...I'd like to discuss one more, that is specific to how white readers may engage with stories about/from other cultures: Museum Exhibits. This is the more troubling cousin of Sliding Glass Doors. Instead of entering the world, you expect a guided tour in a sterile environment.

Engaging with a book as a Museum Exhibit always comes with the expectation of being *educated.* Of having all your questions answered by the author leading you through the exhibit. Of being able to keep your distance from uncomfortable information.

Broadly, people can and do go to museums for fun, but when we think ~escapist fun~, museums are pretty antithetical to that—you do the opposite of escape, you immerse yourself.

And the fact is that white America readers are wired to be averse to immersion!

We are so used to existing in a dominant culture that a few minor disruptions are enough to code something as "other." All it takes to code something as "French" is a baguette and the Eiffel Tower in the background. A rap verse and basketball puts us in the """hood."""

But we've been wired to feel like engaging BEYOND this shallow coding not only is "work" and "education", it's putting ourselves in the position of feeling like an outsider. And this ABSOLUTELY translates to engaging with books that don't center white readers.

We have been trained to see books by/about POC as inherently "educational" because we will learn, via immersion, about a culture other than our own. And we *resent* feeling like an outsider, feeling out of our depth when the author doesn't account for our ignorance.

We also gravitate towards books that don't raise uncomfortable questions about our own privilege. A book about white street racers doesn't have to ask "will the hero die if they get stopped by police?" And on the flip side, books by/about POC openly account for this.

It may be uncomfortable to read a book and realize that your privilege would allow you to do something the hero can't. But bringing this back around to the original point... A museum exhibit doesn't ask you to think about these things. It's engagement on your terms.

But the tendency of white American readers to treat books by and about POC as automatic museum exhibits sets them up for failure. We need to be realistic and honest about this. By doing this, you've preemptively classified the books outside of "escapist fun."

This is the Catch-22 in triplicate:
- You avoid starting/buying a book because you expect it to be "education", not escapist fun

- When you DO read it, the escapist fun book does not "educate" you enough

- You blame the author for writing a fun book instead of [Culture] 101

Meanwhile, trope-y YA by white authors is handwaved or even praised for being unapologetically fluffy, it's seen as a reclamation/dissection of fun and tropes. Meanwhile, authors of color get treated like they don't know what they're doing.

This is what we mean when we talk about really, REALLY examining your internal biases. Maybe you've gotten to the point of no longer expecting a person of color to educate you, but do you still expect their books to?

I would be remiss if I didn't close this out with some kind of advice for folks trying to work through all this, so: When you pick up a book by an author of color, about people of color, remember you are stepping into another world that does not revolve around you.

Interrogate your expectations going into the book, and ask if your criticisms are because of expectations you wouldn't project onto a white author.