Type the words "African-American" or "black" along with "bookstore sections" into any search engine. You'll most likely pull up a litany of blog posts, articles, etc. likening the the existence of shelf space designated for titles by black authors to everything from "book segregation" to "literary apartheid."
It's a never-ending debate among booksellers, customers, publishers and authors. "Will only black people buy my book if I'm shelved in the African-American interest section?" is definitely a question that I've been asked more than once.
Interestingly, I get some twinges of a creepy feeling when I suddenly find myself in the African American section of the B&N. That's because I'm old enough to remember when there was no such thing. But it doesn't compare to the feeling I get in a record store when I'm in the Rap section which while nowhere near mortal panic, can induce goose bumps. But this is mostly the case when I see miscategorizations that are obvious to me but clearly not to the store owners.
It makes no sense to me to see Jill Scott next to Coolio in a record store. Similarly, I don't expect to see Toni Morrison next to E. Lynn Harris. Now this may sound very subjective and it is, but is African American interest objective? Only to the extent somebody thinks African American interest can be objectified should there be a different section. It seems to me that every customer that wants that convenient objectification is catered to by the store. The open presumption is that such people are black and it is therefore an OK customer demographic which ought to be satiated. I disagree from a subjective standpoint.
Whatever happened to Dewey?
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