INDEPENDENT AUTHORS’ DEPENDENCE ON BIG TECH: CATEGORIZATION AND GOVERNANCE OF AUTHORS OF COLOR ON AMAZON

Digital book publishing platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP are often lauded for enabling independent authors unconnected to established publishers to enter the book industry. Despite the appellation, independent authors are not completely autonomous. Book publishing on digital platforms is intensely mediated by the technology companies on which authors rely to publish and disseminate their work. This paper explores the ways in which Amazon KDP undermines the independence of Black authors through its categorization and content moderation systems. The critical framework for this research combines media and platform studies with publishing studies through the application of an ecology model that analyses the technological, economic and socio-cultural contexts in which books and authors circulate online. (van Dijck, 2013). This paper uses a mixed-methods approach consisting of interviews with authors of color and website analysis that collected metadata from Amazon’s Web API. This paper argues that Amazon perpetuates the discrimination Black authors face within the traditional publishing industry through its technological systems. Amazon’s categorisation system uses profile data that has a tendency to sort books by Black authors into categories defined by race regardless of the categories chosen by independent authors. The visibility of books is also impacted by outcomes of Amazon’s content moderation system, Rekognition, which has been proven to be substantially less accurate in accurately identifying darker-skinned individuals (Buolamwini & Gebru, 2018). Amazon acts as a powerful intermediary in the governance and organisation of content in its marketplace due to the increased datafication of books in this sphere.

From topic and evidence to architect: the development of Black diasporic interpretive phenomenology and the resistive strategies of Black child welfare survivors

This research engaged in the epistemological development from interpretive phenomenology into what is my implemented method of inquiry, which is Black diasporic interpretive phenomenology. This approach grounds itself in Black diasporic thought and the theorizing and work of Black authors, scholars, and activists to understand and describe the sensibilities, intimacies, struggle and resistance of Black people within the diaspora, often stemming from a hyper/invisibility created by the state, society, and institutions (Walcott, 2016). It takes seriously concerns around ethics and care while also being investigative by making connections between our present moment as Black people to the long history of subjugation and our continued fight for freedom. Three Black participants of various identities were engaged to answer the overall research question of “what are the resistive strategies deployed by Black child welfare survivors?” The term Black child welfare survivor refers to Black people who at some point in their lives have been engaged by or taken under state guardianship, or experienced adoption. The methodology used allowed for participants’ narratives to expose the anti-Black racism and continuity of slavery and coloniality in child welfare, as well as the rigourous, sustainable, and effective methods Black child welfare survivors deploy in order to maintain themselves, their families, and their communities. Key words: anti-Black racism, child welfare, resistance, Black diaspora, Black family

From topic and evidence to architect: the development of Black diasporic interpretive phenomenology and the resistive strategies of Black child welfare survivors

This research engaged in the epistemological development from interpretive phenomenology into what is my implemented method of inquiry, which is Black diasporic interpretive phenomenology. This approach grounds itself in Black diasporic thought and the theorizing and work of Black authors, scholars, and activists to understand and describe the sensibilities, intimacies, struggle and resistance of Black people within the diaspora, often stemming from a hyper/invisibility created by the state, society, and institutions (Walcott, 2016). It takes seriously concerns around ethics and care while also being investigative by making connections between our present moment as Black people to the long history of subjugation and our continued fight for freedom. Three Black participants of various identities were engaged to answer the overall research question of “what are the resistive strategies deployed by Black child welfare survivors?” The term Black child welfare survivor refers to Black people who at some point in their lives have been engaged by or taken under state guardianship, or experienced adoption. The methodology used allowed for participants’ narratives to expose the anti-Black racism and continuity of slavery and coloniality in child welfare, as well as the rigourous, sustainable, and effective methods Black child welfare survivors deploy in order to maintain themselves, their families, and their communities. Key words: anti-Black racism, child welfare, resistance, Black diaspora, Black family

Consolidations: Dickens and Seacole

Discussing Charles Dickens’s American Notes for General Circulation and Bleak House in conjunction with Mary Seacole’s Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands this chapter traces a crucial shift in mid-nineteenth-century literature which consolidates British imperialism via “enlightened” differentiation from the United States and culminates in the more paternalistic rhetoric following the 1857 Sepoy Rebellion. While travelling both authors construct conciliatory images of the English home that do not overtly challenge the sensibilities of the British reading audience. In her travel account, Seacole utilises a confident tone often directly addressing her readers more familiarly than the Black authors before her. Dickens too uses excessive overt narrative comment to promote an idea of a shared sense of indignation at lacking American manners in his travelogue and at the misguided international philanthropy of Mrs Jellyby in Bleak House. Both their consolidating tonalities rest less on complex introspection than on an explicit reassuring British familiarity. However, while Dickens increasingly understands British familial feeling as tied to whiteness, Seacole contests such racialised conceptions of national belonging.

