No Retreat, Baby, No Surrender
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Dear Ones! Flush with the glow of last week's victory, let us not forget that these nasty shenanigans have gone on for a long time, and Bloomsbury is certainly not alone in the deviltry of its practices. This kind of insidious and often difficult-to-recognize racism (well, difficult for white people, anyway) extends far beyond the publishing industry; even really famous people are not immune.
Lots of people asked us whether or not we thought Bloomsbury "did this on purpose." We would've loved to be a fly on the wall of the editorial meeting that happened after Ari's letter started circulating the internets; but the truth is, we don't know, and ultimately, it doesn't matter. What counts here is not intention but effect, and the effect is, in essence, the publishing industry telling people of color yet again that their faces don't deserve to be on the covers of books.
Well, that's a bunch of bullshit. It is so, so awesome that enough people speaking out last week caused a real change in the world. But! a battle is not the war, dear ones, and we still have a long way to go. Rest not your vigil! Slacken not your determination! Be fierce, be angry, be heard!
What most folks don't know about Rosa Parks is that she spent her entire life as an activist before the moment came when she refused to give up her seat on that bus and altered the course of history. You never know when you'll have a chance to make a difference, Author-friends. Even something as small as committing to reading more books by people of color matters; but we are always recruiting for the People's Army of Hell Yes if you are interested. You just let us know.
And so! ONWARD! LET US BE AN UNSTOPPABLE FORCE OF REVOLUTION!
Posts
I don't get a chance to read your blog often.
But I'm going to pass this post around. It was excellent.
Sign me up! I'm ready to be a recruit. (Please, tell me I don't have to wear cammo, though. I'm dedicated to the cause and all, but sadly shallow.)
By the way, an excellent book to add to your list--whether you are committed to reading books by more people of color or just committed to reading more books--is Shaping Memories, and anthology that came out mid-year in 2009. Fabulous essays on a wide range of topics by some of today's best black women writers.
HELL YES.
Oh man.
I think the People's Army of Hell Yes should probably form an alliance with the Kiss Army, and then everyone can rock really hard while they read books written by minorities.
My mission today: Read over a black friend's soon-to-be-published-by-Harper Collins-manuscript while listening to Love Gun.
Well said, General Le R.!
I have a present for you: http://yourenotrosaparks.tumblr.com/
Seriously! I'm black. I've never understood why stories (books or film) about white characters were universal, and stories about black people were black stories...
YAAAAY! I'm in! :)
Do we get our own jumpsuits? I'm okay with cammo--just for the record.
Linguista--I hear you. I'm white. I don't get it, either.
Even issues of race aside, it's demeaning and insulting that the covers took so little stock of what the books actually said. Then add race back into the picture--and it's horrifying.
Linguista: Thank you. THANK YOU. I'm over this principle. If the MC is black then it must be a "black" thing? What?
If you follow that thought to its ultimate conclusion there would have been an audience of, like, six for The Elephant Man. And no audience at all for vampire stories.
Between this and Shyamalan's/Paramount's Last Airbender whitewashing travesty, I'm definitely getting pumped up about fighting this kind of crap. Whitewashing is not something that happens by accident. Decisions are made specifically to over-represent whiteness and hide non-whiteness, because of the assumption that:
a) white is default and universal, therefore audiences regardless of their background are more comfortable with it
b) any other ethnicity is different than the norm, divergent from "default", thus it's impossible for audiences to relate
c) audiences don't want to even try to relate and
d) the only audiences who matter are white.
A lot of people don't recognize it because they're taught not to. When you grow up in a society where this is treated as normal (I mean honestly, when's the last time you saw a big budget Blockbuster flick staring a Latino girl?), you start to think of it as normal as well, especially if you're in a position not to be negatively affected by it. But when we ignore that people of colour exist in fiction, I believe that everyone loses (especially, of course, those of us who don't have the privilege to see ourselves represented everywhere at all times). It's time we move into the 21st century and start showing the world and our society as it actually is.
Er, sorry for the rant.
But yes apparently there's also a petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/bc4all/ I'm not sure what good it'll do but seriously feel free to pass it around.
I mean apparently, out of 775 YAs from last year, only 2%, TWO PERCENT had black boys or girls on the covers. I mean, really? Is our skin that horrifying?
We need to stop this. And honestly, I hope more people stop pretending like it doesn't matter and start caring, because it really does.
Oh and this blog absolutely rocks for taking this on :D
It's so amazing that marketing people are still living in the pre-Rosa Parks era. The hero of Catherine Ryan Hyde's book "Pay It Forward" is black. In the movie, he was played by Kevin Spacey.
Catherine to Mr. Spacey when she met him: "They do know you're a white guy, don't they?"
Hell yes--let's fight.
The People's Army of Hell?
I'm in, as long as we buy our uniforms from Gramsci and Althusser, Clothiers, Inc.
