Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Marvel Comics | Tagged: black panther, scholastic

Scholastic Reverses "Segregation" Policy That Included Black Panther

Yesterday, Scholastic reversed the policy described by Raina Telgemeier as "segregatied", issuing a new statement.

Published Wed, 25 Oct 2023 11:31:07 -0500

Earlier this week, Bleeding Cool reported on a new policy from Scholastic regarding their popular book fairs, with 120,000 held in schools and libraries across the country, that would allow schools to opt out of providing diverse books that scholastic publishers, including Black Panther graphic novels licensed from Marvel Comics. This came in the light of organisations such as BRAVE Book Fairs, claiming that "Just like Disney, Target & Bud Light, Scholastic has succumbed to an agenda that has led them to flood our schools and libraries with books that promote dangerous and anti-Biblical ideas. Many of their books appear harmless, boasting bright and colorful covers with kid-capturing titles masking ideas like gender fluidity and the LGBTQIA+ agenda on the inside."

Scholastic's response, an optional diversity choice includes books and graphic novels with ethnically diverse, LGBTQ characters, as well as those that cover immigration and racial issues, caused controversy and hundreds of their own authors and illustrators to speak out.

Yesterday, Scholastic reversed that policy with a new statement as follows from Ellie Berger, President of Scholastic Trade Publishing.

First, I want to apologize on behalf of Scholastic. Even if the decision was made with good intention, we understand now that it was a mistake to segregate diverse books in an elective case. We sincerely apologize to every author, illustrator, licensor, educator, librarian, parent, and reader who was hurt by our action. We recognize and acknowledge the pain caused, and that we have broken the trust of some of our publishing community, customers, friends, trusted partners, and staff, and we also recognize that we will now need to regain that trust.

This case will be discontinued starting with our next season in January. For the remaining fairs in the fall, Book Fairs is working on a pivot plan as we speak. We will find an alternate way to get a greater range of books into the hands of children. We remain committed to the books in this collection and support their sale throughout our distribution channels.

Our commitment to BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ authors and stories remains foundational for our company. Scholastic believes in the basic freedoms of all individuals. We oppose discrimination of any kind on the basis of age, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or national origin. We are committed to providing access and choice, and to helping young readers develop critical skills needed to exercise democracy and build a society free of prejudice and hate. Equally important, we pledge to stand with you as we redouble our efforts to combat the laws restricting children's access to books. This will not be our last communication on the matter, but we wanted to get this initial word out. We look forward to working to create a better and more just future together.

Scholastic also issued the following statement earlier today which was a little less… committed.

This fall, we made changes in our U.S. elementary school fairs out of concern for our Book Fair hosts. In doing this, we offered a collection of books to supplement the diverse collection of titles already available at the Scholastic Book Fair. We understand now that the separate nature of the collection has caused confusion and feelings of exclusion. We are working across Scholastic to find a better way. The Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice collection will not be offered with our next season in January. As we reconsider how to make our Book Fairs available to all kids, we will keep in mind the needs of our educators facing local content restrictions and the children we serve.

It is unsettling that the current divisive landscape in the U.S. is creating an environment that could deny any child access to books, or that teachers could be penalized for creating access to all stories for their students. By listening to those who share our mission – we have successfully piloted our way through past difficult periods, and we will do so successfully again.

And some folks have noticed. This is a list of the 65 Scholastic-published books and graphic novels that schools and libraries were able to choose to exclude as a part of this option, including many that might have been thought of as rather uncontroversial books.