Segregated Book Sections
Like Stephanie Ramage, news editor of The Sunday Paper, I find it strange that book stores tend to be segregated. If you’re looking for a book by a black author, for example, odds are you’ll find it in the “African American” section. The same goes for books by authors of Asian, American Indian, or Hispanic descent.
It’s a shame, but the potential to increase sales under a niche category is too much to resist. I hope to sell a book manuscript some day, and I’d certainly want my book to appear under the appropriate genre, one that isn’t based on the color of my skin. Ramage writes:
“Equality, without consideration of race, gender or sexual preference, is supposedly the American ideal. Yet, among America’s literati and academics, “separate but equal” is encouraged and perpetuated because there are hypocritical writers and professors who have made their fortunes and careers on special minority designations.”
Indeed, it’s hypocritical to complain about so-called racial segregation, yet embrace it when rewards flow from it. Racial discrimination, in my opinion, is always wrong. At one point in our history, black Americans agreed with this notion. Our government openly discriminated against blacks. But today, many black Americans support race preferences, which is nothing more than racial discrimination. The difference is today’s race preferences benefit blacks, so that kind of discrimination is okay. In the same regard, as long as blacks are able to make more money if their books are in the “African American” section, separate-but-equal is a good thing.
1
Stephanie Ramage
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 at 10:44 am
LaShawn, you make an excellent point about how niches enable authors to make more money, however, I would add that such niche marketing puts the enrichment of a few ahead of the betterment of many. Most blacks, like most whites, are not authors, so when black authors take advantage of such niche marketing, they are getting rich off of a system that undermines the equality of the black community at large. – Best, Stephanie Ramage
2
La Shawn Barber
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 9:47 am
I agree, Stephanie. Thanks for stopping by!