Looking for a job is like getting on a roller coaster. You stand in that snaking line forever, chatting with others who are also inching toward the same goal: a ride/job that will thrill and satisfy—a job that’s worth the wait. Sometimes you see folks up ahead and you want to wish them well, but you KNOW that job is meant for YOU. And all you can do is wait your turn, and try to be happy for those who are already enjoying the ride. I’ve got one interview coming up, and I missed the deadline for my almost-dream job but emailed them anyway and they agreed to look at my CV. I would *love* to live in Chicago, but for now I need to keep my feet on the ground and slowly shuffle forward…I think it’s time to say goodbye to Brooklyn for a while.
It’s easier to critique the publishing industry when you’re not dependent on it for your livelihood. Believe it or not, I had a moment yesterday when I considered giving up on this author’s life. If I leave NYC, would I still get invited to present at schools and libraries? How would life in another city impact my imagination? Perhaps my role isn’t to publish, but to critique and push for change…I suspect I’ve been blacklisted by some presses already! Did you see Anne Sibley O’Brien’s essay on “The White Mind“? Neesha posted it on her blog, and I immediately put it on Facebook along with my concern that calling racism “unconscious” leaves us with no one to hold accountable. Or, I suppose, it reinforces the need for an external body to monitor equity in the publishing industry since it has proven that it simply cannot or will not do the job itself…
Thanks to Amanda at The Zen Leaf, I’m now reading The Mariposa Club and am intrigued by the main protagonist’s own internalized homophobia. We’ve been trained to crave respectability—even though we know stereotypes are largely false and unfair, there are still times when we don’t want to be “tainted” by association with someone who boldly disregards the limits of what’s “proper”…can’t wait to finish up and figure out what the status is with the ongoing cover controversy—there’s definitely nothing fierce about this blah cover…
Glad to have brought this book to your attention. I’m really looking forward to reading it at some point!
And that’s exactly what that cover screams isn’t it, the effort to assimilate in order to gain respectability. I was really surprised to find that it was published by company that specialises in GLBT literature, which makes it much more complicated to critique.
Interesting that the “White Mind” article completely avoided any mention of privilege. “Unconscious” actions on the part of white people regarding “not noticing” the lack of representations of characters of color is just a euphemistic phrase which not only holds no one accountable, as you mentioned, but ignores the fact that racism and racist acts do not occur in a vacuum.
In terms of The Mariosa Club–I know Amanda mentioned one of the characters is a trans woman, so uh, why does the publisher’s website for the book refer to them as “four boys?” *sigh*
hi, Cass…you would *think* an LGBT press would do MUCH better, but then I ran into issues at a multicultural and feminist press…
you’re also right about the issue of privilege…yet I have to give her credit for using her own white privilege to raise the issue at all…