lots of people on our feed today who seem to think (for some unfathomable reason) that structural racism isn't an English issue. I'd like you to consider that I've been in our antiquarian book trade over 5 years and I can count Black colleagues I've met on one hand

as I keep saying to the Boss

1) you cannot expect me to believe that no Black professionals would want to work in rare books
2) if they ARE applying then why are so few in jobs
3) if they AREN'T applying we have to assume they don't feel this trade is a safe environment

which is not to say that the entire trade is thriving with bigots. It isn't. But is is dominated by a single rather predictable demographic (I'll let you guess which one) and we can always do more to make minorities feel welcome

as bookseller we deal with a huge range of material from lots of sources, and we NEED diverse voices and experiences to help us gather and direct that material to the right places

it benefits us all to recognise our own biases where they exist and try to fix them

I wonder if I can get censured by the trade organization for implying the entire trade is a bit institutionally racist is that against the rules someone check the rulebook