Speaking about the prospect of the UK’s first black publisher and specialist bookshop closing, Prof Augustine John, chair of the Communities Empowerment Network (CEN) charity, said it was “at the heart of the community” and should be saved.
If it truly was 'at the heart of the community', it wouldn't need saving, would it?
“New Beacon Books is the only remaining independent black publishing and bookselling entity in the UK,” he said. “Throughout its 55 years, it has been pivotal to the growth of the Black Education Movement, the Black Supplementary School Movement and current calls for the decolonisation of the curriculum.”
Hmm, sounds like something that won't be missed, then. I'd never heard of the first two organisations, so I looked them up - they were set up to oppose streaming and specialist schools in Haringey as 'racist'...
“Unlike Amazon, Alibris and other online suppliers, New Beacon has been at the heart of communities, building social movements and giving expression to young voices.”
Yes, of course, it's all the fault of Amazon, that dastardly corporation dedicated to giving the shopper what they want...
The actor Adjoa Andoh...
...tweeted: “I am so sad about this wonderful bookshop and the haven of cultural solidarity and information it provided to the black and extended communities for over half a century.”
I note you don't say how often you shopped there...
Another social media user, Elliot Ross, commented: “How have we in the UK made this a time of unprecedented ‘visibility’ for works by Black authors, while at the same time producing the conditions in which a radical bulwark like New Beacon Books can’t sustain itself after half a century of vital work?”
Look around you - how many independent booksellers do you see? Much less tiny niche ones.
I notice nobody is putting forth ideas to save it, just whining about it. Presumably if they do enough whining they will qualify for a government grant.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of the CEN either and it doesn't seem like a 'charitable' way to spend our tax money either!
ReplyDeleteOne may be surprised, given the amount of recent exposure on BBC Radio 4 of the works of black and minority writers and topics, it should have created a veritable stampede to buy them.
ReplyDeleteWell it might, but they've all been crap, never justifying that exposure beyond the BBC's own woke agenda, so it has the opposite effect, hence the racist shop shuts. That's the real world, folks.
Can any of the target readership actually read?
ReplyDeleteAre any of the books worth reading?
"I notice nobody is putting forth ideas to save it, just whining about it."
ReplyDeleteThese are ideas people - the actual work is beyond them!
"...and it doesn't seem like a 'charitable' way to spend our tax money either!"
Makes you wonder how many of these we are funding, doesn't it?
"...it should have created a veritable stampede to buy them."
Maybe the 'try a chapter before you buy' option on Kindles isn't doing them any favours..?
"Can any of the target readership actually read?"
ReplyDeleteI'm betting their main source of whatever income they generated was right-on white wokesters!