Many industries now stress the importance of racial diversity, but the numbers do not show much progress. In the book industry specifically, Black workers are underrepresented as store owners, may be assigned to positions in the back rather than front of the store, and may observe that titles by Black authors receive less recognition, promotion, and visibility from booksellers. In this session, Dr. Adia Harvey Wingfield presents data from her forthcoming book Gray Areas to explain how and why these processes persist. Blending interview, survey, and statistical data, Wingfield shows how the everyday, taken-for-granted aspects of work can preclude booksellers from increasing racial diversity, and delivers evidence-based suggestions for how to change this outcome.

Speakers Dr. Adia Harvey Wingfield, Gray Areas (HarperCollins)

Recorded June 6, 2023, at Children's Institute 2023 in Milwaukee

Additional bookseller education resources can be found at www.bookweb.org.

Theme by Constant Companion: https://constantcompanion.bandcamp.com