Awards

When I first began reading Marc Aronson's article I thought this was basically like the insider/outsider debate. While reading the article I thought that some of his points his made sense but I wasn't completely convinced. A couple things that I do think are worth mentioning are as follows: The fact that a lot of the focus is on the biography instead of the literature should raise concern. Aronson writes, "who you are, which box or boxes you check often the census form, comes first. Your community, your ethnicity, comes before you talent." On the other hand a lot of his remarks seem far fetched. For instance, the fact that he suggests that if blacks can only write well about blacks then "only they can read well about them too." This does not make sense to me.
Pinkney, however raises great points about these awards throughout her article. She says "these awards provide a solid ground and a gateway to progress." It is also true that "little is being taken away from white writers."
After reading these articles I believe there are many questions that should be raised and discussed.