Caring about Equity, Diversity and Representation Webinar
Presented by Paula Butler, June 20, 2020
Selected Resources
These articles, books and style guides might be useful as you explore these issues further, as well as for very practical indexing questions. The list includes both Canadian and American references.
ON RACISM & PUBLISHING
Workplace Racism survey. People of Color in Publishing and Latinx in Publishing did a Workplace Racism survey in 2018. “To our white colleagues: read these words attentively and share them widely. We ask that you do not approach any of your BIPOC colleagues to discuss this information, but instead call on your white colleagues. We have included an Actionable Takeaways and Resources section and recommend creating your own living list as well, as you know your own role and areas of influence best. Dismantling racism in publishing requires continuous self-education and anti-racist attention and action. This survey focused on workplace culture at publishing companies in the U.S., but we acknowledge that these issues needs to be addressed in other parts of the book industry, including at literary agencies, review journals, bookstores, and libraries, and within the author and illustrator community around the world.” You can read the full survey results here.
Black and white: why capitalization matters, Columbia Journalism Review: https://www.cjr.org/analysis/language_corner_1.php
Racial and Ethnic Identity, APA Style blog (American Psychological Association, which is often used in Canada, and it makes an interesting point about parallelism): https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language/racial-ethnic-minorities
Getting Rid of the Word ‘Caucasian’ in Everyday Anti-Racism. The New Press. 2008. https://sjsu.edu/people/carol.mukhopadhyay/papers/Getting-Rid-of-the-Word-Caucasian.pdf
Lack of Diversity in Canadian Publishing, by ISC member Sarah McNeil: https://indexers.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Lack-of-Ethnic-Diversity-in-Canadian-Publishing-by-Sarah-McNeil_.pdf
35 Books to Read for National Indigenous History Month:https://www.cbc.ca/books/35-books-to-read-for-national-indigenous-history-month-1.5585489
Mohawk/Tuscarora writer Janet Rogers opens Ojistoh publishing house on Six nations:https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/janet-rogers-publishing-1.5552435
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, by Robin J. DiAngelo. (Available as a hard copy book, ebook or audiobook.)
Understanding and Dismantling Racism: A Booklist for White Readers: https://www.charisbooksandmore.com/understanding-and-dismantling-racism-booklist-white-readers
Anti-Black Racism Reading List (Canadian focus): https://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/anti-black-racism-reading-list
Over 1,000 U.S. Publishing Workers Strike to Protest Industry Racism:https://www.vulture.com/2020/06/publishing-strike-racism-book-industry.html
Black authors are on all the bestseller lists right now. But publishing doesn’t pay them enough: https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/6/17/21285316/publishing-paid-me-diversity-black-authors-systemic-bias
11 Racist and Offensive Phrases that People Still Use All the Time: https://www.businessinsider.com/offensive-phrases-that-people-still-use-2013-11
14 Words (explanation of term): https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/14-words?fbclid=IwAR0CJUOLmd8CxqeNZ7f8wK7H9JJHgp1xlbu2zia_1VAALWlnwunTPVbT7f8
The Ugly, Fascinating History of the Word ‘Racism’: https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/01/05/260006815/the-ugly-fascinating-history-of-the-word-racism
CANADIAN RESOURCES
Elements of Indigenous Style. Gregory Younging. Brush Education. 2018.
The Canadian Press Stylebook, 18th edition; there’s also The Canadian Press Caps and Spelling: https://www.thecanadianpress.com/writing-guide/
New Canadian Media’s 76-page Ethnic Media and Diversity Style Guide (2016), downloadable here: https://nsiip.ca/wp-content/uploads/NewCanadianMedia_EthicMediaDiversityStyleGuide.pdf
National NewsMedia Council lists some resources, including ethics and standards, here: https://mediacouncil.ca/media-ethics/guides-and-resources/
Canada.ca Content Style Guide (for the government website, with a single mention of diversity): https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/government-communications/canada-content-style-guide.html#toc8
The Translation Bureau, Government of Canada has a searchable term database called Termium: https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng. Here’s a link to their topic and alphabetic listing “capitalization: races; languages; peoples”: https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2guides/guides/wrtps/index-eng.html?lang=eng&lettr=indx_catlog_c&page=9-PzbJQBuljw.html
They also have a French editing guide, Le guide du rédacteur (the second edition is from 2009, so might not be the latest reference) https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2guides/guides/redac/index-fra.html?lang=fra&lettr=&page=../introduction
First Nations Metis and Inuit Ontology: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSOKcm9HB-28iSqNN3sQd5hV7bMLMGpCeGL0dkQgyg2AiZAMWUF0sp98GyxIvLXYIWqSZ3nX_j_q4UN/pubhtml?urp=gmail_link
Diversity in Publishing — Organizations & Initiatives from the Magazine Association of BC: https://magsbc.com/project/diversity-in-publishing-organizations-initiatives/
AMERICAN RESOURCES
Chicago Manual of Style. The current edition is the 17th, published in 2017. The 16th ed. (2010) caps ethnic and national adjectives, but not “colors” like black and white, in 8.37 and 8.39. This link is for the online edition: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html
APA Style (American Psychological Association, they’ve just put out their 7th edition): https://apastyle.apa.org/ Click Bias-free Language for a useful section. The venerable 6th edition blog is here: https://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/apa-style-blog-6th-edition-archive.html
The Diversity Style Guide (online, created by the San Francisco State University’s Journalism Department, with over 700 terms and several specific guides, plus lots of great links to other American organizations), https://www.diversitystyleguide.com/
The Conscious Style Guide (recommended by Chicago, NASA, and others): click Guides for info, including terms, for writing about the whole range of controversial subjects, with blog posts, articles, and references: https://consciousstyleguide.com/
LGBTQ+ terms are explained in the GLAAD reference; for others see The Diversity Style Guide): https://www.glaad.org/reference
National Association of Black Journalists style guide: https://www.nabj.org/page/styleguide
The Asian American Journalists’ Association doesn’t have a style guide but recommends avoiding “illegal” to describe certain immigrants to the US: https://www.aaja.org/immigrants
There’s also a National Association of Hispanic Journalists but no style advice.
The Native American Journalists’ Association has an AP Style Guide insert for USD $9 with “preferred term usage for journalists covering Indian country”: https://najanewsroom.com/ap-style-insert/
The California Assisted Living Association’s Anti-Ageism Usage and Style Guide: http://caassistedliving.org/publications/elevate-aging/
MORE RESOURCES
A learning resource on how to be a Black ally. Choose 10 min, 25 min, 45 min/day: https://justiceinjune.org/
“How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion” – 18 min video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-BY9UEewHw&feature=youtu.be