#06 - In the world of book publishing, who has the right to tell what stories, plus 5x 'Quick Fire Responses' to help you bat away nonsense comments.
Language Matters Memo, a monthly newsletter from Sadia Siddiqui, focused on fostering a more progressive and inclusive narrative.
Hello and welcome to the July issue of The Language Matters Memo.
Regular readers will know that all LM Memos start with a cultural recommendation - usually a book, podcast or TV show.
This month I have a delicious book recommendation for you - I say delicious because I inhaled it! Because I loved this book so much and it raised many important questions, such as who has the right to tell what stories and tokenism in the workplace, I’ve made it the key focus of this month’s newsletter. Whether you’ve read the book or not, I hope the deep dive provides food for thought on these topics.
The newsletter concludes with a new series of Quick Fire Responses to help you navigate problematic comments and questions.
You must read Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang.
Released in May 2023, Kuang's Yellowface shot up both the New York Times and The Sunday Times Best Seller lists, which has pretty much stayed since then. Given it’s had a lot of press, rather than sharing another review, I’ll focus on some of the issues Kuang plays within the book, namely diversity, racism, cultural appropriation and the erasure of Asian-American voices and history from Western society. I will attempt to do this without sharing any major spoilers because I'm invested in you reading this book, so we can all discuss it here!
Before we get started, here's a brief synopsis:
Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were both destined to be publishing stars. They graduated from Yale in the same year and published their debuts within months of each other, but whilst Athena's a much-celebrated literary darling, the reaction to June's book was so mediocre she didn't even secure a paperback release. So when June is the sole witness to Athena's death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena's just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese labourers to the British and French war efforts during World War I. June proceeds to 'edit' the book, changing names and removing references to the racism faced by these individuals to make it more palatable to a white audience. So what if she's changing Athena's narrative and her new publishers have given her a new name - Juniper Song - combined with an ethnically ambitious author photo? She edited the book to make it her own, so do those things matter? The publication is critically acclaimed, but June's cover is under threat. As evidence emerges and threatens to bring June down, she goes to extraordinary lengths to protect her secret and safeguard what she thinks she deserves.
Kuang's decision to tell this story from June's perspective is central to what makes this book soooo good. Although June holds clearly racist views, because you see things through her eyes, you can't help but be influenced by her skewed view of the world - especially given Athena is revealed to be no angel herself. There have been some criticisms of Kuang that, as an Asian-American author, she's using Athena’s Asianness to communicate her gripes with the publishing world. That's undeniable, but I don't have an issue with that. Authors write about what they know, and Kuang knows this industry intimately. If anything, I question the reviewer's compulsion to question her lived experience.
Before we get into the four themes, I wanted to highlight a concern that there will be a contingent of readers who will fail to realise this is satire and for whom June's issues with the world and poor attitude concerning race will be something they empathise with. That's part of Kuang's point; she wants her audience to sit with the discomfort this book generates.
Theme 1: WHO has the right to tell WHAT stories?
This is a much-debated question in the publishing world and is a central theme of this book - summed up beautifully in its provocative title.
In Yellowface, June Hayward, a white woman, steals a manuscript written by a recently deceased Chinese American woman and publishes it as her own. Theft aside, just who has the right to tell what stories?
There isn't a clear-cut answer to that question. On one side, you have those who say that only writers from marginalised backgrounds should tell stories about people who share their cultural experiences; on the other, we have those who say that this stance is tantamount to censorship.
Many in the publishing industry have highlighted the fine line between empathy and exploitation. Empathy requires a human connection; exploitation is using another's experience for personal gain. Whilst June was firmly in the exploitation camp, to move the conversation on, we need to shift the conversation from whether someone writes a story to how and why they should write it.
Let's tackle the 'how' first. We've all read books where race and ethnicity are handled in a ham-fisted manner. For example, authors that give characters stereotypical names or describe their skin tones using food and beverages 🤦🏾♀️ or those that make a point of only highlighting the race of their Black and brown characters and thereby holding up the white default.
Reading, by its very nature, is an act of empathy; you're consuming someone else's perspective, and unless they’re truly evil, it's natural to empathise with the characters we form in our heads. If an author is truly gifted, avoids the pitfalls described above and uses resources such as sensitivity and cultural readers. I believe they should be able to pen characters of a race other than their own.
On to the 'why'.
I stand by the idea of authors writing characters with different life experiences to their own, but we also reside in a world where only 2% of books published in the UK are by British people of colour*. Writing a character of a different race, gender or sexual orientation is one thing, but telling the story of a culture alien to you is another and therein lies the rub. If something is unfamiliar to you, it will be written about from that ill-informed perspective. It may be fetishised, othered or even romanticised in a way that someone from that culture would be largely immune from doing.
It should make us all uncomfortable that we exist in a world where white authors write about experiences that are not their own, whilst the publishing industry regularly passes over authors living within that culture. Until we see greater representation, we must ensure that the right people tell their stories. This requires a concerted effort from us all and should be front of mind when we decide what we want to read next.
Theme 2: Is it true diversity or a tick-box exercise?
In Yellowface, June chalks Athena's success to her ethnicity now that diversity is all the rage and being Asian is fashionable.
