While enjoying the lovely pre-Spring weather in St. Louis last weekend, I came across a window display at a local bookseller that caught my attention. It read: Stop Whitewashing Book Covers. This immediately caught my attention and I walked inside the bookstore to get more information on this controversial topic.
The whitewashing of books is when the publisher feels it necessary to put Caucasian people on the cover of books that are about people of color. They do this in order to entice the public to buy the books. This thinking is unacceptable and undermines consumers. Why is it okay to think that books will sell more if there is a Caucasian on the cover than if it was an African American or another ethnicity?
This practice has been going on for years in the publishing sector. Recently, Bloomsbury Publishing came under fire for changing a book cover from a girl of color to a Caucasian girl to sell more books. The Australian author, Justine Larbalestie, was shocked and angered when the cover was changed and reportedly had the publisher change it back to the original.
We have also seen this type of behavior in the media and entertainment business as well. Hollywood studios often choose lighter skinned actresses to play Black roles. In the sixties, actress Natalie Wood was chosen to play a Latina in the movie ‘West Side Story’. Natalie was not Latina, but rather her parents were Russian. In more recent evidence of this, actress Angelina Jolie was cast as Mariane Pearl, the biracial wife of slain journalist Daniel Pearl.
The publishing community has adapted this technique figuring that since it worked for Hollywood, it can work for them as well.
We as consumers must hold the parties responsible and accountable for this behavior and let them know it will not be tolerated by not supporting whitewashing. If a publishing house practices this type of switch-and-bait tactics, we should not patronize them or give them our hard earned money.
“It is important that book covers represent the true theme of the story,” said the manager from the bookstore I visited. “If the book is about an African-American girl, we should see that on the cover. If we see another race represented that is not within the truth of the story, we should not buy the book.”
There is an online petition to stop the whitewashing of books. To learn more about it and to take part, click HERE.
Let’s stop this madness. The world is full of different colors and ethnicities. Our books should represent that truth.
Article by Danyelle Little
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I do look atthe cover but I do not let it dictate whether or not I am going to buy the book. I look up info on the book, get some word of mouth advice or read the back or inside cover to see if i am interested. So for me it doesn’t matter if the person is white, black, green or pruple. If I like the book, I like the book.
Tiffany
http://liferequiresmorechocolate.blogspot.com
I like your comment Tiffany, but I’m not surprised. Most books don’t have Blacks on the cover so I doubt that Blacks will notice when it’s NOT them on the cover. Rarely will they put a BLACK person on the cover just to get us…
Therefore, I think the important thing is that White consumers walking through some bookstore will not be drawn to the book when a minority is on the cover. Till today, I am fascinated with the Old Spice Guy being black….although I would argue that the world likes to sell our brand of masculinity the most.
FRESH: Stop The Whitewashing Of Book Covers: Why is it okay to think that books will sell more if there is a Cauca… http://bit.ly/9hvxKi
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Stop The Whitewashing Of Book Covers — theFreshXpress.com — The …: theFreshXpress.com — The PULSE of Young Black… http://bit.ly/cewajj
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Sigh: http://bit.ly/ddTys8
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Thank you for bringing attention to this issue! I was so shocked when I first heard about the Liar controversy and your piece is absolutely spot-on.
There’s an assumption that covers with faces of color will do worse – but I reject that there’s any concrete evidence of this. When was the last time a book with a protagonist of color got a strong marketing push? It’s a chicken and egg problem from an industry whose mantra is: “We’ve had white faces on our covers since long before the end of segregation and we’ve always done great.”
Never mind the fact that most published books aren’t profitable. When a book with a white protagonist crashes, everyone thinks “That book didn’t sell.” The same thing happens with a book about heroes of color and everyone thinks “People of color don’t sell.”
We did a short interview with Liar‘s author, which you can see here:
http://www.racebending.com/v3/interviews/justine-larbalestier-ya-author/
The bookstore manager sounds awesome. What was the name of the bookstore?
Mike, the name of the bookstore was Left Bank Books in CWE, St. Louis. Great bookstore. Independent.
Read my article on @TheFreshXpress- Stop the Whitewashing of Book Covers- http://bit.ly/cSsGdr (plz RT)
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Not at all surprising, this has been done in any and all forms of media. Of course it is not right, of course it stems from notions of white male superiority, of course some will get emotional in their disagreement with the ‘notion,’ but it is a pretty undeniable fact and I’m sticking to it.