Worrying racism in the small press

There are lots and lots of publishers, small and large, who publish lots and lots of stories by and about white straight men. This isn't about excluding, but expanding the range of stories we get a chance to read.

BellTower said:

I know this will get a lot of people's backs up, but I can't hold my tongue any longer. I'm tired of coming across the new wave of racism and exclusivity that has reared its ugly head in the small press. Small press guideliness no longer tell us the kind of stories they want but the kind of people they want, non-heterosexual white men. Take this guideline for example from Pulp Literature

http://pulpliterature.com/submissions/submission-guidelines/
"We love to publish works featuring fiery feminism, a rainbow of LGBTQIA+, skin colours that don’t begin with the letter ‘W’."

Okay so they want feminism, fine, and they want more lgbt fiction, fine also, but Skin colours that don't begin with the letter "W". Come on now! Seriously? It's shocking. You couldn't get more racist if you tried.

Not to single out Pulp Literature for being actively anti-white racist and politicial in this way but just about every small press has something like this in their guidelines these days. Why is this kind of thing going unchallenged by the wider writing community?

If this post is removed or I'm banned for speaking out against this, it just goes to show that this is being swept under the carpet.

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No one is telling anyone they can't write white characters if they choose to.

POC are underrepresented in western fiction. I'm a white author, but I don't feel one bit worried about or threatened by publishers striving to expand diverse offerings simply by encouraging submissions with non-white characters. Kudos to them. It's long overdue.

All the best,
Riv

BellTower said:

I know this will get a lot of people's backs up, but I can't hold my tongue any longer. I'm tired of coming across the new wave of racism and exclusivity that has reared its ugly head in the small press. Small press guideliness no longer tell us the kind of stories they want but the kind of people they want, non-heterosexual white men. Take this guideline for example from Pulp Literature

http://pulpliterature.com/submissions/submission-guidelines/
"We love to publish works featuring fiery feminism, a rainbow of LGBTQIA+, skin colours that don’t begin with the letter ‘W’."

Okay so they want feminism, fine, and they want more lgbt fiction, fine also, but Skin colours that don't begin with the letter "W". Come on now! Seriously? It's shocking. You couldn't get more racist if you tried.

Not to single out Pulp Literature for being actively anti-white racist and politicial in this way but just about every small press has something like this in their guidelines these days. Why is this kind of thing going unchallenged by the wider writing community?

If this post is removed or I'm banned for speaking out against this, it just goes to show that this is being swept under the carpet.

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This is like an all-male, all-white law firm saying they're actively seeking to hire women and especially women of colour for partner-track positions being accused of racism.

Did that one press say they WON'T publish stuff by the terribly-imperiled white men of the world? Looks like they did not, though they, you know, could.

I'm also reminded of this, from RBG --

People ask me sometimes, when — when do you think it will it be enough? When will there be enough women on the court? And my answer is when there are nine.

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I'm confused, you're complaining about one publisher that is currently focused on a subset of work? How did that get you pissed off?

Publishers focus on subsets because that's their market. That's a good thing.

You might want to rethink your outrage, BellTower.

eqb said:

There are lots and lots of publishers, small and large, who publish lots and lots of stories by and about white straight men. This isn't about excluding, but expanding the range of stories we get a chance to read.

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This. Even if this publisher were saying they won't publish white authors (which isn't what they're saying), there are a zillion other opportunities out there.

I'm a white author. We're not being oppressed. Really.

ETA: Odds are what this publisher is saying is "We're drowning in subs from white folks, some of which are fab, sure, but we'd really like to appeal to a wider audience so we want to make sure non-white authors know they are explicitly welcome."

BellTower said:

I know this will get a lot of people's backs up, but I can't hold my tongue any longer. I'm tired of coming across the new wave of racism and exclusivity that has reared its ugly head in the small press. Small press guideliness no longer tell us the kind of stories they want but the kind of people they want, non-heterosexual white men. Take this guideline for example from Pulp Literature

http://pulpliterature.com/submissions/submission-guidelines/
"We love to publish works featuring fiery feminism, a rainbow of LGBTQIA+, skin colours that don’t begin with the letter ‘W’."

Okay so they want feminism, fine, and they want more lgbt fiction, fine also, but Skin colours that don't begin with the letter "W". Come on now! Seriously? It's shocking. You couldn't get more racist if you tried.