The reality we learn is that Athena has been severely typecast. When she asks to tackle new genres, she is discouraged and blocked by her agent and publishers. Athena's experience in the book holds a mirror up to authors from marginalised backgrounds who report that although they have been 'permitted' to be part of the publishing community, this acceptance is conditional on them playing the role they are supposed to play. They are soon batted back down if they attempt to stray from stories that do not centre on race and racial trauma. This demonstrates that publishing, like many industries, may have made some inroads with diversity; they are certainly not practising inclusion.
In Yellowface, June views herself as the true minority and oppressed one. She's incapable of seeing people of colour as her peers and must reduce them to their ethnicity because, in her eyes, that's why they have a platform.
I've been exposed to such views and heard people of colour called 'diversity hires'. It's a highly dangerous narrative, and if you think this, sit with it and examine where that view comes from. Chances are there are some biases you aren't aware of that need to be dismantled. Many individuals have been historically excluded from certain professions because of their ethnicity. The last thing we need to do is meet the steps to correct this with more prejudice.
Theme 3: What is Cultural Appropriation, and why does it matter?
Image credit: blackhistorymonth.org.uk
There is a clear difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation.
In Yellowface, June Hayward permits her publishers to rebrand her as Juniper Song. ‘Song’ is her real middle name, but it conveniently sounds very Asian, which helps with her lying by omission. It allows her to defend herself against accusations of cultural appropriation and blame her critics for wrongly assuming she's Asian. For June, like all those who appropriate, Athena's culture is a commodity to be consumed and used for her own ends.
As a culture, we have a long history of features and characteristics deemed undesirable on Black, brown and Asian bodies being viewed through a different lens once adopted by white women. The TikTok clean girl aesthetic is just one of these phenomena.
Sharing our cultures is one way we bond, but we need to aim for appreciation and not appropriation. When we sever the ties something has with its culture, we take away its heart and render it soulless. We should always be alert for this in our personal and professional lives.
Theme 4: The erasure of East Asian-American voices and history
The Palestinian American writer, Edward Wadie Said, argued that literature could be a form of colonialism by establishing a new perception of a different culture or geography. In Yellowface, June makes edits to Athena's text to strengthen its appeal to a white audience. During this process, June and her publisher take out a passage in the original text where the Chinese Labourers take their own lives following their mistreatment by British soldiers because it feels gratuitous and potentially alienating for an audience to be confronted with such a reality.
June senses that she is creating a book that is "more accessible" because the original text had made her feel "..dumb and alienated at times..." As a white author, she fails to recognise how she feels compelled to centre her feelings because she is so used to being at the heart of every story. This relates to the first theme I explored and why to be truly authentic, we need stories to be told by those who have lived and understand them.
To quote a review I read on Goodreads by @s.penkevich, "..don't steal a novel to talk over the voices of those who the stories belong to". I couldn't have put it better myself.
Yellowface is a razor-sharp satire that exposes the darker side of publishing. I have never read something so meta, and that in itself is central to its appeal—a 10/10 read. Do let me know if you go on to read it.
You can purchase Yellowface here.
Quick Fire Responses - Part 2: What to say when someone says something problematic.
It can be hard to know what to say when someone expresses a problematic opinion, especially if you're in a professional setting. This month I have five new quick-fire responses you can give when people make inappropriate statements.
#1: "We should look after our own first!"
Quick response: We're the fifth-largest world economy. We don't need to choose between supporting vulnerable people here and helping the most desperate from elsewhere. Rather than be angry about people fleeing for their lives, shouldn't we a. see them as people just like us and b. hold the government to account and question policies that lead to upheaval in their countries of origin? The UK is home to approx. 1% of the 26.4 million refugees. Did you know refugees are more likely to be self-employed than native Brits? Many go on to employ others, giving back more than they take. Let's develop some empathy.
#2: Why is everything so woke? It's divisive!
Quick response: Strangely, a term for those raising awareness of social and racial justice issues has evolved into an insult. All they are doing is calling for justice and equality. What does it say about you if you want to be the opposite of that? I'd rather be 'woke' than asleep to what's going on, irrespective of whether it does/does not impact me personally.
#3: There are too many Black people in our ads!
Quick response: We're programmed to notice those who look less like us. If a room has a few women in it, we'll think it's more gender-balanced than it is. The same thing happens with people of a different race. We live in a multicultural society, and our advertising should reflect that. It's a good thing for Black and Asian children to grow up seeing people that look like them on TV? It's good to see yourself reflected in society, giving you a sense of belonging and inclusion. I'm glad that's the direction that society is taking.
#4: Black pound day is just racist!
Quick response: #SpendBlack and 'Black Pound Day' exist because Black business owners are four times more likely to be rejected for loans. When a loan is secured, they pay higher interest rates than other businesses. These initiatives help readdress that balance by introducing shoppers to businesses and brands they may not know, thereby helping traditionally disadvantaged businesses. The initiatives are rooted in creating racial equality. You shouldn't feel excluded by things like this.
Before I sign off
I mentioned on Instagram Stories last month that I was working on a project for Action for Race Equality (ARE).
Young Black men in London are up to three times more likely to be unemployed than their white counterparts, irrespective of their qualifications. This is an unacceptable scenario, and ARE created the Moving On Up initiative to tackle this. We held an event earlier this week at EY's office in Canary Wharf, London, where we had over 30 young men networking with employers from tech, finance and construction. If you're a hiring manager and want to play your part in improving employment opportunities for young, Black men, you can view our campaign film here. The film tells you how you can turn good intentions into impactful actions.
Until next month!
Sadia.