Posted on January 30, 2020 at 1:23 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
Those of you following the American Dirt saga may wonder: How did we arrive at release date without anyone catching possibly problematic areas?
The answer might be found in an updated survey of the publishing industry’s diversity … or lack thereof.
In 2015, multicultural children’s publisher Lee & Low Books found that 79 percent of survey respondents identified as white.
Today, it released an updated version of the survey, with a larger pool, and reported that 76 percent were white — but with the sample size difference, the change was statistically insignificant, according to the Guardian.
According to the survey, the career tier that includes the most diversity in publishing is the internship level, where almost half of respondents identified as black, as indigenous, or as a person of color.
“The people behind the books serve as gatekeepers, who can make a huge difference in determining which stories are amplified and which are shut out,” the report’s authors write.
“If the people who work in publishing are not a diverse group, how can diverse voices truly be represented in its books?”
You can read more about the Lee & Low Books diversity survey in the Guardian, and catch up on the controversy surrounding Jeanine Cummins's novel of Mexican immigrants fleeing violence — which some are calling inaccurate and cultural appropriation — in our post from earlier today.
Categories: Today in Books