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How I made every exhibitor at ALA Midwinter uncomfortable
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From: Hannah Gómez <hannahgomez_at_gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2014 11:03:17 -0800
Hello, all! I'm mostly a lurker here, but this month's topic is one I'm especially passionate about, for positive and negative reasons, so I thought I'd share my little social experiment that I tried at Midwinter.
I've been trying to be less greedy at conferences in general, since I have mountains of books from past conferences I still haven't read, but I'm sure I'm in the majority when I say it's just so hard to pass up so many delicious looking books, and it's not that I don't *want* to read them, only that reading more than 200 books a year is really impossible, and between two or more conferences a year, Netgalley, Edelweiss, libraries, and bookstores, I have access to plenty more than that and want to read them all. So I decided that this year, aside from a few books that I was dying to get my hands on, I would only ask publishers about their new stock in MG and YA that was either by/about people of color, the LGBTQ community, Jewish- or Islamic-inspired (mythology, religious practice, or philosophy) or disability. And I decided to say that straight out, as soon as they started talking to me, because a) the shocked GAH!? faces were pretty funny to behold, and b) I was hoping that they would be embarrassed or uncomfortable enough to tell their bosses that they were embarrassed or uncomfortable and that maybe they should consider doing something to avoid such embarrassment in the future.
I also made it a point, even when browsing and not speaking directly to the reps, to say certain phrases extra loudly, like "oooh, brown girls on the cover!" and "hurrah for queer romance!" or "There is nothing I want less for my collection than more books about #whitegirlproblems."
Friends and readers of my blog already know that I have huge issues with the terms "diversity" and "multicultural" ( http://mclicious.org/2012/12/09/lets-stop-calling-it-multicultural/)andthat I am really tired of publishers patting themselves on the back for caring about that stuff, because caring gives them a reason not to actually try to change things. I wrote about that in my blog post responding to a disappointingly inactive CBC Diversity event I attended while in grad school in Boston: http://mclicious.org/2013/06/16/caring-is-not-trying-trying-is-not-succeeding/
So I hope my efforts might inspire other conference goers to follow suit. Quite frankly, I think that we have to try pressuring and embarrassing
(okay, maybe it's shaming) in this way, because quite obviously, panel discussions and preaching to the choir really isn't having much of an effect.
If you're interested, here is the blog post I wrote about my experience
(and my reading goals for 2014): http://mclicious.org/2014/02/01/three-simultaneous-reading-challenges-and-why-you-should-make-people-uncomfortable-at-conference-exhibits/
I'm curious if anyone else has done anything similar with regards to asking reps (or editors themselves, as they are often at big conferences) flat out what they have to offer that's not cis/het/WASP. What are the reactions you see?
Best,
Hannah Gómez, MA, MSLIS hannahgomez_at_gmail.com http://hannahgomez.wix.com/portfolio
(520) 481-8778
Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2014 11:03:17 -0800
Hello, all! I'm mostly a lurker here, but this month's topic is one I'm especially passionate about, for positive and negative reasons, so I thought I'd share my little social experiment that I tried at Midwinter.
I've been trying to be less greedy at conferences in general, since I have mountains of books from past conferences I still haven't read, but I'm sure I'm in the majority when I say it's just so hard to pass up so many delicious looking books, and it's not that I don't *want* to read them, only that reading more than 200 books a year is really impossible, and between two or more conferences a year, Netgalley, Edelweiss, libraries, and bookstores, I have access to plenty more than that and want to read them all. So I decided that this year, aside from a few books that I was dying to get my hands on, I would only ask publishers about their new stock in MG and YA that was either by/about people of color, the LGBTQ community, Jewish- or Islamic-inspired (mythology, religious practice, or philosophy) or disability. And I decided to say that straight out, as soon as they started talking to me, because a) the shocked GAH!? faces were pretty funny to behold, and b) I was hoping that they would be embarrassed or uncomfortable enough to tell their bosses that they were embarrassed or uncomfortable and that maybe they should consider doing something to avoid such embarrassment in the future.
I also made it a point, even when browsing and not speaking directly to the reps, to say certain phrases extra loudly, like "oooh, brown girls on the cover!" and "hurrah for queer romance!" or "There is nothing I want less for my collection than more books about #whitegirlproblems."
Friends and readers of my blog already know that I have huge issues with the terms "diversity" and "multicultural" ( http://mclicious.org/2012/12/09/lets-stop-calling-it-multicultural/)andthat I am really tired of publishers patting themselves on the back for caring about that stuff, because caring gives them a reason not to actually try to change things. I wrote about that in my blog post responding to a disappointingly inactive CBC Diversity event I attended while in grad school in Boston: http://mclicious.org/2013/06/16/caring-is-not-trying-trying-is-not-succeeding/
So I hope my efforts might inspire other conference goers to follow suit. Quite frankly, I think that we have to try pressuring and embarrassing
(okay, maybe it's shaming) in this way, because quite obviously, panel discussions and preaching to the choir really isn't having much of an effect.
If you're interested, here is the blog post I wrote about my experience
(and my reading goals for 2014): http://mclicious.org/2014/02/01/three-simultaneous-reading-challenges-and-why-you-should-make-people-uncomfortable-at-conference-exhibits/
I'm curious if anyone else has done anything similar with regards to asking reps (or editors themselves, as they are often at big conferences) flat out what they have to offer that's not cis/het/WASP. What are the reactions you see?
Best,
Hannah Gómez, MA, MSLIS hannahgomez_at_gmail.com http://hannahgomez.wix.com/portfolio
(520) 481-8778
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Received on Tue 04 Feb 2014 01:03:46 PM CST
