6:14pm July 30, 2014

“Which brings me to a sad, but true, story. Which might explain why these books sometimes, sometimes, don’t get into your hands. Because no-one tells you about them.

When Ash was first launched here in the UK, I went to a ‘meet and greet’ with a large selection of booksellers. Now these were invited to HarperCollins HQ, so were the chosen few.

I waltzed around the room, telling them how excited I was that Ash was coming out, how it delved into mythology, history and just EPIC heroicness.

Then I met a bookseller who nodded politely then said:

“I can’t see the point stocking it. We’ve no Indians in our town.”

Well, I doubt she had any hobbits either but I bet she sold a few copies of The Hobbit and Lord of The Rings in her shop.”

—

Diversity, why we fight the good fight by Sarwat Chadda

(via tubooks)

Reblogging this because both people of Indian heritage and people without Indian heritage need to read books (and see movies and TV programs and games and comics and etc.) with Indian characters.

Reblogging because people of all racial and ethnic heritage should be reading characters of all racial and ethnic heritage, not shoved into a literary ghetto based on their background. When all the characters you see are white, middle class, male, cishet, nondisabled, etc., the people who are hurt by this limitation the most are people who aren’t white, or aren’t middle class, or aren’t male, or aren’t cishet, or aren’t nondisabled, etc. But even if you ARE white, middle class, cishet, nondisabled male, seeing ONLY people like you (or, even just MOSTLY people like you) is pretty limiting for you and your imagination too. Everyone needs diverse books (and TV and movies and comics and everything else) because we’re living in a diverse world: how can we learn what that even MEANS if we never see that reflected in the media that we consume?

(via andreashettle)

Notes: