An initiative by the Barnes & Noble Fifth Avenue store to sell classic books with “culturally diverse” covers has been scrubbed in the face of major backlash.
New York City’s largest book store, in collaboration with Penguin Random House, created “Diverse Editions” of 12 classic stories by adorning them with new covers featuring characters with reimagined ethnicities. The books, including Romeo and Juliet, Moby Dick, Peter Pan, and Frankenstein, were set to hit shelves on Wednesday and display throughout February, according to AM New York. Five different covers were designed for each title to “ensure recognition, representation, and inclusion” of numerous multi-ethnic backgrounds from around the country.
But hours before the Wednesday evening launch event, Barnes & Noble released a statement saying the initiative, meant to promote “diversity within literature,” was suspended after receiving a negative response from the public.
“It was a project inspired by our work with schools and was created in part to raise awareness and discussion during Black History Month in which Barnes & Noble stores nationally will continue to highlight a wide selection of books to celebrate black history month and great literature from writers of color,” the statement read.
The Diverse Editions event at our @BNFifthAvenue location originally scheduled for this evening has been cancelled. Please see our statement: pic.twitter.com/jGquff9MyM
— Barnes & Noble (@BNBuzz) February 5, 2020
The statement highlighted concerns raised by Twitter users, some of whom asked why diversity was not celebrated with promoting authors of color. Others suggested the new covers instead promote blackface by recasting “white characters and stories.”
“Is this a super early April Fools joke?” another user said, continuing, “slapping Brown faces onto white stories is insulting.”
is this a super early April Fools joke?
slapping Brown faces onto white stories is insulting. if #barnesandnoble wants to promote diversity, why not just promote classics written by diverse authors? they exist!
also check out Dorothy’s new “ruby slippers” ? https://t.co/X2tgfZtshz
— JolieDoggett.com (@JolieRancher) February 5, 2020
Writers of colour waiting for recognition:
Barnes and Noble: So, hear me out, let’s get white stories and characters and put them in blackface. Sound good? https://t.co/iDXbywPV8T
— Chimene Suleyman (@chimenesuleyman) February 5, 2020
One user noted in a press released she received, it was disclosed that artificial intelligence was used to help create the controversial covers.
What’s not mentioned in here, though highlighted in the press release I received, is how they picked these titles: they used ~AI~ to scour a corpus of 100+ books to determine whether or not the protagonist was explicitly described as white, and if they weren’t, they went to town! https://t.co/RgpSdB54B9
— Elizabeth Minkel (@elizabethminkel) February 5, 2020
Another user posted what appeared to be promotional materials for the initiative, which said, “The idea was to call out the fact that these characters were assumed white for no reason based on literary context.”
Okay, real talk: here is why the whole Barnes and Noble and Random Penguin #DiverseEditions fundamentally doesn’t not work.
In their own words: pic.twitter.com/R9c9CXeyMs
— Justina Ireland Has A Sequel Out (@justinaireland) February 5, 2020
The promotional event was set to host a discussion panel with TBWA North America’s Chief Diversity Officer Doug Melville, bestselling author M.K. Asante, and others. All attendees would have received a copy of one of the books, and the diverse editions would be later donated to libraries and schools.
The books that were to be part of the initiative will no longer be distributed, Barnes & Noble representative Alex Ortolani told the Washington Examiner.