Gender and ethnic differences in publication of BMJ letters to the editor: an observational study using machine learning

ObjectivesTo analyse the relationship between first author’s gender and ethnicity (estimated from first name and surname), and chance of publication of rapid responses in the British Medical Journal (BMJ). To analyse whether other features of the rapid response account for any gender or ethnic differences, including the presence of multiple authors, declaration of conflicts of interests, the presence of Twitter handle, word count, reading ease, spelling and grammatical mistakes, and the presence of references.DesignA retrospective observational study.SettingWebsite of the BMJ (BMJ.com).ParticipantsPublicly available rapid responses submitted to BMJ.com between 1998 and 2018.Main outcome measuresPublication of a rapid response as a letter to the editor in the BMJ.ResultsWe analysed 113 265 rapid responses, of which 8415 were published as letters to the editor (7.4%). Statistically significant univariate correlations were found between odds of publication and first author estimated gender and ethnicity, multiple authors, declaration of conflicts of interest, the presence of Twitter handle, word count, reading ease, spelling and grammatical mistakes, and the presence of references. Multivariate analysis showed that first author estimated gender and ethnicity predicted publication after taking into account the other factors. Compared to white authors, black authors were 26% less likely to be published (OR: 0.74, CI: 0.57–0.96), Asian and Pacific Islander authors were 46% less likely to be published (OR: 0.54, CI: 0.49–0.59) and Hispanic authors were 49% less likely to be published (OR: 0.51, CI: 0.41–0.64). Female authors were 10% less likely to be published (OR: 0.90, CI: 0.85–0.96) than male authors.ConclusionEthnic and gender differences in rapid response publication remained after accounting for a broad range of features, themselves all predictive of publication. This suggests that the reasons for the differences of these groups lies elsewhere.

“Intelligently organized resistance”: Shakespeare in the Diasporic Politics of John E. Bruce

In 1916 the black journalist and organizer John Edward Bruce outlined an approach for the study of Shakespeare aimed at racial uplift. This chapter situates Bruce’s inaugural address to “The Friends of Shakespeare,” a black organization for the study and performance of Shakespeare, in the wider U.S. context of migration, the rise of white nationalism, and pan-Africanist thought. An autodidact, Bruce advocated for a collaborative approach to studying Shakespeare’s works in their historical context and alongside works by black authors. Comparing Bruce’s collectivist and historicist strategies for using Shakespeare as a vehicle for racial uplift, with radical pedagogies described more recently by Joyce E. King and others, Hall argues that the study of Shakespeare, then as now, can equip students for “intelligently organized resistance.”

Racial Realism

Realism as it has been articulated by white, middle-class literary gatekeepers since its heyday in the early twentieth century (and frequently into the present) has failed to address racism and imperialism of the era. Gene Jarrett describes black authors developing new literary forms in order “to re-create a lived or living world according to prevailing ideologies of race or racial difference.” This chapter expands Jarrett’s definition of “racial realism” beyond the black-white binary in order to show how writers of color from a variety of backgrounds crafted their own versions of realism, deploying allegory and making strategic use of stock genres such as the oriental romance and the western. For white readers in particular, these seemingly “nonrealist” plot elements provided intellectual distance from the contemporary injustices of racism in the age of US imperialism. However, for in-group readers, racial realism functioned both literally and figuratively to highlight experiences of racism and to legitimize histories too often ignored, misunderstood, or misrepresented in mainstream literary realism. Writers such as Winnifred Eaton and Mourning Dove created their own texts that were shaped by multiple literary ancestors and spoke simultaneously, though distinctly, to white readers and to their own communities of color.

The Politics of Richard Wright

Richard Wright left readers with a trove of fictional and nonfictional works about suffering, abuse, and anger in the United States and around the globe. He composed unforgettable images of institutionalized racism, postwar capitalist culture, Cold War neo-imperialism, gender roles and their violent consequences, and the economic and psychological preconditions for personal freedom. He insisted that humans unflinchingly confront and responsibly reconstruct their worlds. He therefore offered not only honest social criticisms but unromantic explorations of political options. The book is organized in five sections. It opens with a series of broad discussions about the content, style, and impact of Wright’s social criticism. Then the book shifts to particular dimensions of and topics in Wright’s writings, such as his interest in postcolonial politics, his approach to gendered forms of oppression, and his creative use of different literary genres to convey his warnings. The anthology closes with discussions of the different political agendas and courses of action that Wright’s thinking prompts—in particular, how his distinctive understanding of psychological life and death fosters opposition to neoslavery, efforts at social connectivity, and experiments in communal refusal. Most of the book’s chapters are original pieces written for this volume. Other entries are excerpts from influential, earlier published works, including four difficult-to-locate writings by Wright on labor solidarity, a miscarriage of justice, the cultural significance Joe Louis, and the political duties of black authors. The contributors include experts in Africana studies, history, literature, philosophy, political science, and psychoanalysis.

Pick your perspective: Racial group membership and judgments of intent, harm, and discrimination

How do people judge the intentions of a perpetrator and the harm experienced by a victim in cases of racial discrimination? How do these judgments influence attributions to discrimination? We examined these questions in 4 studies, predicting that Whites’ and Blacks’ judgments would reflect different group-based perspectives. Supporting our hypotheses, White authors describing an arrest denied intent and ignored harm relative to Black authors (Study 1). When judging whether an event was discrimination, Whites were influenced by intent, but Blacks were influenced by intent and harm (Study 2). Finally, instructing people to take the victim’s perspective increased Whites’ judgments of intent, harm, and discrimination (Studies 3 and 4), while Blacks’ judgments generally remained the same (Study 4). Our results demonstrate one reason why Whites and Blacks judge discrimination differently—they adopt different perspectives when evaluating intent and harm—and offer a way to increase Whites’ recognition of discrimination: perspective-taking.