27 February 2025
“Keep politics out of it – I’m just here to read.”
“I don’t want politics in my stories.”
“Politics doesn’t belong in reading spaces.”
I could beat my head against a brick wall, or I could say again what I’ve been saying – I among many others – and I’ll keep saying it until I’m blue in the face or the message is heard. (I have guesses as to which will come first, but let’s stay optimistic, shall we?)
Reading is political. Always has been, always will be deeply, intrinsically, inherently political.
I think that the pushback against politics in entertainment spheres is the result of a misunderstanding of what “politics” actually is. When we say that word, it’s easy to think of government policies and presidential elections, but in simple, functional terms, politics is about social hierarchy and power organization. It’s about how those hierarchies affect the people living under them and how people interact with one another. It affects every moment of real day-to-day life, and consequently, every piece of media is a reflection, analysis, or exploration of it.
Literacy is itself political, correlated closely with race and class. Enslaved African Americans were not permitted to learn to read or write. Indigenous children were forced to speak, read, and write only in English rather than their native language. Quality schooling (and thus literacy) was historically – and in many ways still is – systematically and institutionally withheld from all but upper class, abled, white citizens. Contemporary education funding and material provision are determined by public fund allocations which continue to bear the legacies of these oppressions through the de facto segregation of redlining and more.
Physical access to books is political. Access to public libraries is limited among lower-income areas, for example. Some public schools have shut down their libraries and replaced them with detention centers at the behest of political leaders. Book banning is at a record-time high. Class income disparities are soaring, making the purchase of books less accessible, too.
Publishing is political. 89-95% of published books are by white authors. The heads of the largest publishing houses are white. 85% of the people who work in publishing are, too. Representation is as abysmal for Queer and Disabled stories as it is for Black, Indigenous, and POC stories. The glass ceiling of whose stories get published, marketed, and distributed is about social power hierarchy.
Book content is political. Romance explores who gets to have joy, agency, and safety and with whom. Fantasy imagines alternate ways of social existence, often through critique or subversion of reality. Horror tackles exaggerated manifestations of our real-world struggles. History often tells a dominant narrative. Children’s books teach dominant social norms. Even the fluffiest, lightest novel is political because every author has a worldview that will affect their story. Who are the characters? How do their identities inform their struggles or afford them privileges? How do they move through the world and how do they negotiate any barriers – or lack thereof – that arise around them? How do the relationships between the characters mirror or subvert relationships between people and systems in the real world?
The illusion of apoliticism is itself political. Neutrality always serves to maintain a status quo. It always serves to maintain the existing hierarchical power structure that surrounds us. To be “neutral” when selecting books to read or buy means one will inevitably choose primarily stories that reflect and affirm a worldview centered on whiteness (remember those stats on publishing?) The “neutrality” required to “separate the art from the artist” requires a lack of deep critical analysis and also results in actively lining the pockets of those who perpetuate harm. To be “neutral” when reading or reviewing those books means to refuse to engage with the social reflections and implications inside them. To maintain “neutrality” in reader spaces means to actively suppress marginalized voices and experiences.
In the oft-quoth words of many others before me: Even if you don’t do politics, politics is doing you.
Books are political. That’s why they ban them.
-B
Diversity in publishing stats:
Opinion | Just How White Is the Book Industry? – The New York Times
BN Russo 