What percentage of books you own are by white authors?

Started by Savonarola, August 18, 2017, 02:40:10 PM

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Delirium

Have not people today come to think and care as much about race as before, only in other ways?
Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen, and keep your eyes wide the chance won't come again; but don't speak too soon for the wheel's still in spin, and there's no telling who that it's naming. For the loser now will be later to win, cause the times they are a-changin'. -- B Dylan

Delirium

And to prove my ignorance even further, I do not see the point in knowing a single thing about an author: ethnicity, gender, sexuality, shoe size or party membership, simply because I trust my own intelligence to evaluate their writing in and of itself. Just the text and nothing but the text.
Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen, and keep your eyes wide the chance won't come again; but don't speak too soon for the wheel's still in spin, and there's no telling who that it's naming. For the loser now will be later to win, cause the times they are a-changin'. -- B Dylan

garbon

Quote from: Delirium on August 19, 2017, 06:33:47 PM
And to prove my ignorance even further, I do not see the point in knowing a single thing about an author: ethnicity, gender, sexuality, shoe size or party membership, simply because I trust my own intelligence to evaluate their writing in and of itself. Just the text and nothing but the text.

That's odd. I would think some context would be good to wrap around the text. Otherwise, might be easy to miss some things because your dazzling intellect couldn't glean from text about the intended audience and nuances a given audience would be expected to understand.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Razgovory

Quote from: Valmy on August 19, 2017, 05:17:39 PM
It wasn't your fault Darwin!

Besides before then it was a religion to. Curse of Ham and Cush and all that.


It certainly wasn't Darwin's fault.  I think scientific racism predates Darwin and some of the scientific racists after Darwin rejected him.  Darwin himself is a bit of a anomaly in that he seems bereft of racism at a time when racism was the default.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

The Brain

Quote from: grumbler on August 19, 2017, 12:55:58 PM
Quote from: Oexmelin on August 18, 2017, 03:05:01 PM
Quote from: The Brain on August 18, 2017, 03:00:45 PM
What would positive change be in this context?

Trying something new? Discovering new authors? New thinkers?

Why does a reader who seeks something new need to determine the particular shade of the skin of some author he or she wants to read?  I reject the implicit assumption here that there are only two kinds of writer, "white" and non-"white" and that, if most of the authors on your bookshelf are one or the other, you are not discovering new authors or trying something new.

Racism is as ugly when it poses as social justice as it is when it poses as racial supremacy.

I agree with grumbler.
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Jacob

Quote from: Delirium on August 19, 2017, 02:53:19 PM
Open question: has any period of time in history placed as much importance on race as this one?

I'd venture that periods where they had miscegenation laws in the books and enforced did. I reckon the age of empire, with "the white man's burden" and scientific racism placed more importance on race as well compared to the current period.

To the extent that race matters today, it seems to be in attempts to wind down the effects of explicitly institutionalizing racist hierarchies.

Syt

I have no idea how many of my books are written by non-whites, to be honest.

I googled "famous black writers". There were several "Top 10 Black Writers You Should Read" lists. Invariably, the large majority of writers on those lists are black writers who were or ar epolitically active and primarily write about the experience of being black in America, racism, social inequality etc. This is very important writing, of course. However, my initial impression is that if you want to be a famous black writer you have to write about race.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Delirium

Quote from: The Brain on August 19, 2017, 07:38:46 PM
Quote from: grumbler on August 19, 2017, 12:55:58 PMWhy does a reader who seeks something new need to determine the particular shade of the skin of some author he or she wants to read?  I reject the implicit assumption here that there are only two kinds of writer, "white" and non-"white" and that, if most of the authors on your bookshelf are one or the other, you are not discovering new authors or trying something new.

Racism is as ugly when it poses as social justice as it is when it poses as racial supremacy.

I agree with grumbler.

I, too, agree with grumbler.
Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen, and keep your eyes wide the chance won't come again; but don't speak too soon for the wheel's still in spin, and there's no telling who that it's naming. For the loser now will be later to win, cause the times they are a-changin'. -- B Dylan

Crazy_Ivan80

Quote from: Savonarola on August 19, 2017, 11:36:16 AM
Relax, Drakken, no one has accused you of being a racist.

the implication -given the current events/context- is there though.

Crazy_Ivan80

Quote from: Delirium on August 20, 2017, 04:23:17 AM
Quote from: The Brain on August 19, 2017, 07:38:46 PM
Quote from: grumbler on August 19, 2017, 12:55:58 PMWhy does a reader who seeks something new need to determine the particular shade of the skin of some author he or she wants to read?  I reject the implicit assumption here that there are only two kinds of writer, "white" and non-"white" and that, if most of the authors on your bookshelf are one or the other, you are not discovering new authors or trying something new.

Racism is as ugly when it poses as social justice as it is when it poses as racial supremacy.

I agree with grumbler.

I, too, agree with grumbler.
it's the one valid answer.

Though Monger's answer is pretty good too.

Eddie Teach

It's unusual for Grumbler to be so agreeable.   :P
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

garbon

I'm glad that the white boys of Languish could agree about how to deal with race...
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Eddie Teach

To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

grumbler

Quote from: garbon on August 20, 2017, 06:20:18 AM
I'm glad that the white boys of Languish could agree about how to deal with race...
Racism is an important issue.  Race is a fraud.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Delirium

Quote from: garbon on August 20, 2017, 06:20:18 AM
I'm glad that the white boys of Languish could agree about how to deal with race...

It is quite telling that 'I don't give a fuck about race' today can be seen as a negative way to deal with race. I do not understand the young generation. Everything is black and white to them.
Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen, and keep your eyes wide the chance won't come again; but don't speak too soon for the wheel's still in spin, and there's no telling who that it's naming. For the loser now will be later to win, cause the times they are a-changin'. -- B Dylan