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    I read only non-white authors for 12 months. What I learned surprised me

    Sunili Govinnage
    Reading science fiction, chick lit and fantasy novels by people of colour for a year brought home to me just how white my reading world was
    Octavia E. Butler Tribute NYC 2006-06-05
    Writers gather in New York for a tribute to Octavia E. Butler, who died in 2006. Photograph: flickr
    In 2014, I managed to read 25 novels. All of them were written by people of colour. That was the result of a small challenge I set myself: not to read books by white authors for a year. The things I learned in my year of selective reading made me pretty glad to have persevered.
    Rather than restricting myself, my decision to be conscious about what I read introduced me to books I ordinarily would not have bothered with. Instead of my usual crime/procedural/legal thrillers, I actually read some science fiction. And some fantasy. And I loved it. Saladin Ahmed’s Throne of the Crescent Moon and Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death are now two of my favourite books. I would never have heard of them had I not deliberately sought them out.
    I was also lucky enough to get to read chick-lit and young adult novels with non-white central characters: Ambelin Kwaymullina’s post-apocalyptic series The Tribe, Antia Heiss’s Manhattan Dreaming and Rebecca Lim’s The Astrologer’s Daughter were particular highlights.
    Part of the lesson for me there was that “ethnic” writers don’t just write “ethnic” books about “ethnic” things. As Ben Okri argues, black writers are often “expected to write about certain things, and if they don’t they are seen as irrelevant”.
    What this means is that if diverse books are only valued because they can be categorised as being different per se, they are still othered. Even if writers from diverse backgrounds might do commercially well and be critically acclaimed, they face the risk of being stereotyped for their work. Valuing a writer only for their diversity, but not their humanity or talent – that’s tokenism.
    In addition to the philosophical questions, I had some technical issues with this whole endeavour. The most frustrating were the practical problems, such as how difficult it was to get hold of well-known books by people of colour – even in ebook format.
    For example, Toni Morrison’s Beloved could not be purchased on the Australian Kindle store for most of the year (I shall pretend that was fixed because I grumpily tweeted about it) and I still haven’t been able to access books that have been published in India.
    At the beginning of 2014 I wrote in Comment is Free about why I wanted to undertake the project. Even after a year, none of the drawbacks I experienced surprised me like the comments on my original piece. Many were deleted for violating the Guardian’s community standards; it seems that people get really angry by the idea of deliberately eschewing white people, no matter the context or reason.
    Although it was pretty funny that people were outraged that I wouldn’t read any Shakespeare for 12 months.
    One reason why I decided to “limit” myself in this way was because I was inspired by Lilit Marcus’s Flavorwire piece about why she only read books written by women in 2013:
    One difference that my book list made is that it ever-so-delicately altered the way I looked at the world. It was slow at first, but opening myself up to a variety of female perspectives made me more aware of the female lives around me … Feminism, as bell hooks pointed out, is for everyone. And when we become more aware of the small injustices and tiny everyday tragedies around us, we become better people. Reading women’s voices helped me to hear them more loudly in my daily life. Our culture is getting better and better at encouraging women to speak, but it’s not doing enough to listen to what they say when they do.
    I wanted to do the same for people of colour. I feel as if my decision brought home just how white my reading world was. For whatever the reason and context, it took me until I was 30 years old to learn that Octavia E. Butler existed – how embarrassing! I’m not blaming anyone or anything for this travesty, and we all know late is better than never … but I think we can do better. I shouldn’t have needed to undertake a 12-month project to discover world class authors.
    Slowly but surely, the world is noticing that “meritocracy” in the arts and entertainment industries is as fictitious as Westeros. The inherent biases in publishing and book media are real, though; one study showed that only three out of the 124 authors who appeared on the New York Times’ bestsellers list during 2012 were people of colour, and that “no African American authors made the Top 10 Bestsellers list that we looked at in 2012”.
    As the blog Book Riot has pointed out, readers (that is, consumers) play a key role in addressing this:
    The only way to work against the biases in our industry and the biases we carry, even if we are unaware of them, is to be deliberate in seeking out and sharing books by writers who are not white.
    The “We Need Diverse Books” campaign has kicked off 2015 asking followers to pledge to read books that highlight diversity in a myriad of aspects (so not just people of colour, but looking at various inclusivity issues such as disability and gender and sexuality) with the hashtag #WNDBResolution.
    I am so glad I was able to expand my reading list by making mindful choices about the books I chose last year. Those who are making similar efforts to expand their literary horizons might be similarly surprised by what they find.
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    The racists hate-filled comments here are astounding. This isn't about "being racist to white writers" (I mean come on people, it's really not). It's about learning from and enriching oneself by seeking more diverse writers and writing. It's a fantastic effort and more people would benefit from doing the same. I now have a list of books that I will be seeking out myself thanks to reading this article.
