All Are Welcome: Picture Books and Liberal Multiculturalism Post Trump

Abstract

Abstract:According to Jodi Melamed, "[l]iterary studies has been a foremost cultural technology for producing, transmitting, and implanting official antiracist knowledges" (15). Melamed identifies liberal multiculturalism, which advocates "social solidarity" and "affirm[s] a positive cultural pluralism" as one way these antiracisms are transmitted (Melamed 35). What happens when official antiracisms break down? In a post-Trump age, racist attitudes have risen, sanctioned by the nation's highest political power. I identify children's picture books as an important cultural site of liberal multiculturalism in an age where official antiracisms are collapsing and cannot be relied upon to maintain liberal social structures. I will be examining several picture books published since 2018, as they emphasize the importance of pluralism as an inherent aspect of American national identity.