Why don’t black people read? (A response)
I don’t read literature blogs. Until I started checking out Tayari’s website on the regular (what’s the deal with them jones kids anyway? do they come out the crib writing?). Recently she’s been engaging Sara Gran in a minor teaching moment. I thought I’d jump in with my two cents.
Why don’t people like Sara–white authors immersed in the world of literature–know more about black authors? Is it them? Is it black people?
Sara chooses to look at black illiteracy rates. I think she is looking in the entirely wrong place. Let’s say that her literacy rates are absolutely correct–that blacks are more likely to be illiterate than whites.
Of course there are those who know how to read and those who don’t. But for our purposes the important distinction is between those who READ FOR PLEASURE/edification, and those who don’t. Aliterates don’t buy books. Literates do. If we thought about this as a bell-shaped curve we’re looking at the right tail, rather than the left tail–and of course the middle is the vast majority of aliterates. We focus on the right tail–on the Literate population–because the size of THIS population is the only one that matters, as this population is the only one that cares enough about reading to buy the books that Sara and Tayari write.
Is the percentage of black Literates larger or smaller than white Literates? I’m willing to bet that given the historical weight that Literacy has in black communities that the black Literate percentage is at least as big as the white one if not larger.
So the answer to why Sara doesn’t know about black authors and black literature isn’t “black illiteracy.” I’m thinking there’s something else going on.
Sara asked “is it me?”…but never answered this question choosing to instead look at the behavior of black people. It’d be interesting to see someone like Sara think about the ways that they’ve been shunted away from various types of communities and bookstores and towards others. We’re now at the place where it is virtually impossible to escape black actors and some forms of black cultural production. We’d never have this discussion about black singers or black actors. Books are another bag though.