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      The racists hate-filled comments here are astounding. This isn't about "being racist to white writers" (I mean come on people, it's really not). It's about learning from and enriching oneself by seeking more diverse writers and writing. It's a fantastic effort and more people would benefit from doing the same. I now have a list of books that I will be seeking out myself thanks to reading this article.
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    1 2 3 4
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    • 16 17
      "Black" and "ethnic" aren't the same thing. And your original piece in 2014 had legitimate fallacies in the way you presented your thesis.
      Reply |
      • 12 13
        "legitimate fallacies"
        :P
        Interesting. So either you mean:
        A falsehood or failing of reasoning that is legally or socially permitted.
        A falsehood or failing of reasoning that can be defended with logic and reasoning and thus found valid/true.
        A line of reasoning that seems correct, though is not, and is legally or socially permitted.
        A line of reasoning that seems correct, though is not, yet is found to be true using reasoning and logic
        Or perhaps you merely mean a false reasoning that was born within wedlock ...
        Truly baffling but thanks for the food for thought :)
        Reply |
      • 17 18
        "A line of reasoning that is legitimately described as fallacious, as opposed to the accusation being unfounded" seems the most likely intended meaning, and a fairly straightforward one to discern.
        Reply |
      • 3 4
        But that itself is redundant and open to accusations of logical failing.
        Someone claiming something as fallacious is legitimate or not - but in either case, it is not more or less so if the accuser states such.
        I can make any accusation I would like to make, but wrapping it up in claims of legitimacy does alter the merits of the accusation.
        It's akin the to the 'I honesty believe ...' line of argument, which is what? - as opposed to someone who states they disingenuously believe something?
        That latter just does not happen now - does it? :) - so claim belief but don't wrap it in redundancies ... all that does is weaken the argument.
        So perhaps I should have included the 'obvious' meaning you highlight, but I dismissed it at the outset for the reasons outlined herein :)
        Reply |
    • 23 24
      No diversity in publishing. Nothing exists from a white working class voice.
      Reply |
      • 51 52
        i don't you realize, white working class means bogan, nazi, to these people. the new left stopped caring about the white working class in the late 60's early 70's, and started caring about the exotic funky cool [well anything that isn't white working class].
        Reply |
      • 2 3
        That's not true. It has more to do with non-English novels not getting proper marketing and/or translation.
        Reply |
      • 11 12
        This is the most straw-filled straw man I've seen in a while.
        "As a white working class person, I demand perspectives from other white working class people! I just need to know what other people just like me are thinking!"
        Reply |
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      • 5 6
        You seriously cannot be that ignorant ... well, he's a clue - wrong. You do the googling ... not hard to find a range of cases but not my job to do that for you.
        Besides, do the research yourself and the learning is always more engaging.
        Reply |
      • 15 16
        You're wrong. There is a huge corpus of African writing long pre-dating colonisation! Northern Africa is part of the cradle of "western Civilisation". Ethiopia, for example, has had an intact writing system for millenia and has one of the oldest Christian communities. The ancient Greeks used to import African "Slaves" because of their great learning. The ancient Egyptions were famous writers of large books. You are probably talking about Sub-Saharan Africa but that doesn't make your comment any better: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing_systems_of_Africa#Southern_Africa. The colonists did not bring writing to the Sub-Saharan Africans!
        Reply |
    • 26 27
      Great idea. I find it's easy to fall back on the same old authors, year in, year out, reflecting your voice and culture back at you. Time I did the same and tried something new.
      Reply |
    • 41 42
      I'm not sure I've ever looked up the ethnicity of an author. The names help I guess, although their not always the real name.
      I've even had the gender wrong on a couple of authors for years in the past.
      Reply |
      • 28 29
        I agree, this is the most racist thing I have heard of in awhile,, I think most "judge the book by the cover" or at least the blurb on the back.. imagine if i said i googled the genetic make up of a author and did not buy it unless he was of my preferred race, or excluded jews , blacks etc
        Reply |
      • 23 24
        Acknowledging a person's race is not the same as racism. It would only be racism if the author suggested that some races are poor quality writers in comparison to other races.
        Being interested in books from a diversity of cultures is a long way from racism.
        Reply |
    • 8 9
      Reading opens your mind.
      Reply |
      • 2 3
        And closes the door on many a romance you may have had, by going out and having fun with licentious strangers, instead of being firmly entrenched at home curled up with a 'good book'!
        Reply |
      • 8 9
        You can do both you know. Based on the average life expectancy you'll have about 22360 evenings in your adult life, you can alternate them between "fun with licentious strangers" and curling up with a good book. Plus many other activities besides!
