Sports Got It Right Long Before Publishing from James W. Ziskin

I’m seeing more diversity offered in reading these days and am reading a lot more diverse protagonists and subjects. I feel as if it’s opening up my world. What trends have you noticed in the last year, for better or worse? 

The 1927 World Champion New York Yankees. (I’ve circled all the Black, Latinx, and Asian players in bright red below.)

And here are the 1981 World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

Things had started to look a lot better by the 1980s. The Dodgers, in fact, had thirteen players who were POC on that roster, and five of the nine starters were either Black or Latinx, including their best pitcher, Fernando Valenzuela. Just thirty-five years earlier, none of those players would have been allowed to play in the Major Leagues. No wonder the Dodgers couldn’t beat the damn Yankees back then…

In 2024, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and the National Basketball Association sign the best players, including traditionally underrepresented groups, because sports is—pretty much—only about winning. Today, the consensus best baseball player in the world is Japanese, and—a glance at the NFL shows that 53.5% of the players are Black, 24.4 white, and 10.9% mixed race (https://www.statista.com/statistics/1167935/racial-diversity-nfl-players/#:~:text=Players%20in%20the%20NFL%20in%202023%2C%20by%20ethnicity&text=In%202023%2C%20the%20greatest%20share,of%20players%20within%20the%20NFL.).

How does publishing compare? It’s not as easy to pin down the exact numbers of published authors by ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender identity, but one study by Richard Jean So and Gus Wezerek looked at 8,000 books published between 1950 and 2018. They found that 95% were written by white authors (https://pen.org/report/race-equity-and-book-publishing/). In 2022, Hachette disclosed that 34% of their 2021 contributors identified as BIPOC writers and illustrators. That’s an improvement, but it still trails the achievements of professional sports in North America by a long shot and several decades.

To be sure, we’re seeing more and more books by underrepresented groups, especially since the protests sparked by George Floyd’s murder in 2020. This week, my fellow Criminal Minds have cited many writers, and I echo their choices. Indeed, over the past several years, we readers have had the great fortune to meet so many talented authors, enjoy their stories, and learn and grow from their perspectives. In recent years, I’ve read writers whose experiences were vastly different from my own, and I am the better for it. Everyone should try it. The more we know about us—all of us—the richer we are. 

I now notice and am aware of the jarringly segregated photos from the past. Like the 1927 Yankees. Not that I judge the men in those photos. It’s just that I am aware as never before that they are all white. I ask myself, “Where are the others? The ones who don’t look like those men.” I reflect on the exclusion of “the others” and marvel at their patience in the face of centuries of injustice. Of not even having the opportunity to try out for the team, let alone get into the game. I can’t imagine how enraged, depressed, and frustrated that would make me feel.

And, of course, I realize how lucky (privileged) I am not to have had to feel that way. My face would have looked right at home on the 1927 Yankees.

In our industry, no one is guaranteed a book deal based on their origins or identity, not even white writers. But traditionally, you had to be white—or some kind of unicorn—to be considered at all. It’s important to remember that in life, publishing, homeownership, careers, and love, too many people have been left on the wrong side of the velvet rope, hoping just to get inside the club to dance. But the bouncers have refused them admittance. I’m glad the gatekeepers of publishing are starting to include more (some) diversity in publishing. I want to see the trend continue until the books on shelves look less like the 1927 New York Yankees and more like our society today.

Sports got it right before the publishing world.

Play ball!