Not to single out Pulp Literature for being actively anti-white racist and politicial in this way but just about every small press has something like this in their guidelines these days. Why is this kind of thing going unchallenged by the wider writing community?

If this post is removed or I'm banned for speaking out against this, it just goes to show that this is being swept under the carpet.

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(Quoting for posterity. For some reason, I feel this needs to be preserved.)

Consider this:

In romance, many books are marketed with abbreviations showing the pairings. BM = black man, WW = white woman, etc.

An author I know who writes interracial romances has never seen anything marketed as WM/WW. As the standard, it's not expected to be flagged. However, it's troublesome when you are expected to flag your novel BM/WW or WM/BW. Even when the cover specifically has a POC character depicted.

And forget about having a black hero and white heroine on the cover of your novel. Many, many publishers refuse to have such cover art and will only put the white heroine on the front. Because issues.

If anything, I'd be more upset if said publisher said "we only publish novels featuring skin colors that start with 'W'." That is incredibly racist and troubling AF. I'm seeing the original statement as reassurance that authors can submit their work if they have MCs who aren't 100% standard Caucasian; as Riv mentioned, it's been a long time simmering and it's coming more to the forefront in the industry each passing day. Yeah, the assumption should be there but with the conniptions being pitched over peoples' assumptions lately in the publishing industry as a whole, such a note can be reassuring when an author writes POC characters. (Bad enough there's the entire "you're white so you shouldn't write POC characters!" debacle flailing about on the sidelines, but that's another rant on another thread.)

The lack of diversity is invisible until it is pointed out, and then you can't miss it.

The Race Bechdel Test

1) Are there two or more named people of Color
2) who talk to each other
3) about something other than White people?

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It doesn't take much searching to see how disproportionate POC characters are in movies.

The original Bechdel Test:

1) Are there two or more named women
2) who talk to each other
3) about something other than a man?

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This one is another eye-opener: Every Single Word Spoken by a Person of Color in [Mainstream Film Title]
For example:

Total run time of all Nancy Meyers-directed movies: 12 hours and 43 minutes
Total run time of POC speaking in NM-directed movies: 5 minutes and 23 seconds
That’s 0.705%.

Total POC characters: 30
Total POC characters with no name: 20
Total POC characters that work in the service industry/assistance: 19
Total POC characters whose actions affect the storyline: 1

Number of lines that one character has: 4

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BellTower said:

Take this guideline for example from Pulp Literature

http://pulpliterature.com/submissions/submission-guidelines/
"We love to publish works featuring fiery feminism, a rainbow of LGBTQIA+, skin colours that don’t begin with the letter ‘W’."

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Perhaps you need to read more closely? That's an indication of what they particularly want. They want those things because there are lots of readers who want those things and not enough writers.

Most writers have an odd desire to write things that people want to read.

If you don't want to write those things, then don't. There are lot of other publishers.

But the call is not in any way exclusionary or racist.

BellTower said:

If this post is removed or I'm banned for speaking out against this, it just goes to show that this is being swept under the carpet.

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We don't generally ban for ignorance, though I admit vague pronoun references do make me wince.

BellTower said:

I have only this to say in response. Logically, under-representation of a "minority" is not possible. If you over represent a minority by excluding the majority you are then operating a bias.

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Do please point to any exclusion. No where does it say "do not send us this." Rather, the submissions call presents a list of desiderata.

There is nothing that says "do not send" or "we do not want." It says "We love to publish works featuring . . . "

That's not exclusionary. It simply says what they are particularly looking for.

Your logic, by the way, is lacking; perhaps there's an underlying difficulty with parsing.

You can't "over represent" a minority. Minorities are under represented. Once they become over represented, the are no longer a minority. Unless of course "over represented" is code for "I don't like people who aren't like me."

BellTower said:

I have only this to say in response. Logically, under-representation of a "minority" is not possible. If you over represent a minority by excluding the majority you are then operating a bias.

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There is no logic in this. It's flat out wrong.

BellTower said:

I have only this to say in response. Logically, under-representation of a "minority" is not possible. If you over represent a minority by excluding the majority you are then operating a bias.

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What? I can't even follow this -- do you mean in a mathematical sense, because... no. If say, black, hispanic, and asian people make up 25% of the population (I am totally making up a number at random), but make up only 5% of characters in fiction published, or of writers published, is that not underrepresenting?