        Reply |
    • 3 4
      Well there are more books available and visible by non-white authors than 30 years ago. In the sense that different experiences and backgrounds could lead to a wider range of writing, more books by non-white authors is a positive thing. But remember that race does not of itself mean that a book should be read, or not read. It seems to churlish for anyone to limit reading just to those books written by non-whites.
      Reply |
    • 14 15
      I loved the original article and was so shocked by the comments, especially by people who consider themselves to be worldly and educated. Anyway. Would love to see what your reading list was.
      Reply |
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    • 14 15
      We took your challenge for our 2014 book club and we came upon so many treasures. I ended up binge reading everything Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has written - what a marvelous gateway to new worlds! I didn't immediately sink into Questions of Travel by Michelle de Krester but it haunted me for weeks after I finished it.
      Reply |
    • 49 50
      "it seems that people get really angry by the idea of deliberately eschewing white people, no matter the context or reason."
      What would the journalists response be if someone had written exactly the same crap comments but replaced the word 'white' with 'black'!
      Stupidity is obviously color blind!
      Reply |
      • 24 25
        Yes, but people of colour don't get anywhere near as much attention as white people. White people get too much attention in most fields of media for totally ridiculous reasons, that most certainly aren't meritocratic. Rather than being, dare I say it, racist to white people, in fact what the author is doing is being not racist to everybody.
        Sometimes things can be justified by "context or reason". It seems your stupidity walks hand in hand with your inability to read or think.
        Reply |
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      • 8 9
        the reasons people choose to read novels, and what novels they choose, varies, but i'm not sure how many would do so for the purpose of 'equality of attention'. i'm sorry to say i found your first sentence so excruciating, that regardless of your ethnicity or colour, i doubt i would choose a novel written by you.
        Reply |
    • 5 6
      Writing a novel takes time, specifically time where a prospective writer has access to a place to live and food without having to go to work everyday.
      This is an amazingly privileged situation and, while it may be slowly changing, I suspect covers a subset of humanity that is overwhelmingly white (and, by definition, not working class in response to rationalfoods point).
      Reply |
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    • 33 34
      this year I am only reading books written by redheads.
      Reply |
    • 5 6
      Thank you so much for this article. I am unfortunately unaware of most titles of the books you have listed . And plan to read a few myself. We all need a prod at times.
      Bogged down with readings about world issues, dealing with family issues. Along with attempting to use the computer. While living a life at the same time-seems to get in the way! Don't you find?
      Reply |
    • 13 14
      I fully support your endeavors, just got one tiny problem with some of the terminology.
      "White" - what a broad term. It encompasses most Anglo-Saxons, Afrikaners, Europeans, Australasians, North Americans, some South Americans and a fair few pockets dotted around in the remainder of the world.
      But never mind all that diversity, we'll just call them 'White'.
      I yearn for the day in the distant future when the population of this blue speck has so successfully interbred that we are all just about the same colour. Although there will still possibly be some football 'fans' that won't let someone join in due to being in possession of a tan.
      Alas that day will probably come ten minutes before Sol goes all Red Giant
      Reply |
      • 6 7
        Sorry, Dan Ger, "White[s]" labelled themselves "white" and took "white" to the world to invade, exploit, and, incidentally, spread a Middle Eastern theology pretending that it was European!
        You can be sure no people other than "whites" thought of calling Caucasians 'white' Pinkishness (a more or less translucent skin) a strange optical illusion to label "white"! I know about northern climates and adaptation to less sunshine.
        Yet, "white' continues to be used as a mark of "racial" superiority!
        The writer of the article only read non-"white" lit for ONE year and I am sure she is back to reading "white" writers! Don't despair; she may read your works without resentment!
        Reply |
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      • 13 14
        Sorry, nischal, I've never invaded or oppressed anyone. Hate to disappoint you.
        Nor has anyone i know, and they would mostly identify as Anglo-Saxon.
        By the way, i'm partly Anglo-Saxon but mostly Yemeni. And i read books without caring about the authors Melanin count.
        Like i said, i fully support the endeavors of Sunili. It's just that it comes across a bit 'us vs them'
        Reply |
    • 29 30
      Missing the whole point of fiction if you care about who the author is. I am afraid this commentator is hopelessly obsessed by race. I suppose being obsessed by racism is racism, isn't it?
      How about reading books for a whole year without knowing who the author is? That might cause some kind of comprehension.
      Reply |
    • 18 19
      I'm only going to read books written by white, heterosexual males.
      Reply |
    • 17 18
      This year I am only reading books written by people who live no more than 5 miles from my house!
