Links: Scholastic Publishing, racism, and an apology

[sonia]

Scholastic, and a Faustian Bargain by Maggie Tokuda-Hall.

The irony of curating a collection tentatively titled Rising Voices: Amplifying AANHPI Narratives with one hand while demanding that I strangle my own voice with the other was, to me, the perfect encapsulation of what publishing, our dubious white ally, does so often to marginalized creators.

Our Commitment to Sharing Diverse Stories by Peter Warwick, President and CEO, Scholastic.

We also met today with the collection's mentors (authors and educators from the AANHPI communities) to apologize for our actions in seeking to change the author’s note, to hear their most recent thoughts, and to answer their questions and concerns. It was a moving and instructive experience for us. We had not consulted them on such an important issue as this, we had therefore put at risk their trust in us and caused personal anguish and harm. We must never do this again.

Via james_davis_nicoll

Comments

[minoanmiss]

I'm glad the outcry pushed them to backtrack on what they never should have demanded in the first place.

[sonia]

Yeah. Hard to know how superficial or profound the apology is, but we can always hope that there's some deep change for the better.

[gingicat]

Wow, that's a real apology.

[sonia]

It is! That's worth something in itself, and also I hope they mean it.

[sanguinity]

Thanks for the links. She's right, and I'm glad she said it. May no harm come to her career for it.

[sonia]

From your typing fingers to the Powers That Be!

[silveradept]

We'll see whether the apology is sincere and we don't see any instances of this happening again.

I think there's a good thread to pull on about how much of these decisions are being motivated by the states that have made it part of their official curricula to avoid teaching truth, reality, and history. It was a known thing, at least for me, that textbooks made two versions of their work, one for California, one for Texas, and the question was which of those two paradigms your school and state followed. It won't surprise me at all to find out that Scholastic and other publishers have basically seen what it would take to keep the book fair going in schools and avoid having their money dry up because a legislature decided they were the next target and decided they would go along with that to keep the money going in, rather than standing up for the integrity of authors and their works.

[sonia]

I bet you're right that Texas and its censors have a lot to do with it.

[silveradept]

Texas and their censors, Florida and their censors, Arkansas and their censors, increasingly Missouri and their censors, and so forth. Given how little of the material of authors of color makes it through the process in general, there's probably a lot of these editing "suggestions" that happen at the publisher level as well.

[asakiyume]

Very glad to see that Scholastic made such an unequivocal apology; it means that Maggie Tokuda-Hall's taking a stand and people's support of her worked.

[sonia]

Yes! Good to notice and remember that taking a stand and speaking truth to power does have an effect.