Did you follow the link? Also try googling "seal-press WOC".
Summary: Seal Press got called on the white centrism of their catalog (under-representation of WOC authors overall; books like Full Frontal Feminism, which purports to be a summary of feminism yet treats feminists of color and womanists as a footnote in that summary; books with overt racism), and Seal Press responded in ways that are likely familiar from RaceFail -- the criticisms didn't have the right tone, they weren't constructive, their white-centrism isn't Seal Press's fault but the fault of WOC, etc. Seal Press kept that behavior up for several rounds.
Re encouraging the publication of more books like this: there's been a fair bit of discussion about whether or not a boycott of Seal Press is ultimately helpful or harmful. My own feeling is summarized above: I'll buy Seal Press books that contain significant representation of women of color. My rationale is three-fold:
Seal Press holds the publishing rights to several books by women of color, and I don't want to see those authors get burned by this.
I don't want to inadvertently confirm Seal Press's assertion that books by and about women of color "don't sell" (I suspect that the people most likely to buy books by women of color significantly overlap the people most likely to participate in the boycott, with the result that books by women of color could end up taking the biggest sales-hit from the boycott).
If Seal Press starts to pull their act together, I see value in rewarding that.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-05-08 01:48 pm (UTC)Summary: Seal Press got called on the white centrism of their catalog (under-representation of WOC authors overall; books like Full Frontal Feminism, which purports to be a summary of feminism yet treats feminists of color and womanists as a footnote in that summary; books with overt racism), and Seal Press responded in ways that are likely familiar from RaceFail -- the criticisms didn't have the right tone, they weren't constructive, their white-centrism isn't Seal Press's fault but the fault of WOC, etc. Seal Press kept that behavior up for several rounds.
Re encouraging the publication of more books like this: there's been a fair bit of discussion about whether or not a boycott of Seal Press is ultimately helpful or harmful. My own feeling is summarized above: I'll buy Seal Press books that contain significant representation of women of color. My rationale is three-fold: