I don’t know shit about Amanda Marcotte. Given the number and nature of threads her work has been involved in here she seems to be controversial, but in order to intelligently comment on her or her work I’d have to read her work, and it’s not a priority to me. But from what I know of the publishing world I can readily believe that she had little to no say or notice about those illustrations. Given the apparent nature of the publishing house as a feminist press I’d imagine that she put some trust in them which in turn appears to have been betrayed.

Or did you mean that it’s just worse than you thought it would be?

I’m not surprised but do think that Seal Press would do well to look at popular WOC bloggers and see if any of them would consider working with them. Not as “penance” or “consciousness raising” but because there are a lot of excellent WOC bloggers out there who would write really good books if they could find a publisher. I’m guessing that one of the problems women, POC, and particularly WOC run into in publishing is publishers saying, “We’d love to publish works by WOC, but we don’t know of any good ones.” Well, look around, people: they’re not hard to find…

I’m trying to think what else they could do to prove that they’re not interested.

And the low numbers excuse is used a lot in other areas outside of publishing. It’s not surprising that it’s used there as well.

*I started writing this before reading the comments. I see nojojojo has already said that she doesn’t want to deal with them. I’m not surprised but do think that Seal Press would do well to look at popular WOC bloggers and see if any of them would consider working with them. Not as “penance” or “consciousness raising” but because there are a lot of excellent WOC bloggers out there who would write really good books if they could find a publisher. I’m guessing that one of the problems women, POC, and particularly WOC run into in publishing is publishers saying, “We’d love to publish works by WOC, but we don’t know of any good ones.” Well, look around, people: they’re not hard to find…

Why are they just now sorry? There were remarks made about the racist art LAST YEAR, and I believe in February of this year.Amanda was very snotty and condescending in her remarks then. So why is she apologizing now?

Exactly. And people are embracing that apology and so many earlier issues are pretty much being ignored.

Good to know that’s what working with woc is: suicide for a press.

Hearing women of color denounce feminism hurts me. Seeing why they do so hurts so much more.

Thanks for the compliment, but please don’t send those people anywhere near me. I’m a nice Southern girl, so I’d use my politest language when I told them to go fuck themselves, but it would still mean, “Go fuck yourselves.”

Besides, I’m too busy trying to show the SF world that PoC matter; I don’t have time to try and educate self-declared “feminists” who are about as feminist as my left nut.

Seal Press, if I were you, I would go straight to the Angry Black Woman or Nojojojo, both of whom I can personally attest are excellent writers (and ABW an experienced editor), and ask if either would be willing to edit a collection of articles for you on any subject she desires…

Dito! ;-)

but frankly, do you really think someone like bfp could ever trust the same creative geniuses that didn’t notice some really obliviously racist crap? it’s the not seeing it that is the problem. not seeing the harm in those images means not being able to see the real power of a writer like her

You may well be right. I hope, though, that these two editors are genuinely open to learning, and if they learn, maybe they will be able to see the genius in the writing of BFP or someone like her.

I also have to confess, as a writer, I am perhaps stupidly pragmatic about these things. I would, for instance, *love* to print something in Playboy, even though I’m not fond of its raison d’etre. On a purely selfish writer level — more eyes, more money, score for me. On a writer-as-activist level, their subscribers are people I’d be exposing to my content who might otherwise never see my kinds of themes, and one can only hope to break through, in a small way, to just one person who might not otherwise be thinking about marginalized voices (which is usually something I write about). In the same way, whatever gets more readers to look at the work of women of color — even if it’s a tarnished press — has gotten more readers to look at the work of women of color, and possibly be changed by it. That’s the most important thing, to me.

Still, I do hope that this apology — though flawed — will lead Seal Press to better things. I hope that they are genuine in their desires to learn about anti-racism. I hope they realize their mistakes and change their policies.

I wrote this on the Seal Press blog, in response to a commenter who was trying to defend the Seal Press editors by saying they’d never had a racist thought:

Of course they have. They’re white, neh? They live in America, don’t they?

They can still be good people and have had a racist thought. Many racist thoughts.

It’s their actions after their racist thoughts that will be most important. The action of taking classes is wonderful and laudable.

There’s still some white privilege in this apology. Still some, as others have pointed out, problematic language and “sorry if you were offended” constructions.

However, I’m willing to believe — mostly because of the proactive steps these women are taking to remove the images and get training (excellent ideas, sincerely) — that this apology comes from a good place. Maybe after some training and some reading, they’ll learn why some of the construction of this apology is problematic.

In the meantime, I congratulate them on their willingness to take the next step, and I wish them the best of luck in doing so.

oh yeah, and I missed that little snide-dump, speaking of missing things one doesn’t feel like seeing. Cute. Very cute.

Firing’s too good for ‘em.

“Sorry I ran you over with my car on my last drunken bender. I didn’t hear you the first 12,000 times you told me I might have a drinking problem, but I’m beginning to think you might have a point. Anyway, I’m going to rehab, you should know, so– What do you -mean- they might have to take away my driver’s license? But, I said I’m -sorry.-”

SC: Yeah, I’m afraid so. And considering that these are the same two people that committed the PR -genius- move with Black Amazon and Adele, I am thinking: sure, go to the anti-racist training? but uh, I’m thinking “shitcan,” myself, if Seal wants any credibility ever again. Whoever Seal actually is at this point, that is. If it’s really just them and some large conglomerate publishing company as upper management, I have a sinking feeling that the end result is just going to be them getting phased out altogether.

but frankly, do you really think someone like bfp could ever trust the same creative geniuses that didn’t notice some really obliviously racist crap? it’s the not seeing it that is the problem. not seeing the harm in those images means not being able to see the real power of a writer like her.

and wtf to seal, as well. an actual apology wouldn’t include the “i’m sorry your so dumb to misinterpret us” line such as: “This 1950s Marvel comic is not an accurate reflection of our beauty standards, our beliefs regarding one’s right to bear arms, nor our perspectives on race relations, foreign policy, or environmental policy.”

Environmental policy? Right to bear arms? Trivializing our complaints by this reducto ad aburdum is childish.

It’s still not retro cool. It’s just plain retrograde, and for you to call this an apology is an insult to all remorse everywhere.