Barnes and Noble Conundrums

I haven’t read much, though I wish I had, this week has been super busy and I cannot wait for the long weekend! 

I mentioned this story in class, but I want to give more detail! I went to the prudential last Friday, and I walked inside Barnes and Noble. Growing up, like many others, I loved Barnes and Noble. It was an oasis for all the books I wanted to read. Now I see it as being problematic in a couple of ways, but nonetheless, I still go there from time to time. I came across two books I really wanted to read but lack the time and money to do so. I do use the library; however, the Northeastern dewy decimal system is a bit tricky at times. Anyways when walking through the aisles of Barnes and Noble,  I found Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward and Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. Baldwin’s Giovanni’s room is a book I’ve always wanted to read, but where is the time? I still haven’t finished The Emperor’s Babe because this week has been a mess! Someone recommended Ward’s book, it might have been in our class, I’m just not sure who. Anyways, I was just planning on picking up books, reading some of them, and determining if I should blow my nonexistent money on them. I also wanted to read Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sewer, but couldn’t find it, so I asked a lady at the front desk. 

She was walking with me and told me she wrote a really good paper on the book that dealt with utopian words and feminism college. I said oh cool, because she was kind of rambling at this point, and I was tired. I noticed she took me to the Black History Month section rather than the science fiction/fantasy section. First off this made me angry. Once we got there, the main book was Kindred (there are like 10000 copies) and one hardcover of Parable of the Sewer. The lady who was helping said,“ oh my considering the month, you would think there would be copies”. This rubbed me the wrong way and now I was definitely not going to buy the book from her. Also, she did not even check the sci-fi/fantasy section. There’s such a large misconception that we could only celebrate black people during February. Also, shouldn’t Barnes and Noble be stocked with books written by black authors regardless of the month? I mean what was she trying to get at? Do we read books by white authors during a certain month? It was just so ignorant.

I also saw American Dirt, and me being very annoyed commented on how problematic that book was. And this lady said, “you are free to your opinion”! Then I felt the need to explain my standpoint and offered to send her some of the articles I’ve found. I ended up leaving Barnes and nobles and watched Harlots on Hulu. 

That wasn’t a post about books, but I feel like we are just engulfed in a world of ignorance. I wondered if this woman thought because she read one Octavia Butler, she was “woke”. But I think the mere fact that she thinks a month should be the only time authors should stock up on books by people of color made me angry? Why are some stories deemed more important than others? It’s just not fair. I also think about the fact that oftentimes books written by people of color are often undiscovered or left hidden, yet books that speak about the experience of a person of the color written by a white person AT TIMES seems to get more attention and it is just problematic in general.