Monday, March 2, 2009
Take the poll, win a book!
Look to the left. The poll about African American fiction sections in bookstores is up. Please let me hear how you feel. The poll will be up until the end of the month. Blog about the poll (a link will do) and let me know in the comments, and I'll enter you in the contest for a free copy of the paperback of SEEN IT ALL AND DONE THE REST by Pearl Cleage.
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18 comments:
I'm in. Link on our sidebar.
I voted.
I voted, too. http://myspacearchive.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/rise-my-beloved-or-reposting-my-fury-over-bookstore-ghettoes/.
Thanks Bethany for including the link to your essay on the topic.
You're welcome. It's something about which I feel passionately.
Oh boy, I love polls! I blogged about it on Diversity Rocks.
I voted and I'll let you know when I've blogged about it.
Howdy Folks! I did my part and had a blast writing a post about this topic. Thanks, Carleen for the inspiration and the great poll!
I voted, however I will not be able to post a link or blog about it until I get home my work computer is blocking me from doing much of anything anymore
I voted and blogged here:
http://sarahweathersby.blogspot.com/2009/03/should-bookstores-have-section-for.html
I also posted it as a Facebook note, where I usually get more comments.
I voted.
Just because Barack is the president doesn't mean every thing is on equal footing.
Whats wrong with having a AA section and a bookstore putting 1/2of that books stock in the AA section and the other half in the general sections. I don't blame the bookstores, I don't believe for the most part that white people read books by black authors that don't get covered by the NY times and other popular literary publications. Just like they don't watch many black cast TV shows and movies either. When they see our faces they run unless its on a CD
I just wrote a response, with a link. My writer persona has two blogs and a journal, so it's in all three places. :)
Angie
I think maximizing exposure by putting a book in an AA section AND the relevant genre section is a good idea. Most non-African American readers aren't going to browse other sections if they are looking for a specific genre.
This is a very complex issue, but I hope that bookstores are not guilty of assuming anyone who isn't African American won't want to read a book by a black author (or an author of any particular race or creed.)
An African American literature section would only make sense if there were also an Irish American section, Native American section, Afgani American section, Chinese American section, German American section, etc... But what would be the point of that? Who would benefit from such segmentation?
Segregating out books based solely on the skin color of the author and/or characters is racism pure and simple. It's "separate but equal" all over again.
And to Anonymous, I love AA Lit. And I'm a white girl. We don't all run in fear. Some of us do make a point of visiting the AA Lit section because there are fantastic hidden gems waiting to be found there. I'd much prefer to not have to feel like I'm visiting the Restricted Section though.
My link to your post is up: http://shaunaroberts.blogspot.com/2009/03/necessity-mother-of-invention.html .
Like some others have said, I think the best solution would be to have books shelved both in the African-American section and in the section they would be shelved in otherwise. In fact, I'd like that to happen for lots of books. Fantasy and science fiction books, for example, sometimes end up in the general fiction section if they sell well, which means I don't see them when browsing at the bookstore. I love historical fiction, but because it's shelved with general fiction, I find and buy it only if it's featured in a display or ends up on the sale table.
I'm half Chinese. I'd hate to be stuck in a Chinese American book section. But that's just me. Maybe Amy Tan, Lisa See or Jili Jiang would have a differing opinion.
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