I am still so annoyed by those "why is the author's gender and race important??" people that i'm going to spell it out for everyone who may not know why that's crap.
"just read what's good! you will automatically wind up with a diverse mix of authors from all backgrounds! (and don't need to question your own privileges)"
sounds reasonable? only it doesn't work like that.
i'm guessing the people who think that's a good idea think that's what they're doing. just reading what's good.
white men make up about, what, 14-16% of the world population?
i'm going to guess most people's bookshelves have a LOT higher percentage of books written by white men than that.
there's a whole system of privilege & systemic discrimination that leads to this result.
white men hold most of the world's wealth & power.
so who's most likely to be in a position where they have free time & resources to write, which is always unpaid at first? white meeeen
whose works are going to have the shit promoted out of them and are going to be hyped up for being "inventive" and "revolutional" when they're just copying what everyone else has been doing since forever? WHIIIITE MEEEEEEEEEN'S
so whose books wind up on your bookshelves as "bestsellers" even though they're mediocre AT BEST
yeah you guessed it
WHITE MEN'S.
white men are structurally seen as more talented than everyone else, so who's going to be supported with their writing? WHITE MEN
white men's viewpoint is seen as universally relatable, while everyone else's is not, AND they are perceived as more skilled than anyone else, so who are publishers going to accept most quickly? WHITE. MEN.
whose works are the rules for what is "good literature" based on?
WHITE. FUCKING. MEN'S.