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ON WHITN AND TH RACIAL IMAGINARY
WHR WRITR GO WRONG IN IMAGINING TH LIV OF OTHR
April 9, 2015 Claudia Rankine and eth Loffreda (http://lithu.com/author/claudia-rankine-and-eth-loffreda/)
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e following i adapted from the foreword to e Racial Imaginar, a collection of ea
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edited Claudia Rankine and eth Loffreda, availale from Fence ook
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(http://www.fenceportal.org/?page_id=5662).
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Here are a few of the trope ou would likel encounter if ou tarted looking at writer
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writing aout race thee da. One: I met an other and it wa hard!
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at i lightl aid,
ut that i the eence of the trope: the anxiou, entangling encounter with other that
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happen efore anone even make it to the page, and that appear there primaril a an
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occaion for the writer to encounter her own feeling. Another: I needed to travel to
“meet” race, I went to Africa or to Aia or to the American outh or to Central America
to look at race, a if it now mainl can e found in a ort of wildlife preerve eparate
from ordinar, everda experience. Another: race i racim. And latl: the enduring
American thing of eeing race a a white and lack affair, the cene where the real race
tuff goe down. Which i accompanied the trope of the dicount: the one that fail to
extend to other people of color an authentic fullne of experience, a mopia that render
them in the term of the “not reall.”
e matter of craft come up clearl when we encounter the variou trope that white
writer take recoure to repeatedl when race i on the tale. ee trope are tpicall
heartfelt; ut their repetition hould e taken a a ign. Here’ one: “ e imagination i a
free pace, and I have the right to imagine from the point of view of anone I want—it i
againt the nature of art itelf to place limit on who or what I can imagine.” i
language of right i a extraordinar a it i popular, and it i triking to ee how man
white writer in particular conceive of race and the creative imagination a the quetion of
whether the feel the are permitted to write a character, or a voice, or a perona, “of
color.” i i a deco whoe lucioune i evident in the frequenc with which it i
chaed. e deco itelf point to the whitene of whitene—that to write race would e
to write “color,” to write an other.
ut to argue that the imagination i or can e omehow free of race—that it’ the one
region of elf or experience that i free of race—and that I have a right to imagine
whoever I want, and that it damage and deform m art to et limit on m imagination
—act a if the imagination i not part of me, i not created the ame we and matrix
of hitor and culture that made “me.” o to a, a a white writer, that I have a right to
write aout whoever I want, including writing from the point of view of character of
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color—that I have a right of acce and that m creativit and artitr i harmed if I am
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told I cannot do o—i to make a mitake. It i to egin the converation in the wrong
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place. It i the wrong place ecaue, for one, it mitake critical repone for prohiition
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(we’ve all heard the in ationar rhetoric of candalized whitene). ut it i alo a mitake
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ecaue our imagination are creature a limited a we ourelve are. e are not ome
pecial, unin ltrated realm that trancend the me realitie of our live and mind. To
think of creativit in term of trancendence i itelf peci c and partial—a lovel dream
perhap, ut an inhuman one.
It i not onl white writer who make a prize of trancendence, of coure. Man writer
of all ackground ee the imagination a ahitorical, a a generative place where race
doen’t and houldn’t enter, a pace for odie to trancend the legilative, the economic—
trancend the tuff that doen’t lend itelf much poetr. In thi view the imagination i
potracial, a pothitorical and potpolitical utopia. ome writer of color, in the tradition
of previou writer like Countee Cullen (http://www.poetrfoundation.org/io/countee-
cullen) (a l and complicated tradition, we acknowledge), don’t want to have race
dirting up the primac of the imaginative work; want the merit of the work made free
more neutral tandard. To ring up race for thee writer i to inch cloe to the
anxiou pace of affirmative action, the carring quali ed.
o everone i here.
