Writing in Color

The other night sleep prove evasive, so I had the TV on and I serendipitously came across a discussion panel on diversity in children's & young adult books. It was part of the 12th annual Harlem book fair. Listening to the discussion it seems there isn't much diversity in children literature. Around 5,000 books for children are published a year. Out of that number only 83 are written by African-Americans. That's quite a small number. At least two of the authors on the panel (Jerry Craft and Zetta Elliot) had to self-publish their books to break into publishing. Most of the authors talked about the publishing industry having this misconception that books with African-American kids are only for those kids. And there's the presumption that white writers write for everyone.
I believe books just like music have an universal appeal. The Harry Potter series was read by people of all races and ages. It really shouldn't matter rather the protagonist is white or black because books contain themes like sibling rivalry, friendship, growing up that all kids can relate to. Once upon a time every child believed in the
tooth fairy. If there was a story where a black girl wanted to prove the existence of the tooth fairy, couldn't that appeal to every child? As I listen to the discussion it made me think about my 20x rejected manuscript. Often they would say sorry we can't market your story at this time. I wonder if
it is because the protagonist isn't ivory skinned. I would like to hope that isn't the case in 2010. I write in the fantasy genre. I have read several fantasy books and most that contain charactors of color they're usually in secondary roles. I think it's time for a change.