Comments

2
I like the honesty. Too often rather than say "We are using racial preferences, because we think it is the right thing to do," organizations and people smokescreen this issue (as I think Smith did in his previous post).

So now those in favor of racial preferences need to propose a set of rules as to what pen names are allowed for what races, genders, etc. Can a white person use the name Luther Wallace? How about Shaquon Freeman? Are those 'black names'? How about David Lee, or the last names Gun, Ran, Man, Bing, Pan, Tan, or Ham (Korean)? Can a male writer use his initials? How about a name like Skyler or Hayden--allowed for men?

How many same-sex experiences must you have had to offer yourself as a bisexual poet? What if you've just had a few same-sex fantasies or once got a hardon in wrestling practice? Who will police this? If you are a straight man who played with a few dolls and sometimes cross-dresses on Halloween, may you identify as genderqueer? If you are a Latin American of German descent, are you Latino?

This will all take some work, people, but we are up to it. With some effort we can have everyone slotted into their appropriate categories, ranked by history of oppression, and allotted the appropriate number of pages in poetry anthologies, members of Congress, government jobs, etc. Then all this racism and infighting will be over and we can all finally relax.
5
Given the complete absence of any intelligible criteria for evaluating the quality of modern poetry, perhaps the time has come for the industry to dispense with the poems altogether and focus entirely on the poets.
6
@blip: Hater.
8
So if you're interested in more diversity, why in the heck aren't folks like you calling for blinded submissions? These sorts of practices are trivial for printed media like poetry, and have had huge successes in other areas like the performing arts. All without the condescension.

Why does this have to be so difficult?
9
Bravo. Nicely done Sherman and nicely done Rich. Especially that last sentence. I'm weighing in just so the damn reactionaries aren't the only voice on this thread.
And @8: names aren't the only things that can give a clue as to race in a work of literature, which is why blind submissions can be an inadequate solution. Editors and judges's valuation of work will have a bias that skews toward work that reflects their own concerns, aesthetics, and experience, all of which of course will be shaped by their racial identity. As long as the establishment is white dominated, blind submissions aren't enough.
12
>racial nepotism

nepotism: the practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives or friends

I think the phrase Alexie is searching for is "racial prejudice". What a load of disingenuous horseshit.
14
As those who have been brought up on the current system of racial bias in publishing should know (if they've been paying attention), this is not a sustainable model in the long term - which is exactly what the selection for this collection is commenting on, in several interesting and interconnected ways. Excellent!
15
Using affirmative action techniques to achieve some measure of racial equity within this system does risk condescending to writers of color (in that it suggests these writers aren't being published "only" based on the quality of their writing), and, of course, it means that some white people won't take up as much space in journals, magazines, and bookshelves as they have in the past.
Remove "techniques"; "some measure of"; "within this system"; "risk"; the suffix "-ing" from "condescend-"; the parenthetical; the "of course"; and the "some"; and the above sentence is vastly improved.

'Using affirmative action to achieve racial equity does condescend to writers of color, and it means that white people won't take up as much space in journals, magazines, and bookshelves as they have in the past.'

See?
16
Sorry, didn't realize HTML tags don't work here. Okay, let's try again:

The penultimate sentence of this piece can be vastly improved by removing the following: "techniques"; "some measure of"; "within this system"; "risk"; the suffix "-ing" from "condescend-"; the parenthetical; the "of course"; and "some."

Thus we have: Using affirmative action to achieve racial equity does condescend to writers of color, and it means that white people won't take up as much space in journals, magazines, and bookshelves as they have in the past.

See?
17
i wrote 34 page about the death of philip seymour hoffman late last year. i am white.
18
if he keeps this up. he'll have his white skin grown out. you always go with the best. for the future children. unless you are not qualified to tell the difference.
19
alexies is the 90s version of white people listening to new d'angelo record. to prove their racial bias. what does that mean for your position now?
20
there is only bias.
21
http://www.tko-zzz.com/2015/09/get-fuck-… - you wanna see a real poem...?

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