Leonce Gaiter is a novelist and essayist who has written an article for the Huffington Post: Controversies in Black Literature Prove Book Sales Aren't Color-Blind
As I wrote to a friend on Twitter, the article is rather full of fail. 1. The Liar controversy was about 7 months ago, so not really "recent" (especially not in blog years). 2. Justine didn't complain "loudly and publicly," she was incredibly restrained and professional about the whole thing (in public at least. For all I know poor Scott Westerfeld was treated to months and months of curse-filled tirades about Bloomsbury) 3. His cover didn't relate at all to his book, yet he's placing the blame for poor sales on the presence of a black model on the cover (and threatens to "do violence" before he allows a solo black model to appear on another cover of his). As my good friend Rachel says, this makes him sound like he's saying "my publishers are morons, which is why they're out of business." 4. While I think all of us would be happiest if we saw more people of color on the covers of books, I think the minimum we're asking for is to stop the practice of white washing - the UK Cover of Magic Under Glass features people in silhouette - so you can't tell the race of either of them, and everyone seems to agree it's a great cover!
So...read the article and go join me in the comments (here or there).
2 comments:
I've followed the controversy and you make some good points, especially the fourth one. We all want that-and now.
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