Why would there need to be a white literature section?

by Anonymous 14 years ago

The point at hand, I'm guessing, is that people have an appreciation if there is a section devoted to black writers and their own specific style. But if there were to be a section devoted to white people, we all know people that would go up in arms about how that's racist and such.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I don't know where you live but I'll talk about America because that's the place I know. The vast majority of literature books in a typical American bookstore were written by white authors in white-dominated societies. There's no need for a "white literature" section because most literature in the store is written by white people period. There is a need for, say, African American literature because that literature tends to come from very specific different time periods and cultures; a book written during the Harlem Rennaissance doesn't necessarily belong next to the Jane Austen novels. If a bookstore made a White Literature section, I don't think they would come under fire for being racist. Is there any evidence that they would? Is there any historical precedent? Rather I think there intentions would be questioned, because most books in a bookstore are already written by whites, and most people already have high awareness of history of white people versus that of other racial grou...

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Great, my comment was cut off. I see posts all the time of the form "Black people can do ___, but if white people did that they'd be called racist." I'm wondering why these people feel like they're helpless victims of hateful reverse discrimination when in reality, society revolves around white culture (again, I'm only talking about America here).

by Anonymous 14 years ago

obviously you're a pretentious and vain jerk, who needs to get over themselves.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

yeah, but I think what they mean is why do you need to split off a certain section for African American Literature...if everyone is equal why don't you mix them all together. You won't see (or I have never seen) a section devoted to only Indian writers or Mexican or whatever, those authors are just in the general rows of books.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

We're all equal *now*, but we certainly weren't equal back in the twentieth century or before when these books were written. Grouping African American literature together is helpful--not just helpful, but important--so as to achieve a sense of that culture. Question: shouldn't you also be complaining about books about women/feminism being grouped together? Isn't that sexist? How about having a section for children's books? Why aren't people calling that ageist?

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Yes, by why can't you achieve a sense of any other culture and split all the other books into sections depending on the person who wrote it and what culture they are from and not just African American literature? Because that's taking it too far. And to answer your question, every race is either male or female, and at the book stores I have seen there is also a 'male' section usually with war books and things, and you could say that's sexist too.But again it's taking things too far. I think you really are looking too far into it.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

sections for childrens aren't ageist beacause it helps kids find what books they can read. it's not books written by kids.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Why do they need their own section anyways???

by Anonymous 14 years ago

I don't mean this in a racist way, but why should there be an African American section? It only encourages racial segregation. It doesn't matter if a white person or a black person wrote a book because we're all different people inside and we all have different ways of expressing ourselves even if we are the same skin colour.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Because these books were written in time periods when a different skin color meant you belonged to a different culture.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

There's still the point that there aren't Native America, Hispanic American, or Asian American sections. These were also groups that were discriminated against.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

There is nothing wrong with having African American literature. The point is it shouldn't be separated in their own category, because you know people would get angry if whites did something like that. They got BET and magazines and a month if whites had all that it would be thought of as racist. There shouldn't be any separation or special treatment to any one race its kind of like there is still a little bit of segregation going on.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

The reason for all that is to celebrate these people for being able to overcome such oppression. Whites haven't had this type of oppression. Whites have been slaves and whites have been in genocide but they weren't there because they were white or considered an inferior race.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

um europe didn't give a shit if you were the rainbow they just needed people to work for them because the natives were not enough to do all the work

by Anonymous 14 years ago

And blacks were thought to be inferior.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

so were the natives

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Yes, I never said different..

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Isn't the white section just the whole rest of the library?

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Usually african american literature revolves around civil war/slavery/segregated times, not just Black writers in general. It's kinda like a genre.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Will you people stop pretending that the only two races in the world are white and black? It bothers me that there's a specific section for African-American literature because I've never seen a section for literature of any other race, it's just mixed in with the "white people literature" or whatever you want to call it, unless it's in a different language. Also, why do black people get their own month? If we're going to do that we should have a month for every other race too.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Im black and I actually kinda agree. I dont think it's fair that we're one of the only races with a month , a book section , etc. But I can see where both sides of this argument are coming from.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Im balck and I actually kinda agree. I dont think it's fair that we're one of the only races to have a month , a book section , etc. But I can see where both sides of this argument are coming from.

by Anonymous 14 years ago