Also, no one is 'excluding' anyone. The press said they love/want to see more of X. That does not mean 'we will not look at Y.'

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BellTower said:

Bias is the over representation of a minority.

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Which minority group is currently overrepresented in book deals, or as characters in fiction?

BellTower said:

let's say for the sake of argument that there are fewer black writers. Is it fair to disproportionately accept more fiction from black writers over white ones, or to make it your agenda to do so? Do you see the problem

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That is a different equally ignorant assertion. You began by complaining about a call that asked for

. . . works featuring fiery feminism, a rainbow of LGBTQIA+, skin colours that don’t begin with the letter ‘W’."

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That says nothing about the writers.

You've suddenly dragged in the red-herring about black writers.

Now you're complaining about writers who aren't white?

You know you can write about characters who aren't you, who aren't the same sex, or religion, or age, or even species.

BellTower said:

let's say for the sake of argument that there are fewer black writers. Is it fair to disproportionately accept more fiction from black writers over white ones, or to make it your agenda to do so? Do you see the problem

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So to get this straight... You aren't opposed to the parts about female writers, or LGBTQ writers, just non-white writers. Is that right?

-Riv- said:

POC are underrepresented in western fiction. I'm a white author, but I don't feel one bit worried about or threatened by publishers striving to expand diverse offerings simply by encouraging submissions with non-white characters. Kudos to them. It's long overdue.

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This. Indeed, if you expand on the section that so irritates you, I'd draw your attention to the words I put in red.

• We love stories and art by and about underrepresented groups. We love to publish works featuring fiery feminism, a rainbow of LGBTQIA+, skin colours that don’t begin with the letter ‘W’, indigenous and immigrant experiences alike, and people of varying shapes, sizes, ages, and abilities.

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Think about that term, "underrepresented," and what that signifies for every author who has ever written about POC or LGBTQ characters, only to be rejected not because their work is bad, but because "nobody wants to read about those characters." Historically, that's been the typical reaction of the majority of U.S. publishing houses. Imagine how many budding young authors have had their dreams crushed and their careers killed before they could even begin, how many wonderful works the world has been deprived of as a result.

Imagine what it was like to be a young, unknown, J.K. Rowling, and be advised to put only your initials on your books because "boys won't read books written by a woman." Imagine what it's like to have a publisher insist on putting white models on the covers of books with POC main characters.

They're not "excluding" white people... they're including everyone else, opening the door to ALL authors, after generations of rejections so automatically dispensed and universally understood that there was no need to state it in the submission requirements.

The only way I, as a white person, would be bothered by this "racism," is if I was threatened by the additional competition for precious space in publications.

Personally, I figure if someone writes a better story than mine, then they're more deserving of publication than I am. Period. The honorable way to compete is not to artifically shrink the pool of competition, but to improve my own skills and hopefully write so well that my work simply can't be ignored.

You seem to think you're being edgy or stating things that other people here are too afraid to state, or trying to pick a fight with those who would "oppress" you, as a way to prove to yourself that you are, indeed, being oppressed.

If that's the case, I'm afraid you've come to the wrong place.

BellTower said:

I have only this to say in response. Logically, under-representation of a "minority" is not possible. If you over represent a minority by excluding the majority you are then operating a bias.

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"Under-representation of a "minority" is not possible"

"over represent a minority by excluding the majority you are then operating a bias" As opposed to simply encouraging participation of minorities?

Riv is right, this doesn't make sense. What is curious is how you see minorities as 'over-represented'? Or even at risk of being over-represented? The gap (see my above links) is cavernous. It's going to take decades (given our experience with the time it took for the Bechdel test to even begin to make a difference) before literature comes close to proportionate representation the actual population.

Serious question: how can you not see that?

Bellflower stop playing chicken-shit games and deleting posts because you can't even deal with your own words.

I'm going to keep restoring your deleted posts. Write true, write hard, don't screw with the community by posting and deleting.

BellTower said:

Saying you don't want to see stories about white people is not in the interests of anyone

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That isn't what it says. Anywhere in the text you posted in the first post.

It doesn't say not to submit, or that they don't want. It says what they really would love.

And they would really love those stories because there aren't enough .

Also? You're focusing entirely on race. The call doesn't.