Black history month books barnes and noble

Barnes and noble has canceled plans to launch a series of classic books with diverse covers for black history month after an online backlash. Barnes and noble scraps black history month project after. Some folks sat in a board meeting and said, hey guys, lets get our literary blackface on. The project, created in part to raise awareness and discussion during black history month in partnership with tbwa\chiat\day and penguin random house, printed 42 covers across 12 classics recasting lead characters as people of color. Aside from alexandre dumas, the author of the count of monte cristo, the authors of the reissued books are white. Explore our list of celebrate black history month, history at barnes. The book retailer executed a plan to launch classic books. Dubois, maya angelou, james baldwin our greats, as she put it. For all my readers, if you happen to visit a barnes and noble this month, please take a picture of the black history month or lack of one in your local store. Barnes noble celebrates black history month by showcasing. Maya angelou once said wont it be wonderful when black history and native american history and jewish history and all of u.

Barnes and noble scraps black history month project after diversity. I even jokingly told some of them that barnes and noble will definitely have them out during black history month if you want to go in the bookstore instead of ordering online. Instead of simple promoting black authors and black characters. Barnes and noble pulls diverse book covers after backlash. Twelve classic books are getting diverse editions, featuring covers designed to champion diversity in literature, according to the us bookstore chain. Black history books celebrate black history month barnes. And many are calling the move racist and misguided. For example, shakespeares romeo and juliet will feature several different covers of a man and woman. But after significant outrage online, the company canceled the initiative midday wednesday.

In honor of black history month, penguin random house and barnes and noble fifth avenue have collaborated on a project to give classic novels what they refer to. The publisher printed 42 covers across 12 different classic titles such as. Barnes and noble celebrates black history month by giving. The book covers were aimed at promoting representation but many commentators on twitter criticized the editions for merely changing the ethnicity of the characters on the cover of white. But people quickly slammed the idea, calling it disrespectful to center white authors in black history month using black faces, rather than promoting black writers. Barnes and noble scraps diverse editions after backlash. The store planned to feature the newly jacketed books in its window display all month. The project was created by penguin random house, barnes and noble, and advertising company tbwa. Illustration for article titled books in blackface. Browse novels from standout voices including tori morrison, michelle obama, tanehisi coates, maya angelou, oprah winfrey and many more. A new york city bookstores push to champion diversity in the world of literature has fallen flat with book lovers. The bookstore had teamed up with penguin random house. Melanie celebrates black history month the project has been criticized for appearing halfbaked and superficial, with people online saying that barnes and noble should have promoted texts written by black authors instead of retooling the covers of past books if they wanted to spark dialogue and awareness of black history month.

Sooooo you may have heard about the barnes and noble black history month fiasco. After some social media users called the initiative classics in blackface, the bookseller nixed its plans for the launch. The booksellers initiative recreated classic books cover art to feature. Then proceeded to redo covers of books with white characters depicted as black characters. The book retailer executed a plan to launch classic books such as moby dick.