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(http://wordpre-imageupload-prod.3.amazonaw.com/wp-content/upload/2015/03/Kate-Clark-Pra.png) Kate Clark, ‘Pra’,
2013
Trancendence i unevenl ditriuted and experienced, however. White writer often
egin from a place where trancendence i a given—one alread ha acce to all, one
alread i permitted to inhait all, to addre all. e crii come when one’ acce i
quetioned. For writer of color, trancendence can feel like a ditant and eluive thing,
ecaue writer of color often egin from the place of eing addreed, and acceed. To
e a peron of color in a racit culture i to e alwa addreale, and to e addreale
mean one i alwa within tigma’ reach. o one’ imagination i in uenced the
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recognition of the need to account for thi ituation—even in the imagination, one feel
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accountale, one feel one mut counter. o a writer of color ma e fueled the deire
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to exit that place of addreailit. At the ame time one ma wih to write of race. And
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again at the ame time one ma wih to do an or all of thee thing inide a et of literar
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intitution that expect and even reward certain predictale performance of race. ere
can e a comfort, a place to hole up, a place to ret, found in that performance—that i, if
that performance conform. ut even if it conform, the performance return the writer
of color to an addreailit that at an moment ma ecome violent rather than afe—
ma ecome violent if the performance tep outide or eond thoe comforting
conformitie, or even if the performance ta within them. ecaue the “favor” of largel
white-run literar intitution i founded on an original, if ocured, amament of racial
power: the can alwa remind ou ou’re a guet.
What we eek to detect in thee example aove i the preence of a more general
ituation, the cene of race taking up reidence in the creative act. i i what we mean
a racial imaginar, an unlrical term, ut then it lack of muic i tting. One wa to
know ou’re in the preence of—in poeion of, poeed —a racial imaginar i to
ee if the oundarie of one’ imaginative mpath line up, again and again, with the
line drawn power. If the imaginative mpath of a white writer, for example, hut
off at the edge of whitene. i i not to a that the onl olution would e to extend
the imagination into other identitie, that the white writer to e antiracit mut write
from the point of view of character of color. It’ to a that a white writer’ work could
alo think aout, expoe, that racial dnamic. at what white artit might do i not
imaginativel inhait the other ecaue that i their right a artit, ut intead emod
and examine the interior landcape that wihe to peak of right, that wihe to move
freel and unounded acro time, pace, and line of power, that wihe to inhait
whomever it chooe.
It hould alo converel not e aumed that it i “ea” or “natural” to write cenario or
character whoe race matche (whatever that might mean) one’ own. i i the trap
that writer of color in particular till mut negotiate; it’ the place where “write what ou
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know” ecome plantational in effect. (http://lithub.com)
intenel a poile, the moment in which the imagination’ mpath encounter it
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limit. Or: to realize one might alo make trange what eem oviou, near, cloe.
Are we aing Aian writer can’t write Latino character? at white writer can’t write
lack character? at no one can write from a different racial other’ point of view?
We’re aing we’d like to change the term of that converation, to think aout creativit
and the imagination without emploing the language of right and the ometime
concealing term of craft. To ak ome rt-principle quetion intead. o, not: can I
write from another’ point of view? ut intead: to ak wh and what for, not jut if and
how. What i the charima of what I feel etranged from, and wh might I wih to enter
and inhait it. To peak not in term of prohiition and right, ut deire. To ak what we
think we know, and how we might undermine our own ene of authorit. To not impl
aume that the mot private, interior, emotional pace of exitence—the pace that are
uppoed to e the “proper” material of the lric and the ctive—are mot availale for
lric and ctive rendering ecaue the are omehow eond race. To not aume that the
preence of race deform the creative act, render the creative act adl earthound. We
are ourelve earthound. And race i one of the thing that ind u there.
Crucial in what we’re aing aove i that we don’t want to talk onl of writing “acro”
racial divide. For we wih to alo unettle the aumption that it i ea or imple to write
what one “i.” Wh might I aume it i ea to write what i nearet to me? How do I
know what that i—and what do I mi when I keep familiar thing familiar? It hould e
difficult to write what one “know”—and if it i too ea, it i worth aking if that i
ecaue one i reproducing convention and aumption rewarded the marketplace of
literature. And here again the racial preference—the particular plot, the particular
character, the particular cenario and peronae—favored literar intitution put
pecial preure on writer of color, threaten to deform what uch a writer i aumed to
know and expected to produce.
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Race enter writing, the making of art, a a tructure of feeling, a omething that
(http://lithub.com)
tructure feeling, that la down track of affection and repulion, rage and hurt, deire
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and ache. ee track don’t onl occur in the making of art; the alo occur (ometime
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vicioul, ometime hazil) in the reception of creative work. Here we are again: we’ve
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made thi thing and we’ve ent it out into the world for recognition—and ecaue what
we’ve made i in eence a eld of human experience created for other human, the eld
and it maker and it reader are thu uject all over again to race and it in ltration. In
that moment arie all ort of poile hearing and mi-hearing, all kind of addre and
redre.
For example: In that moment, writer and reader of color ma feel profound and mutual
anxietie that all people of color are aout to e locked in, locked down, the
repreentation at hand, no matter who wrote it. ut epeciall if a white writer wrote it.
i anxiet i fueled the fact that racim, in it ver dailne, in it ver variet of
expreion, in’t xed. It’ there, and then it’ not, and then it’ there again. One i alwa
doing the math: Wa it there? Wa it not? What jut happened? Did I hear what I
thought I heard? hould I let it go? Am I making too much of it? Racim often doe it
ugl work not manifeting itelf clearl and indiputal, and undermining one’
own ailit to feel certain of exactl what force are in pla. i happen in reading a it
doe everwhere ele. In a ene, it doule-down the force of race—ou feel it, ou feel
the injur, the racit addre, and then ou quetion ourelf for feeling it. You wonder if
ou’ve made our own prion.
Another example: white writer can get exploivel angr when aked to recognize that
their racial imagining might not e perfect—when aked to recognize that their
imagination i not entirel their own—and in particular when confronted with that fact
a peron of color quetioning omething the wrote. And the target of that anger i
uuall the peron of color who hared with them thi fact. e white writer feel injured
in thi moment—miundertood and wounded—and elieve it i the reader, the peron
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of color, who ha dealt the injur. i i how the white mind tend to racial “wound”—
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it make a mitake aout who or what ha dealt the injur. For it i not the reader of color
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who deal the injur. It i whitene itelf.
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To recontruct the reader of color a the aggreor i one wa that whitene reaert it
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power in it moment of crii. It ha een expoed—it mut now perform weakne,
helplene, it mut pretend to innocence, to harmle and undefended and hocked
innocence, in order to “reveal” the reader of color a motivated unavor, irrational,
aggreive, “political,” or ujective tendencie that have lahed out at the innocent and
harmed him (thi i how “the race card” trope work to diqualif the reader old enough
to call up race where it might not e wanted: the trope enact it dimiivene
characterizing an mention of race a irreponile, an injection of race “where it doen’t
elong” when in fact it inhere whether it’ called up or not). e white writer wa taken
urprie thi attack—how could he have een it coming? he meant well—urel
thi inoculate her againt an charge. e attack wa unfair. And o we mut rall to the
victim. And thu whitene goe onl rie conteted.
i repoitioning appear to cleane whitene of it power, of it aggreion—for who
can’t hear the aggreion in “I have a right of acce to whomever I wih?”—and a of
whitene intead “I have een unfairl characterized and miundertood, I have een
aainated omeone whoe motivation are political and who i thu diquali ed from
the human endeavor that i art making.” u the wound i paraded for all to witne,
and whitene gather to itelf again it aiding centralit, it authorit, it “right.” It
anit.
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(http://wordpre-imageupload-prod.3.amazonaw.com/wp-content/upload/2015/03/Amiti-Motevalli-Looking-for-the-
ird.png) Amiti Motevalli, Looking for the ird, 2005
What the white writer might realize intead, in thi moment of crii, i that he ma
well e an injured part—ut the injur wa dealt long efore. e injur i her
whitene. aing “injur” we do not mean to erae from view all the ene t and
privilege that whitene endow; we do not mean to invite an unwarranted mpath.
ut we do think white people in America tend to uffer an anxiet (and man have
written of thi): the know that the are white ut the mut not know what the know.
e know that the are white, ut the cannot know that uch a thing ha ocial
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meaning; the know that the are white, ut the mut not know that their whitene
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accrue power. e mut not call it whitene for to do o would e to acknowledge it
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force. e mut intead feel themelve to e individual upon whom nothing ha acted.
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at’ the injur, that their whitene ha veiled from them their own power to wound,
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ha cut down their mpath to a maller ize, ha peruaded them that their imagination
Part of the mitake the white writer make i that he confound the invitation to witne
her inevitale racial ujectivit with a tigmatizing charge of racim that mut e
reutted at all cot. e white writer, in the moment of crii, tpicall cannot tell the
difference. What a white peron could know intead i thi: her whitene limit her
imagination—not her reader’ after the fact. A deep awarene of thi knowledge could
indeed expand the limit—not trancend them, ut expand them, make more room for
the imagination. A good thing.
For one ource of creativit lie in the fact that each individual i eentiall trange. ere
i a deep trangene, an alterit, in the individual human mind, a portion of ourelve
that we never full comprehend—and thi i what writing tap, or i at leat one of
writing’ ource, one of it engine. i might explain the enigma of writing for o man
of u, that the writing o often eem to know more than we do, that we are ‘ehind’ the
writing (“ehind it” in that we make it, ut alo “ehind it” in the ene that we can’t
catch up with what it know and reveal, that it i out ahead of u driven energie in
our poeion ut not entirel in our delierate control). i eential trangene, thi
unknowailit, i a creative reource, perhap the creative reource, the wellpring of art
that how u thing we did not know ut that are omehow inevitale and true—true to
a realit or a knowledge we don’t et poe, et nd in the moment of encounter
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poile, omething we accept the fundamental eing of even if it nature hock or
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tartle or repule or unettle u (arthelme’ trange oject covered in fur can onl
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reak our heart if ou have accepted, in the intant of encounter, it eential eing, even
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if ou have not et comprehended it trangene, it otherne).
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ut while it might e mtifing how creative impule and deciion emerge from
omewhere within, that doen’t mean we mut make a fetih of that mterioune. For
that unknowale portion of the human mind i alo a domain of culture—a place croed
up culture and hitor, where the condition into which we were orn have had their
effect. Part of what i unknowale within u, at leat until we invetigate it, i the
tructuring of our ver feeling and thought what preceded u and i not our “own,”
et condition our experience nonethele. o the location of a writer’ trangene i alo
the eat of hitor. A writer’ imagination i alo the place where a racial imaginar—
conceived efore he came into eing et deepl lodged in her own mind—take up it
reidence. And the dientangling and harneing of thee thing i the writer’ endle
and un nihale ut not fruitle tak. Another wa of aing thi: the writer’ eential
trangene i her greatet reource, et he mut alo e in keptical tenion with her own
inclination. ecaue thoe inclination are in part an inheritance from a racial imaginar
that oth i and i not her.
We want to acknowledge that we have fallen into one of the ver trap we mentioned at
the tart—we are having a hard time talking aout race eparate from racim. Indeed,
we’re not ure if we can or nd it elievale to imagine otherwie, imagine a time when or
a fahion in which race outrun it irth in racim and ecome ome kind of neutral,
unfanged categor. And we want to acknowledge too: thi i a nat uine. We hould
not pretend that our experience of race are otherwie. A we write, a we read one
another, the internal tumult i unavoidale. It might e oft or it might e loud, ut it’ll
e made up of ome admixture of hame, guilt, loathing, opportunim, anxiet, irritation,
dimial, elf-hatred, pain, hope, affection, and other even le nameale energie. e
particular chemitr ma differ depending upon one’ idioncratic mix of peronal
hitor and ocial location. For ome it i nothing hort of an aault, an aault no le
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painful ecaue it i routine, an ordinar effect of negotiating a life in a world of people
(http://lithub.com)
largel comfortale watching the aault go on, or at leat willing to minimize it
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exitence. It’ me, and it’ going to ta me. ecaue hitor i not an act of the
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imagination. Which i the condition from which we tart.
