I do not spend a lot of time on heritage months here on the blog mostly because I know most of you have them covered. My biggest problem though is that many libraries only highlight books by marginalized authors during their "month" and then not at all.
Last year during Pride, I did an entire post about this issue here. Please read it because it has a lot of excellent information and I am not going to repeat any of it, but know all of it is implied in today's post.
Today I have what you could consider, "Part 2" of that post.
I want you to look at your Black History Month displays because from what I see they mostly contain literary fiction with some historical and maybe like 1 romance. Where is the genre?
I know where it is. It is left languishing on the shelf because of systemic oppression and well meaning white librarians who think they are helping by "elevating" Black voices during "their" month
It is a version of what I wrote back in 2019 about the unintended racism in our resources, especially when we are talking about genre.
Let me back up a little because I know some of you are thinking I just called you racist. Let me be clear-- I did not. What I am referring to the fact that our mostly white work force in librarianship tends to uplift only the people of color who fit the standard of the very best of publishing. They think that by highlighting those who fit the standard of "literary" that they are showing Black writers at their best.
When I put it this way, I hope you start to see the problem.
Black people read and write books about everything. Just like white people. In fact, for those who forget this, when Robin does her portion of our Actively Anti-Racist Service to Readers program, she ends her presentation with examples of Black writers producing works on every topic.
When it is Black History Month, we should be highlighting as wide a range of Black authors as possible. That includes those who hold other identities beyond being Black (again, see Pride post)
[FYI: you can insert any identity into this argument because all people write all kinds of books, but we are using this, one of the most commonly celebrated identity months in libraries, to make you think about this problem.]
Specifically, I would like to discuss the exclusion of genre. Genres are already looked down upon by the world. Publishers and library workers try to lift them up by saying something is a "literary" Thriller or Fantasy or Horror, especially when it is written by someone from a marginalized perspective(again see that post from 2019).
All Black History Month displays must include genre titles. Not including genre is a disservice to what you are trying to do which is showcase the breadth of titles you own by Black people. It is also unfair to your readers of any identity. You are not allowing them to find a book for them. What about the straight, Asian woman who loves speculative? Guess what, she would love to learn about a Rivers Solomon book because their books are awesome. You aren't only suggesting Fonda Lee. Of course not. But I use this obvious example to make you take a hard look at your well meaning self.
Think about it this way, what percentage of your checkouts are literary fiction vs genres? I am not going to wait for you to check because you know the answer-- literary fiction is way below almost every genre in circulation. [I have stats from multiple libraries. LJ reports, and NoveList's data on searches within hundreds of library catalogs to prove it, but you know I am right so let's move on.]
Now the question you knew was coming: Why aren't your Black History Month Displays more genre than lit fic? Again, see above, but the summary is the long tail of white supremacy and systemic oppression
All genres have titles by Black authors, titles you already own. Put them on display. It is not too late to fix your displays. We just finished the first full week of February. Get on it now and remember to do it for every identity month display going forward.
One final note, my friend Alex Brown made this comment on Twitter the other day, one that I cannot leave this post without pointing it out because it is a related problem:
Do not do this! As they go on to say in the thread (paraphrase):
Black History Month is about celebrating Blackness and its history. Do not clog it up with white people providing context.
And now my comment as a White lady:
This is not about you! It is about making space for others to speak for themselves. Do not insert yourself and your perspective. Get out of the way. Your job here is to find titles to let Black people speak for themselves.
Please take this post and the Pride month post from last June and use them to both celebrate every identity month and make sure your displays are diverse all year long.
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