[Via.]
UPDATE: Publisher’s Weekly responds via Twitter.
While I respect everyone who may be offended, I think the photo is a delightful and wry expression of historical Afro Americana.
Oh. That explains it.
UPDATE #2: I was going to leave this in the comments as a response to Literanista’s comment, but I figured I’d post it up here.
Although I really, really hate the term “African-American market,” because it presumes that blacks are connected to a hive brain that tells us what to read (and because there will never be a “Euro-American market”), I do find the current trending fascinating. And the cover story is good trend piece.
There was a recent episode of On The Media solely devoted to books, and it included a segment on black book trends — as in, ‘authentic’ urban fiction (which is getting really popular) and its detractors. It’s available to listen here.
I don’t like the racial policing that urban fiction detractors are playing with, but since that genre is not my first choice for reading, I’m annoyed that it’s synonymous with black writing — but that’s my issue with publishers, not authors.
For the record, I don’t think the image is offensive, but I do think it speaks to my issues (above) with the way the mainstream publishing industry handles race.