and very clever. White skin was never specified.
Rowling loves black Hermione

. Twitter, 21 Dec. 2015, 2:41 a.m.,

twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/678888094339366914.
Ho, Jean. Diversity In Book Publishing Isn't Just About Writers Marketing Matters, Too.
Code Switch. NPR, 9 Aug. 2016,
www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/08/09/483875698/diversity-in-book-publishingisnt-just-about-writers-marketing-matters-too. Accessed 20 Sep. 2016.
Jemisin, N.K. Dont Put My Book in the African American Section. N.K. Jemisin, 26 May
2010, nkjemisin.com/2010/05/dont-put-my-book-in-the-african-american-section/.
Accessed 21 Sep. 2016.
Le Guin, Ursula K. Unquestioned Assumptions. The Wave in the Mind. Shambhala, 2004, pp.
240-249.
Low, Jason. Where Is The Diversity In Publishing? The 2015 Diversity Baseline Survey
Results. The Open Book. Lee & Low Books, 26 Jan. 2016,
http://blog.leeandlow.com/2016/01/26/where-is-the-diversity-in-publishing-the-2015diversity-baseline-survey-results/. Accessed 3 Oct. 2016.
Race Manners. Should a Black Writer Write White Characters? The Root. 9 Apr. 2014,
www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/04/should_a_black_writer_write_white_character
s/. Accessed 13 Sep. 2016.

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Acknowledgements
Thank you to Sahith Nallapareddy for discussing ideas with me, as well as Kasandra Yee and
Jahaan Saini for peer editing my essay. In addition, thank you to Cecelia Musselman for your
edits.