Gender, Race, and Publishing on the Left (from Katha Pollitt)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>Date: Sat, 13 Jun 1998 21:26:36 -0500
>From: Katha Pollitt <kpollitt at thenation.com>
>Subject: Re: Gender, Race, and Publishing on the Left
>To: Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu>
>
>Hi Yoshi -- the first sentence or two of my e mail re your good query
>just flew off my screen and disappeared, i think the cat did something
>to the computer  -- maybe she sent it to you?-- in any case I'll start
>again.
>
>  You observe that left organizations are even less diverse than
>corporations and the academy. I don't know if that's true across the
>board(the Nation is too white, but Ms.magazine is very multiculti, and I
>don't know about the left outside of publications), but if it is, I see
>two reasons.  One, corporations and universities are under govt.
>scrutiny.  If they don't diversify, they could be sued, lose contracts
>etc. Affirmative action works! Two, corporations and universities serve
>populations that are already diverse, and which they want to reach more
>and more of. corporations want to sell to people of color and women;
>universities have to teach them. Left institutions are mostly more
>marginal as businesses: they have small staffs, recruit by word of mouth
>and friends-of-=friends, they have their circle of donors, their little
>audience that loves them, and sometimes, too,their missions are often
>already framed in a way that does not speak to people of color, so it's
>not like people of color are beating down the doors demanding to be let
>in. Changing all that would feel scary, involve loss of power for some
>people.
>
>  And because left orgs are so small, each hire is more momentous, has
>more potential for disruption. So the people on top get cold feet.
>Corporations can hide people of color and women in jobs out of the main
>chain of command. But if you only have seven people on staff, you can't
>really do that.
>
>  Beyond that, though, I have to say I've recently come to feel that
>sometimes the good faith just isn't there. The people doing the hiring
>don't think diversity matters.  the people underneath them often do--
>almost everyone at the nation is horrified by the hiring pattern  -- but
>they have no power.
>
>   It was nice to hear from you.
>   Cheers, katha
>
>you can post this if you think its useful.