Who Deserves a Book Deal via Vox

When Robin Bradford and I present our Actively Anti-Racist Service to Leisure Readers discussions we are able to delve into the nuance of how libraries can craft and promote collections that respond to patron requests for problematic titles while still being an actively anti-antiracist library. While we advocate for tagging problematic titles for more aggressive weeding as one solution, Robin often makes this excellent point which she also put out on Twitter the other day:

I was thinking about her comments and why we get so many questions about this issue the other day. It seem as if there are so many more problematic people getting book deals. Or is it simply that the number is the same but that many of us, including those employed by the publishers, are unwilling to be silent about it anymore?

Well, I think the answer is more complicated, but I found an excellent place to begin digging into the issue

And it is this article via Vox. It is long, so please carve out some time to read it. The article, by Constance Gray, contains a lot of history and analysis; it is honest and straightforward. If you work in a library you need to read this. The questions and concerns on this issue, from all sides, are not going away anytime soon. You need to educate yourself and then discuss as a library how you are going to proceed and handle problematic titles. Robin's response above is a great first step, but these concerns are also a great way for your library to start having serious discussions about where your goals and actions are in opposition and how you can rectify that while still honoring patron requests.

This is not easy and neither Robin nor I have all the answers, but refusing to talk about the problem is how we got here. The reckoning for 400 years of systemic oppression is overdue. Be part of the conversation about dismantling it. Take action. And read the Vox article linked below to give yourself some context.

Who deserves a book deal?

As former Trump officials and other polarizing figures seek book deals, publishing is caught in a generational battle that’s becoming an existential crisis.