Do you have to be on the inside to know what's going on?

Shannon, Bishop, Harris and Cai all argue the topic of multiculturalism being predominately about race, and pose the question, "do you have to be on the inside in order to properly represent the group/race in literature?"

I would have to agree with the fact that multiculturalism should include anything aside from the mainstream, as stated in Cai's article. I believe that Shannon had a point when he claimed that it shouldn't be so centered around race, because that could just be classified as a book about race, not multiculturalism. I also have to agree with Bishop and Harris about the classifications of writing these books. In order to properly portray these real life depictions of certain minority groups, the author should have experience living in these situations. Like Bishop says, it is expected that authors of adult fiction, writing about life and experiences of a certain race are categorized as that race, so why is it different for children's books. I believe that Shannon's criticisms are in part because he can't identify with the impact that race has on minorities. As Harris said, it isn't necessarily something that minorities want to continue bringing to the surface, but rather an issue that they are forced to deal with.