      Reply |
    • 7 8
      I find this interesting as an exercise in pointing to the (often unconscious) biases out there, and for a person writing about literature it is perfectly reasonable. We all have our biases and most of us tend to follow familiar paths unless we make a deliberate choice to do otherwise. In that context I find allegations of racism (or that odd term "reverse racism") rather perplexing.
      I read less fiction than I would like, and most of that is science fiction or fantasy, genres (especially scifi) that have traditionally been dominated by male writers. Sticking to the familiar can be very narrowing. For those who are still in that trap, a deliberate choice to break out and read book by women might be very rewarding (for me it just happened when I picked up a book by Ann McCaffrey many years ago, and that was followed by discovering a good independent bookstore).
      But in the end a good story is a good story, and the ethnic identity, native language, country of residence or gender of the author does not matter. So Octavia Butler was a Black American? On discovering that (in this article) my only reaction was to reflect on how seldom I try to learn about authors I enjoy. And sadness that she had died at a relatively young age.
      And what does "ethnic" mean anyway? I suppose that here in Australia my wife would be called "ethnic". But when we are in Vietnam that term would apply to me. And I would hope we would not expect a single perspective from, say, Chinese authors from Shanghai, Wuhan, Kuala Lumpur and Sydney, just because their ancestors come from that large and culturally diverse nation we call China. Or for that matter "Anglo" authors from different countries. Place and experience, not to mention talent and personality matter more I would think.
      But as an exercise in pushing us to think outside the box I found this interesting. And I now have a few new names to look for.
      Disclosure: I am a 62 year old white male.
      Reply |
    • 15 16
      Calling coloured people 'coloured' people was considered racist in an article a couple of weeks ago in The Guardian......I'm confused.
      And....what does it mean? Do you mean yellow, olive, brown, black....anything but white I guess.....or are they all 'black'?
      You do know that both black and white aren't 'colours' don't you? What did you expect....strange English, all books to be about the KKK? I don't understand the motivation...or rather lack of it to read coloured up until this point.
      Reply |
    • 4 5
      Valuing a writer only for their diversity, but not their humanity or talent – that’s tokenism.
      Fascinating. Please go on.
      Reply |
    • 5 6
      I have 99% of the time have no clue about the race of the author when I am reading something. Though I am reading for enjoyment and enrichment continuously, I have not read any fiction or literature in 25 years. Fiction (books, TV sitcoms, movies, etc) always bugged me in this way: Who wants to knowingly be lied to as a form of entertainment? I know, the vast majority of people do; somehow they greatly enjoy having real emotions evoked by fake worlds, situations and people! ...but not me.
      Reply |
      • 2 3
        If you don't know the race of 99% of the authors you read then you may be unwittingly reading only 'white' authors. This isn't racist, it just means that everything you read may be from a single vey narrow perspective and you are not aware of it. The point being made is that if you actively seek books based on different criteria like race, you may discover different perspectives that you just didn't know about.
        A bit over half of what I read is non-fiction but I am conscious that history books cannot be assumed to be the unvarnished truth and contain a great deal of handy fiction. As for science, well, the whole foundation of science is to imagine that things aren't what they seem and invent a fiction for testing to see if 'common sense' actually makes sense. In general, it doesn't. Science doesn't fit in with common sense, common sense changes to fit in with science. But the first step is the fiction.
        I think you will find that fiction pervades and informs the world you live in and is fundamental to society and how people behave.
        Reply |
      • 4 5
        99% of the time you have no idea about the race of the author and you haven't read fiction or literature for 25 years. I really wish I had not read this. Sometimes hope, like a bird, flys away.
        Reply |
      • 1 2
        Sometimes truth is just a preferred or agreed upon story, and a story gets nearer a truth.
        Reply |
    • 64 65
      The racists hate-filled comments here are astounding. This isn't about "being racist to white writers" (I mean come on people, it's really not). It's about learning from and enriching oneself by seeking more diverse writers and writing. It's a fantastic effort and more people would benefit from doing the same. I now have a list of books that I will be seeking out myself thanks to reading this article.
      Reply |
      • 24 25
        by seeking more diverse writers and writing
        What is this mysterious word "diverse"? It seems to be doing a lot of work. I've even heard single people being described as "diverse", as opposed to groups of people.
        Reply |
      • 13 14
        Don't be a pedant and pay attention to the context.
        Reply |
      • 36 37
        if you are excluding one group of people solely on the basis of their race then I fail to see how you could call this anything other than racist.
        As the author notes
        it seems that people get really angry by the idea of deliberately eschewing white people, no matter the context or reason
        Can you not see why people might find this sort of blatant double standard troubling?
        Reply |
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