Quote:
Originally Posted by Philippe D.
OK, I'll bite. I've remained out of this thread so far, but...
I have a hard time figuring out what the "African-American section" of a bookstore is even supposed to be.
Is it for books for African-Americans? by African-Americans? about African-Americans? and, to be honest - how can this even remotely be a reasonable way to organize a bookstore by?
I mean, bookstores I go to are usually organized by genre, with some sections sorted by their intended public when it is specific enough (kids' books, typically), and general litterature organized by original language or country of origin. This I can understand, because language and country are also often indicative of some elements of style, or theme, or mood, and some readers may not want to read translated books, or may want to avoid it for some languages that they can read without translation.
Is there also a section for books by, or for, or about women?
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My local bookstore does have an African American romance section separately. I don't think it is necessarily stereotyping by the bookstore - a lot of readers only want to read about their own race or cultures, so this is supposed to help the women looking for romance within a certain race.
It does, on the other hand, look bad if the rest of the romance is mixed and huge and you then assume it's all white authors dominating the rest of the shelves.
The best solution to me is have them all mixed together - the reader can browse to find what they want by looking, or else ask a store clerk for assistance.
I'm assuming the bookstores are doing this because consumers seem to want it that way, however.
I remember publishers trying to explain closure of certain lines on Twitter that were all focused on POC authors. They were accused of racial bias but the publishers said the sales were not good enough to keep the lines open. If money is being made, they will certainly keep selling the books and expanding these lines. If not, they will not keep marketing and producing. I'm assuming the bookstores set up sections for the same reason/same way.