# Diversity is Not Enough: Race, Power, and Publishing



## Jabrosky (Apr 18, 2014)

Some posters here might regard diversity and representation topics a dead horse beaten to a smear, but this editorial critiques not so much fantasy writers but the mainstream publishing industry. Might be of interest to writers of non-European descent and those who care about this sort of subject:

Link to Buzzfeed article

I like this quote in particular:



> In the New York Times last month, children’s book illustrator Christopher Myers wrote about “The apartheid of literature — in which characters of color are limited to the townships of occasional historical books that concern themselves with the legacies of civil rights and slavery but are never given a pass card to traverse the lands of adventure, curiosity, imagination or personal growth.”


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## psychotick (Apr 18, 2014)

Hi,

I have no doubt that Daniel is right to an extent. But I have no idea how great that extent is or might be. What I do know is that here in New Zealand when they show us images of childrens school books on the telly for whatever reason, there's as often as not a Maori or Pacific Island person on the cover. (Being a kiwi that's probably the more important ethnicity included here as persons of colour.) So while I might agree to an extent with him, I'll also have to say that the problem is as much one of perception in my view as it is one of actuality. (Of course there is that old buzz that sometimes perception is reality - but that's another matter.)

However, probably the most important force in publishing these days that fights against this issue is self publishing. And that's not because of any racial ideology. It's simply because the world of self publishing allows anyone to publish provided they have the requisite (too often minimal) skills. Mr (or Ms) Older (who I assume is Hispanic from his middle name) could publish any book he or she wants, use any name he or she wants, and I would not know anything about him or her. And he or she could portray any characters as they choose, as perhaps belonging to a particular ethnicity or not, and no one could really say squat. Sure maybe caucasions will respond better to other caucasion characters, but I'll assume that will be the same across the board for all ethnicities, negro's for example responding better to negro characters. And I'd also assume that that's just human nature at work.

So I say lets celebrate one of the pro's of indie publishing and assume that one day because of it, this perceived problem will be no more.

Cheers, Greg.


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## Jabrosky (Apr 18, 2014)

psychotick said:


> Hi,
> 
> I have no doubt that Daniel is right to an extent. But I have no idea how great that extent is or might be. What I do know is that here in New Zealand when they show us images of childrens school books on the telly for whatever reason, there's as often as not a Maori or Pacific Island person on the cover. (Being a kiwi that's probably the more important ethnicity included here as persons of colour.) So while I might agree to an extent with him, I'll also have to say that the problem is as much one of perception in my view as it is one of actuality. (Of course there is that old buzz that sometimes perception is reality - but that's another matter.)


I believe the article's focus is on the American publishing industry, so it may not apply so much to New Zealand or any other non-North American country.

I agree with your point about self-publishing. In fact that's actually what I was thinking when I first chanced upon the article.


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## Mythopoet (Apr 19, 2014)

There is definitely a problem in the traditional publishing industry. Here's an excerpt from a blog post by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (a white woman from the Pacific Northwest) about the trouble she had with traditional publishers when she dared to write a detective novel with a black man as the protagonist set in the South in the 1960s. 



> I retreated into writing. I wrote one novel just for me. (And when I sent it to my agent, she made my cry by telling me in great detail how unmarketable the novel was. I should have fired her right there.  Live and learn.)
> 
> Then I wrote a detective novel. I picked an unusual setting—Memphis in March of 1968, just before Martin Luther King’s assassination. My detective, Smokey Dalton, happened to be black, because I knew he had grown up with Dr. King. Characters come to me first, and I let them dictate.
> 
> ...





> You see, I had always believed that if I wrote a really, really, really good book, one that readers clamored for, one that got all kinds of reviews and awards and fantastic word of mouth, those books would sell better with each volume, and would make my career.
> 
> The Smokey Dalton series had good books, readers clamored for it, got fantastic word of mouth, award nominations and more. It got starred reviews on multiple books. Readers demanded copies. Bookstores told me that they had ordered the books and the publisher had not fulfilled the orders (!). Libraries wanted the books. I kept hearing from people all over the country that they wanted to buy the books and couldn’t get them.
> 
> ...



It's worth reading the rest of the post which goes into detail about all the trouble she had with the series which traditional publishing managed to kill a few books in and which she is now finally able to revive thanks to self publishing.

I don't know why traditional publishing has a problem with racism and bigotry in general. Perhaps because it's so steeped in old fashioned thinking. I've always been strongly of the opinion that critic and readers and editors and agents shouldn't dictate what a writer writes. Writers shouldn't be pressured into writing more "diverse" material if that's not what they want to write. But obviously they shouldn't be stopped from writing such material either. A white woman should be able to write about a black protagonist if that's what she wants to write about. A writer should be able to write whatever they want and the only gatekeeping that should stand in their way is the kind that readers exercise with their wallets. This is just one reason that I think the traditional publishing industry needs to change or die.


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## LeoWolfish (Apr 20, 2014)

I have noticed this as well in terms of non self published books. That being said I liked it when Rue in the hunger games was from what I can tell represented as she was supposed to be in the movies. Even if it caused some idiots to hate on the movie because of it. Apparently they where shocked at Rue being black even though I imagined her to be either that or dark skinned anyway based on how the book described her. Not Blonde as most of the haters complained she should be according to them. 

That being said I do think things are slowly improving.


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