28/10/2015
"Racism in America is a part of structural white supremacy. We’re all trained to put white people first and to act like that’s just normal, whatever color we are. So I don’t consider it “brown nepotism” to go over a list I’ve made when I’m jurying a prize or reading applications for an MFA class or selecting a series of writers—I consider it checking my prejudices—checking myself for signs that I’ve bought in an idea that I don’t want working in my head. I’ve written about training myself to deal with male privilege. I did much the same with racism. I still do it. We live in a racist culture and you have to stay woke, as the expression goes. You can’t just imagine dealing with racism is a one-time purge of the system—checking yourself for racism should be a regular thing.
Diverse reading is bigger than any one season of choosing writers, then. It’s a lifelong commitment. It begins, in my experience, in the relationships you make to communities—do you know, then, about your local writers’ organizations? Local independent presses and zines, and arts funding? What events do these magazines and organizations have coming up? How can you attend, and if you like what you see, how can you be more involved? If you don’t know answers to these, in our current age, it’s never been easier to find out more—and what’s more, it’s exciting. What I dislike about so much of the way people deal with diversity is that they treat these explorations as hygiene, when it is about finding new and exciting work that blows down the doors of your mind.
As a writer and editor in New York City, I have no excuse for not knowing about other writers of color." - Alexander Chee
Cosign. No one has an excuse for not knowing about writers of color in 2015 America.
Thanks for the shoutout to Union Station Magazine PEN American Center.
- See more at: http://www.pen.org/conversation/editorial-roundtable-diversity-equity-publishing .hj8fWaY6.dpuf
In light of recent conversations on the lack of equity and diversity in the publishing industry, editors and other industry gatekeepers weigh in on how to mark out a new path forward.
