Judging A Book By Its Color

Aside from shining black people’s sneakers and renaming Army bases, how else can Americans grovel? Why, by “purchas[ing] two books by black authors through June 20.”

Amistad Press launched the movement and hashtags #BlackPublishingPower and #BlackOutBestSellerList to support black authors and get their names on bestseller lists throughout the country.

Tracy Sherrod, editorial director of Amistad, …  told Publishers Weekly that the goal is “to turn the best-seller lists Black, to take the list over with books by Black writers or by other people of color.”

Imagine pouring years and your best efforts into a manuscript, landing an agent to sell it to editors, clearing the hurdle of acceptance from a publisher—and then racists steal your pride in honest achievement by hyping the color of your skin rather than the content of your book.

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