Uncle Says October Uncle Says: Question Tokenism & Diversity

Uncle Says: Question Tokenism & Diversity

Uncle has been ruminating heavily on the meaning of diversity this summer in the sense that what it once was and now is can often feel wholly separate and distinct. As of 2022, PEN America stated that the publishing industry was ‘79% White’. Far above the white population of the United States, whilst reflecting that even at the very base of the industry, racial inequality was rampant. As of 2023, little has changed despite many pieces of writing from the 2010s discussing this strange consistently replicated statistic. This ‘79%’ figure is actually 3% higher than in 2019 writing on the topic. This shows that piecemeal efforts at D&I policy have often fallen on closed minds.

Digging deeper, and on a more personal level, a great emphasis in publishing is centered on sell-ability, and consistent publishing. Interestingly, I have watched several white poets with far less publications than my POC peers, gain several book contracts early on, especially when this writing is centered on ‘white-queer perspectives’. This left me intrigued as to why this is, dear reader. I realized that the POC community remains overtly hostile to queer representations of it in comparison to what we see in white online literary circles. This is most likely due to the need many of us feel to hide our identities or toe the line of public outness versus an ‘open secret’ like approach that shields us from personal ramifications. Further, this highlighted that no matter how marginalized, oppressed, or historically unincluded, our search for equality was still actively being turned against us.

This further begged the question, is there a performativity attached to queerness that wasn’t fulfilled by POC queer writers? I marinated on this question intensely for some weeks as there are notable examples to suggest as much otherwise as there were to confirm this question. I have often felt, that as a mixed-race bisexual person, I do not fit the mold of queerness. This is something that I see many of my fellow Gen-Z members who have not grown up in the anglophone west experiencing. This left me with more questions but is something urgent and necessary in any discussion of race and queer identities beyond the presentation of the privileged, western world.   

This brings us to tokenism. Many of us have heard how POC writing isn’t ‘rigorous’ enough. So much so that a POC literary journal Rigorous is based on proving otherwise. However, this doesn’t account for the tokenism that sees specific POC voices that are deemed to be sellable, or better yet, marketable that consistently gain recognition, opportunities and growth in the literary world. When considering that the industry has actually increased in its whiteness, this is rather stark as it confirms that only a few POC voices will benefit, perhaps ever, in the vast pool of stellar POC literary voices that exist. This also forces us to contend with the notion that POC are inherently divided, and thus, don’t pull each other up. This perspective has been shared with me in literary and non-literary circles and highlights just how much we, as people of color, still must work, amongst ourselves to improve our community at large.

How do you feel that diversity and inclusion policies have impacted your work negatively or positively? Do you feel that tokenism ultimately remains a problem at large or are you content with the trajectory you see for your own writing? Uncle remains resolute in finding ways to bridge these differences and looks forward to continuing the fight for true equality!