I had some things planned to say today about Juneteenth, filled with hope and a vision for the future. And I still want to say those things, but also, I find myself really discouraged this morning and I want to talk about that briefly.

For the last few hours, every time I log onto social media, I come across a major publisher with their curated Juneteenth lists and their graphics talking about how important it is to listen to Black voices, and I gotta be honest y'all, it's really pissing me off.

Not because they shouldn't be posting them. They should. But, for me, I am just reminded about how these major players in the industry have been unwilling to fight for us.

In 2020, every publisher and they momma was adding black squares over their profile picture and hiring consultants to address the anti-blackness in their policies and company culture. We were being told how it was time for Black authors to get their turn and how the industry was slow-moving, but determined to grow.

And for a few minutes, it seemed like maybe they meant that. More Black authors were being chosen. Advances were getting slightly larger. There were even a handful of Black authors whose careers began to blow up in truly phenomenal ways.

But then, almost as soon as it started, it was over.

Black authors were still ushered through the door every once in a while, but they were reporting that no one was investing in them. Their advances were smaller. Their marketing budgets were smaller. Their publishers, it felt like, were operating on just concepts of a plan. iykyk

And then 2024 came. November rolled around and the country made it clear that they did not care about Black people. In fact, nearly every online conversation began centering a deep hatred for Black people. We were too woke. We were too loud. We only care about ourselves. We were blamed for the systems of oppression that were literally built to harm us.

Suffice to say, it wasnt--and still isn't--fun. But while all of that was happening, instead of doubling down on their commitment to produce Black art; instead of fighting for our voices and using the substantial power at their disposal to push out stories that could have helped inspire change, major publishers leaned into the diminishing call for Black voices and went back to business as usual.

So now, I have to be honest: When I see them posting their Juneteenth reading lists and calling for support for Black authors, it makes me angry. Not at the professionals trying to bring change. Because I know many of the people who work for these companies, and they are genuine in their commitment and efforts. No, I am angry at the structure of this industry itself, and the way these companies are designed to uphold that structure, no matter how much effort authors, editors and publishing staff put in to bringing it down.

I still want you to support the Black authors who publish traditionally. I think they are an incredibly important part of the book economy and abandoning them IS anti-Blackness. But I am very weary of these companies that treat Blackness as a trend that they can use to stay current with the times.

When we're in, they love us. When we're out, they pretend we don't exist.

That isn't what I opened my computer to talk about, but it's heavy on my mind at the moment. What I wanted to talk about is the future. Because, truthfully, I do have a lot of hope. Despite how forcefully this administration is working to disenfranchise Black people, I have hope that our children will taste a freedom even greater than the taste our parents fought to give us. I have hope that we will continue to push back and organize successfully against every attempt to infringe on our humanity.

When it comes specifically to literature, I think there are many ways forward. And truthfully, I have a lot to say about all of the ways I want to continue leveraging this community and our collective voices to force change. But that is going to have to be a blog for later, because right now all I really have to say is this:

What you are helping do here matters. Building our own table and being uncompromising in our demand for this industries respect IS a revolutionary way to approach publishing. And I am so proud to be in community with all of you and to continue in this fight.

Over the last 10 days, we have been pushing to grow our community together so that we can take some big steps as a publishing imprint. And we are seeing the results. It has only been a little longer than a week and we have grown by over 30 paid subscribers. That is 30 people investing directly into the projects we believe in so strongly who may never have heard of us otherwise.

We have a far way to go to hit our goal of 500 subscribers by the end of this month. But I think we can do it. I will keep pushing to get the word out and I know yall will too.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being engaged in the fight. And thank you for empowering us to build something that does more than promise change. We are doing something real and I have every confidence this movement will go on to create noticeable and lasting change. And that’s because of you.

Love y’all! And if you are not already in this community and are coming across this blog on social media, please consider subscribing. We are trying to find 500 people to subscribe for just $5 so that we can increase the number of books we can invest in each year. Help us bring more Black and brown books into the world.

Anyway, happy reading everyone and I will work on a happier and more vision-forward Juneteenth blog in a few hours. That’s what I MEANT to write, but I guess I needed to get this out. 😅