Comments on: In which the latest instance of whitewashing book covers produces pondering.

By: links for 2009-08-11 « Embololalia

links for 2009-08-11 « Embololalia — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:07:33 +0000

[...] In which the latest instance of whitewashing book covers produces pondering. | The Angry Black Woman Tell me about an elf and I can conjure him up, fast and perfect. I know of dwarves and chainmail. Heard of Superman and Batman. Know about the Greek gods. Am aware of Russian steppes and a bit of French history. Castles aren’t strange to me. Shakespeare and Anna Karena and the Pilgrim, Plato Aristotle Socrates. The Illaid. Pul Anderson, Leigh Brackett. Robert Heinlein. Terry Pratchett. Douglas Adams, Andre Norton. Did you know that I had no idea that the writer of “Babel 17?, one of my fav. books, was a POC until 2 years ago? That I had no idea that the main character was supposed to be a POC until 2 years ago? Do you know what its like to be searching, searching, searching, for women who look like me on the cover of a book, only to find that when I do see them, they are lightcoloured, straight-haired and cast for the most part rigid, narrow roles that don’t fit my experience? Do you know what its like to piece together heroes from scraps? (tags: race non-whiteauthors books sf/f childrens/ya whitewashing publishing) [...]

By: unusualmusic

unusualmusic — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:57:26 +0000

No prob. The more references the better:)

By: unusualmusic

unusualmusic — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:56:56 +0000

Thank you very much. *sighs*

By: unusualmusic

unusualmusic — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:56:02 +0000

I am not trying to tell you to buy anything you don’t want to. I am saying that I want to be able to a wide variety if stories featuring in what I want to read. And the links in the blogpost deal with the rest of your objection.

By: unusualmusic

unusualmusic — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:53:47 +0000

I agree with you fundamentally. My patience however, is much less than it was before.

By: unusualmusic

unusualmusic — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:50:27 +0000

Thank you for this post–that sounds like a lot of work, and those are great concrete numbers to throw at people. Yeah, it took several hours. Over several days. I had such a headache when I was done:) But it was worth it!

By: unusualmusic

unusualmusic — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:57:09 +0000

Oh! Your stuff looks good! *bookmarks to read later* Yeah, there are what 15 million black people in this country. Not all of them live in the ghetto. SO why exactly is it that publishers don’t seem to realize that? I’m glad you enjoyed the blogpost!

By: unusualmusic

unusualmusic — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:53:47 +0000

We re-posted this entry on the RaceProject Facebook Wall

Oh! Thanks!

Thanks for this thoughtful blog!

No prob!

By: Juan

Juan — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 01:34:03 +0000

If you’re seeking, it helps to probably look through those links as they already provide. Y’know, with the quotes actually being true and the market vs. publishing matter and such.

Uses of abstract designs or even having a PoC but blurred or abstract design or silhouetted or whatever pushes close to the same thing. You still wouldn’t be portraying a PoC compared to how often a white character is portrayed. The publisher isn’t an entirely powerless thing, having some control of the market itself. To an extent you can say it is a self-fulfilling prophecy starting with the publisher and ending back at the publisher.

“Do I have a moral obligation to try to keep my library or reading more diverse by author ethnicity or gender? Is it a duty or a supererogatory good?”

No one is even putting such a thing on the table. Is it impossible to keep your library and expand your content? Why does it even have to be some sort of chore or Herculean task?

By: David

David — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 21:00:13 +0000

I’m curious if and how your opinions would change if it were true that as the publishers are quoted above as saying, black faces on covers depress sales. (I don’t know if this is true, it would not make me happy, but it doesn’t seem wildly unlikely either)

While essentially lying about the book content by using a white face on the cover isn’t right, publishers and bookstores are interested mostly in moving product. Would they be wrong to encourage the use of abstract designs on covers versus black faces to increase sales?

It seems to me the issue is much more complicated if your complaint is with the market rather than the publisher. Then you are in the position of telling the bookbuying market their tastes are not what they ‘should be.’

I thought about this after looking at the last story about the anthology with no women or POC authors. There are ~1200 books in my apartment, according LibraryThing’s statistics 85% of the ~500 authors are men, 15% women. LibraryThing doesn’t proved a tool to look at % writers of color, but I expect the numbers would be similarly unbalanced. (Most of my authors are dead (74%), so it is a somewhat historical sample) Do I have a moral obligation to try to keep my library or reading more diverse by author ethnicity or gender? Is it a duty or a supererogatory good?