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The editor-in-chief of SLJ has released a statement about that awful cover and story in the latest edition. (This is the same woman who locked her account after people called her out for her poor twitter response to complaints.) https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=about-our-february-cover-from-the-editor 1/
"âHow do we get white communities to read diverse books?â is a question that our audience has asked us directly for coverage on. And what is the role of librarians?" I don't give a shit about this question, because it's a shitty question. 2/
White librarians SHOULD NOT be asking this in 20-fucking-21! It is not "a provocative notion;" it's a microaggression. It posits "diverse" books as abnormal, as something that white people must be convinced to indulge in. It strips us of our stories and centers whiteness. 3/
It buys into the common publishing mentality that the only BIPOC stories worth telling are those that revel in our suffering. Black girls are only magic if confronting white-created oppressions in such a way that white kids can learn from them. 4/
"there has been resistance to diverse books, which are among the most challenged titles" This misses the *reason* for those challenges, which have nothing 2 do w/ white readers not wanting "diverse" books & everything 2do w/ white supremacy, patriarchy, & cisheteronormativity. 5/
The article then goes on to reduce Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop's seminal work on windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors to be about white children needing to see BIPOC stories. No! How very dare! 6/
You can't "center Black stories all the time" by publishing a piece in Black History Month about how white children need "diverse" books to "expand understanding and empathy." And you especially can't do that with a blackface illustration on the cover. 7/
Lastly, nowhere in this statement is an apology or statement of action. No promises to do better or evaluate the process. SLJ should be ashamed of itself, but it's not. 8/
This whole thing is a good reminder that being BIPOC doesn't mean you're an ally or advocate for *all* BIPOC, and that anti-Blackness is not just for white people. 9/
Extra reading! Here's Dr Rudine Sims Bishop's article: https://scenicregional.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Mirrors-Windows-and-Sliding-Glass-Doors.pdf And here's why I always put diverse in quotes when referring to "diverse" books: http://www.imaginelit.com/news/2017/11/21/there-is-no-diverse-book 10/10
Apparently the post is paywalled. My school has a subscription that has not yet run out (I will not be renewing!), so lemme screenshot it with alt text.