I'll carry a flag in the People's Army, but don't give me a drum. I don't have enough rhythm.
Thanks for this, it had some great links. Lots of it was YA based though, does anybody have any links to blogs on the same topic but for grown ups?
I absolutely loved Ben Okri's Famished Road recently and I'd love suggestions of things in the same vein.
The petition idea is great and raising awareness over these types of shenanigans is certainly warranted but LeR is right on the money with this. And I do mean on the money.
Industry types spend a lot of money to know what sells. This is a two-headed monster. They hesitate to put people of color on the cover or movie poster if they don't think the story is specific to the associated heritage of the racial background. This influences the perception of the buying public, who then chooses between a thriller that isn't heavy handed with racial messages and what they think might be a "message of understanding" book. So bottom line is, while the industry contributes to the problem, so does the buying public.
Which means the part we can truly control is what we buy. I personally do not like being preached to but there are books out there with non white MCs that are just good stories. I look for them. I buy them. I support them. The more of these books sell, the more publishers will stop being afraid of them. Sci-Fi/Fantasy has always been groundbreaking in this respect. They don't shy away from anything...race, sexual orientation, whatever.
Geeks are way tolerant :)
For many years I have wondered why people just can't be people. I recognize that people of different colors often have different experiences or perspectives depending upon where they live. We often hear about the "Black esperience" (or Asian, Native American, Middle Eastern, etc.), but I am sure a white person would have similar experiences if they were dropped in the middle of, say, Harlem, or Iran.
Why can't we just read everything for the story, regardless of color of the characters, and glean the information or lessons from them that we can? Sometimes that may be related to race, and other times, color is completely pointless to the story.
@Heidi: Sadly, if you live in the United States, your race will effect your daily experience. Obviously, there is no one "black" or "Native American" or "whatever race" experience, because so many factors play into our life experience-- family, geography, health, education, money....but I think the bigger issue social interactions, especially for people who can't pass as white or racially ambiguous.
Also, I don't think ignoring race in one's writing is really a solution. If you're going to have the audience relate to your characters, they need to be real, specific individuals. Which means you will have to "go there", even if it's not particularly plot-relevant.
@Sarah: I think that there's a perception that audiences are dumb and can only relate to people who are exactly like them. Personally, I don't find this an issue-- I love Amy Tan and Sherman Alexie, although I am neither Chinese nor Spokane.
On a somewhat unrelated note, I feel a bit awkward as someone of mixed heritage (Carib/Celtic) writing about white characters, and centering a lot of the story around that culture. Any thoughts?
I'm in!
Aw YEAH!!!!!
@Saedhlinn-That's interesting because I think that if you are of that culture than go for it! As in you shouldn't feel awkward writing about it since it's your heritage. I'm Afro Latina and I wouldn't feel awkward writing about either. And as a kid I wrote about white people (yet another effect of reading few books about poc as a child) and I never felt awkard, but then again I was little.
I'm in!
What they don't realize is that we need more than just to be seen though. WE need to be the BOSS. It's only fucking right!
The minority should be given the chance to survive? Er...no.
Try the chance to do more than just survive.
The world is getting smaller. Over-run(how ironic) by minorities.
What if we could get authors to stop writing white protagonists? Not because there's anything wrong with white protagonists, but because it would force the book cover and movie makers to deal with this problem that much more frequently.
Oh and I love LeGuin's comment that white people are a minority. It shows my upbringing that that never occurred to me, but it's absolutely true.
Count me in.
And someone was looking for fiction links fiction
Do check out Eva's blog A Striped Armchair -
Her 2009 reads around the world wrap up is a must see
http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/travel-by-books-2009-wrap-up/
I'm a 100% in. What aggravates me the most is the message it sends kids, the younger ones often being voiceless readers.
A "colored," bi-racial or not, kid picking a book, seeing a White person on the cover while the main character of the story has a "dark skin." What message is sent to the kid?
A white kid picking a book, seeing a White person on the cover while the main character of the story is described as "dark skinned." What message does it send?
All the while with a speech and consensus claiming that racial discrimination is a thing of the past, because widely acknowledged as non-founded, unfair, a violation to human rights--with a wide majority that will say out loud, genuinely or not, that they do not support "discrimination".
I heard shrug and say, "it's only a cover. What's the big deal? Why the fuss?"
Children hear that kind of speech.
Facts tell them otherwise.
21st century technologically, but where's the general consciousness situated?
People need to wake up. If something is not okay it's our responsibility to say so.
And sorry, but when it comes to children's books, children come first!
For a clearinghouse-type blog of links to reviews of books by underrepresented authors, try Diversify Your Reading:
http://diversereading.wordpress.com
And hell, yes, I'm in.
Viva la revolucion! I wish I knew how to put the little squiggly thing under the "c" :P. Your posts (and the subsequent comments) crack me the f*ck up.
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