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Re: A 5-10 minute Diversity Experiment (that is a bit fun and not controversial) about editing
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From: Stacy Whitman <stacylwhitman_at_gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2014 16:51:09 -0500
That's a great way to illustrate the difference, Christine. (Not to mention I think the 2nd song is just better because it's less preachy/feels less condescending.)
As a white woman who grew up on a farm in western Illinois, I often worry about my ear for those tiny details you are talking about. I'm in a constant learning process. This is one of the reasons I use other readers to give me a second opinion--sometimes before acquisition, and sometimes after. Christine herself has been a reader for me, as has Uma<http://umakrishnaswami.blogspot.com/2011/07/interview-wednesday-stacy-whitman-of-tu.html>, on this very listserv, because I trust them to be honest with me and give me good feedback from a perspective that sees details I might not.
Of course, cultural experts aren't representative of their entire culture, but having one more voice who can say anything from, "This word isn't working here for me," to "You might want to rethink this book, for reasons XYZ," not only teaches me so I can watch out for whatever they point out the next time, but also helps me to make sure the books I do put out are the best they can be. (And anything that slips past is totally my fault, not theirs for not catching it, of course.)
This is also why it's so important for publishing houses to employ a diverse set of editors, but it can box in an editor at a big house who is the only person of color if everyone in the house funnels all the POC titles to her (because of course she'd want to read them because she's also a POC!). Or to have her be the token reader of all POC titles for other editors--which means she's reading not only her own titles, but everyone else's. (It's an argument in favor of having out-of-house consultants, I suppose, on top of greater diversity in staff than just one POC.) So it's just as important for editors like me to tune their "ear" to hear the nuances (and to make connections with experts who can assist them when they have blind spots) as it is for POC editors to be employed at publishing houses in greater number, in my opinion, so that we (white editors) are not constantly calling in our POC friends in the house to make sure whatever we're about to publish isn't racist.
Stacy Whitman Publisher Tu Books, an imprint of Lee & Low Books, Inc. http://www.leeandlow.com/p/tu.mhtml
Cover reveal! See our latest release's covers at http://blog.leeandlow.com/2014/02/13/cover-design-101-drift/
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2014 16:51:09 -0500
That's a great way to illustrate the difference, Christine. (Not to mention I think the 2nd song is just better because it's less preachy/feels less condescending.)
As a white woman who grew up on a farm in western Illinois, I often worry about my ear for those tiny details you are talking about. I'm in a constant learning process. This is one of the reasons I use other readers to give me a second opinion--sometimes before acquisition, and sometimes after. Christine herself has been a reader for me, as has Uma<http://umakrishnaswami.blogspot.com/2011/07/interview-wednesday-stacy-whitman-of-tu.html>, on this very listserv, because I trust them to be honest with me and give me good feedback from a perspective that sees details I might not.
Of course, cultural experts aren't representative of their entire culture, but having one more voice who can say anything from, "This word isn't working here for me," to "You might want to rethink this book, for reasons XYZ," not only teaches me so I can watch out for whatever they point out the next time, but also helps me to make sure the books I do put out are the best they can be. (And anything that slips past is totally my fault, not theirs for not catching it, of course.)
This is also why it's so important for publishing houses to employ a diverse set of editors, but it can box in an editor at a big house who is the only person of color if everyone in the house funnels all the POC titles to her (because of course she'd want to read them because she's also a POC!). Or to have her be the token reader of all POC titles for other editors--which means she's reading not only her own titles, but everyone else's. (It's an argument in favor of having out-of-house consultants, I suppose, on top of greater diversity in staff than just one POC.) So it's just as important for editors like me to tune their "ear" to hear the nuances (and to make connections with experts who can assist them when they have blind spots) as it is for POC editors to be employed at publishing houses in greater number, in my opinion, so that we (white editors) are not constantly calling in our POC friends in the house to make sure whatever we're about to publish isn't racist.
Stacy Whitman Publisher Tu Books, an imprint of Lee & Low Books, Inc. http://www.leeandlow.com/p/tu.mhtml
Cover reveal! See our latest release's covers at http://blog.leeandlow.com/2014/02/13/cover-design-101-drift/
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Received on Thu 13 Feb 2014 03:52:28 PM CST