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What we want to avoid at all cot i omething that feel nearl impoile to evade in
dail peech: an oppoition etween writing that account for race (and here we could
alo peak of gender, exualit, other enmehment of the od in hitor) and writing
that i “univeral.” If we continue to think of the “univeral’ a etter-than, a the
pinnacle, we will alwa dicount writing that doen’t look univeral ecaue it account
for race or ome other demeaned categor. e univeral i a fanta. ut we are captive,
till, to a eniilit that champion the univeral while imultaneoul de ning the
univeral, till, a white. We are captive, till, to a tle of championing literature that a
work writer of color ucceed when a white peron can neverthele relate to it—that
it “trancend” it categor. To a thi ook a writer of color i great ecaue it
trancend it particularit to a omething “human” (and we’ve all read that review,
mae even written it ourelve) i to reveal the racit underpinning quite clearl: uch a
claim egin from the tance that people of color are not human, onl achieve the human
in certain circumtance. We don’t wih to uild camp. And we know there i no
language that i not loaded. ut we could tr to a, for example, not that good writing i
good ecaue it achieve the univeral, ut perhap intead that in the preence of good
writing a reader i given omething to know. omething i rought into eing that might
otherwie not e known, omething i doul witneed.
What we mean a racial imaginar i omething we all recognize quite eail: the wa
our culture ha imagined over and over again the narrative opportunitie, the kind of
feeling and attriute and ituation and uject and plot and form “availale” oth to
character of different race and their author. e racial imaginar change over time, in
part ecaue artit get into tenion with it, challenge it, alter it availailitie. ometime
it change ver rapidl, a in our own lifetime. ut it ha et to diappear. We cannot
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imagine it out of exitence. Intead our imagining might tet their inheritance, to make
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wa for a time when uch inheritance no longer ennare u. ut we are creature of thi
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moment, not that one.
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elected art from e Racial Imaginar courte of Fence. Feature image: Chinoierie,
Kungmi hin, 2003.
eth Loffreda (http://lithu.com/tag/eth-loffreda/) Claudia Rankine (http://lithu.com/tag/claudia-rankine/)
ea (http://lithu.com/tag/ea/) Fence (http://lithu.com/tag/fence/)
Non-fiction (http://lithu.com/tag/non-fiction/) race (http://lithu.com/tag/race/)
racim (http://lithu.com/tag/racim/) The Racial Imaginar (http://lithu.com/tag/the-racial-imaginar/)
writer (http://lithu.com/tag/writer/)
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More
Claudia Rankine and eth Loffreda (http://lithu.com/author/claudia-rankine-and-eth-loffreda/)
Claudia Rankine i the author or ve collection of poetr, including Citizen (2014), a
nalit for the National ook Award and winner of the National ook Critic Circle
(http://lit Award in Poetr. eth Loffreda teache workhop in non- ction a well a coure in
hub.com/ recent American and African-American literature at the Univerit of Woming and
author/cl pulihed Loing Matt hepard: Life and Politic in the Aftermath of Anti-Ga Murder
audia- (2000).
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PS: using the words 'race' and 'racial' IS racist in itself, no matter how much bona fide you put in
them. There's no such thing like 'races' in the real world (ask any good genetist for details). There is
only ONE race and it's called the human race. Evey time you use the word 'race' to mean 'ethnical
group' you are putting up a fence that doesn't exist in real life (thank God). 'Race ' and 'racial' give
me the shivers every time I read them, recalling times I hoped we had put behind us for good. I
can't understand how you can use those words so lightheartedly in the US with all that obsession
with PC-ness you have.
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Seems one should be offended that you'd presume to understand the white writer's intentions,
motives, and mind.
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Ever since i read, and hated, Michael Chabon's Telegraph Avenue, I have been pondering this topic.
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I have also changed my reading and buying habits, looking, wherever possible, for, dare i say it,
'authenticity' in the authorial voice.
This essay, which I must admit will require several closer readings, touches on many excellent
points regarding the way the we, as readers and critics, owe it to ourselves to examine how minority
characters and cultures are presented to us.
This is not limited to literature, of course. rap and hip hop culture deal with appropriation all the
time, but until the publishing industry promotes more diversity as a matter of course, it is
incumbent upon us, the audience, to seek it out a wide variety of points of view, if only to insure
that those voices continue to be heard.
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