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Examines children's books which highlighted multicultural issues, with the understanding that what is said about multiculturalism is as important, if not more so, than the simple fact that multiculuralism is discussed. Uses an adaptation of Mulvey's (1975) "gaze," to examine whiteness in seven multicultural children's books. Finds that the white privilege in these texts positions people of color as non-American commodities and objects of a white gaze. (SG)

The purpose of this paper was to examine children's books which highlighted multicultural issues, with the understanding that what is said about multiculturalism is as important, if not more so, than the simple fact that multiculturalism is discussed. We used an adaptation of Mulvey's (1975) 'gaze,' to examine whiteness in seven multicultural children's books, and found that the white privilege in these texts positions people of color as non-American commodities and objects of a white gaze. Keywords: children's literature, gaze, multiculturalism, white privilege, whiteness