☂️ Cindy Baldwin  ☂️

And doing it right never EVER includes blackface. Nor does it include coming up with our own ideas to increase diversity in ways that center us and white voices. It includes boosting people of color, buying their work, and supporting them both publicly and privately. The end.

TLDR: as white people, we don't get to decide if we qualify as good allies, we just need to put in the work and let our efforts stand on their own two feet. Marginalized people are the ones who get to decide if we have done it right.

Far too often, I see white people holding on to that description of ally like it can protect them from criticism when they blunder. In reality, I feel like all it does is take the power out of what it MEANS to be an ally.

Ultimately, every white person is going to have failures and missteps in the attempt to support racial equality, because all of us were raised in a society that is white supremacist and all of us have benefited from that supremacy.

So often it feels like terrible, off base ideas like these ridiculous covers come about from white people who are convinced they are being good allies and uplifting the voices of people of color... Without actually checking themselves and ensuring their solutions are right.

As a side note, I have long felt that white people should not be allowed to describe themselves with terms like "woke" or "ally." While I think we all should be striving to be good allies, we who are in a position of privilege do not get to decide who IS one.

I made a joke yesterday about this initiative being spearheaded by robots and I have never been so angry about being right. This is one of the most stunningly inappropriate and tone deaf things I've ever seen white people do in a misguided attempt to be woke. https://twitter.com/justinaireland/status/1225052808732454912 …

The best take yet. https://twitter.com/carlymbutton/status/1224396507492667394 …

So excited for #WRAD today! Looking forward to Skyping with several classes—they'll get a sneak peek at the beginning of BEGINNERS WELCOME!

The heroine of BEGINNERS WELCOME is Annie Lee Fitzgerald, an eleven-year-old girl whose life was recently upended: her beloved daddy died, her two best friends drifted away, and she and her mama moved to a tiny… https://www.instagram.com/p/B8MSGsOgHSR/?igshid=1s92qnjsz7ot6 …

I'm going to be honest here, this whole article reads like a parody. Can this mythical cancel culture please cancel this???https://twitter.com/PublishersWkly/status/1224830023347122178 …

This book baby comes out exactly one week from today! Ever since I got my hardcover samples, I can't resist holding them and looking at them. The details are all so beautiful! When my publishing team asked what I… https://www.instagram.com/p/B8KHg1DAdF9/?igshid=1eczm9ukhctbd …

Okay I finally started listening to Harry Potter and the Sacred Text while waiting for my audiobook to come in from the library and OMG, I think I'm obsessed?

(Not that there's anything wrong in writing to a formula—I think in many situations it's the best & fastest way to create a strong book. But I'm finding with this MG I'm having to interrogate my choices a lot to make sure they're best for the book vs what I'm used to.)

I'm curious, authors with several books out in the same age category and genre. Do you ever find yourself falling into sort of a formula as you write, rather than digging deep to figure out how to make each book the strongest it could be? I'm pondering this a lot with MG #4...