That's the campaign right now, and it's an important one. It's also a larger topic than can be boiled down into a hashtag.

Do we need more authentic stories with people of color? Yes. Perhaps even more importantly, do we need some of those stories to be such that the issue of color is not an issue but rather, a fact about the character, such as in Crystal Allen's HOW LAMAR'S BAD PRANK WON HIM A BUBBA SIZED TROPHY? Yes. 
LAMAR is an awesome story about life and bowling and siblings and mistakes and forgiveness and crushes and ego and a bunch of other wonderful things, in which the main character is African-American. It is a fact about him and certainly it informs his character in certain ways as do many things. But LAMAR is not about that one specific thing. It is not a story that says hey, here's this African-American boy who bowls and gets in some huge trouble and has to figure his way out of it. It's a story that says hey, here's this boy who bowls and gets in some huge trouble and he is also witty and also African-American and also crushing on a girl and he is also many other things.
In short, he is a real live human boy with many facets to him. He is authentic. He has a wonderful, sharp and truly funny voice. We want to read his story for all of those reasons.

But it's a bigger issue than just this. We all know that. And it's not just about people of color. It's about authentic stories beyond the obvious sound bite. Authentic stories with authentic characters who are more complex than just the go -to thing we know about African Americans or gays or lesbians or transgender or Jews or Catholics or Latinos or even angels or vampires or shape-shifters, for that matter. It's about letting the story be told.

This is often easier said than done, it seems, and often it is -- as are many (dare I say most) things-- to some degree a matter of business and money and how easily or slickly something can be marketed and to whom. (don't get on your high horses. It's simply the way it is.)

My wise, wise Soho Press editor, Dan Ehrenhaft has mused these issues recently here: http://www.cbcdiversity.com/post/81388069898/keeping-it-real-in-bologna
and also here: http://www.cbcdiversity.com/post/58272506549/what-is-authentic-and-what-is-offensive

Here's something I worried about as a high school English teacher: That the two stories -- often the only two stories-- my students had read and been taught about Jews in a school setting were Anne Frank and Night. Both of which are obviously amazing and life-altering books and authentic books and books that everyone should/must read. However, I -- a white, middle-aged Jew girl (just to be clear)-- often wondered what the subliminal message might be when the only two books with identifiable Jewish characters (and for the moment let's take Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice out of this discussion since that's a larger topic for another day) that most students ever read both were about Jews as victims of the Holocaust.

Now wait a second lady, you may be thinking. Jews were indeed victims of the Holocaust. That's the whole point. Well yes. Of course. But Jews are always many things, as are African-Americans who bowl and commit pranks that win them trophies. But most of my non-Jewish students learned about Jews solely through Holocaust literature. How different might the classroom conversation be if they also read, say, HOW TO RUIN A SUMMER VACATION by Simone Elkeles, where a teenage girl spends a summer in current day Israel with her estranged Israeli father? Very different.
(and probably I am not arguing that classroom teachers should pair Night with Elkeles's book, just to also be clear.)

Do you see what I'm getting at?

So it's not just diversity we're talking about, although obviously that's part of it. It's authenticity. About expanding our vision of the world and all its wonder and glory and ugliness and all the rest of the very messy human experience, one character at a time. Some characters are brave. Some are cowards. Some are characters of color. Some are not. Some girls like boys. Some girls like girls. You see where I'm going?

Some boys get caught with their hand down their pants and then bite it in a car accident and become their sister's guardian angel anyway. (Okay, that was shameless self-promotion for SWEET DEAD LIFE. Sorry about that.) But sometimes authenticity is admitting that boys-- and girls for that matter-- sometimes do that. And that maybe we should chat about how we're totally fine letting an 8 year old read often violent Hunger Games (a book I love hugely) but get all freaked out about a hand down the pants. Especially when the character becomes a flawed but still heavenly being not long after. Hey, it happens. (I'm in good company on this issue, by the way. The brilliant Sherman Alexie has a controversial hand down the pants in THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN. People need to get over it. Seriously.)

Diverse Books = Authentic Books.
That's what we're celebrating!
We need to embrace ALL THE STORIES. ALL THE CHARACTERS.