This article was originally published in Cherwell
When the largest book retailer in the United States, Barnes & Noble, launched their so-called Diverse Editions initiative in honour of Black History Month, they probably didn’t guess that backlash to the move would be so widespread and immediate they would end up shelving the campaign a day later. The initiative essentially professed to champion diversity by relaunching several classic novels with covers depicting characters of colour as the protagonists and was lambasted by prominent African American writers such as Roxane Gay and Angie Thomas. And ultimately, it isn’t hard to see why.
Continue reading “Literary Blackface”
Chaipters 