What the treatment of Chidera Eggerue tells us about the publishing industry post #BLM

You don’t need to work in the publishing industry, as I do, to know it to be a notoriously white, middle class industry. However, thanks to the ‘awakening’ since #BLM movement, much of the publishing industry is doing its best to ‘look diverse’ and support black creatives, at least on a surface level.

Over the last week best selling author and award winning influencer Chidera Eggerue, otherwise known as Slumflower, has been highlighting how the success of Florence Given’s Women Don’t Owe You Pretty, is a proof of white supremacy. Her argument was that her work was largely stolen by Florence, as it imitates the style and content of her book which came two years prior. Further, that Florence’s book has seen greater sales and greater acclaim. However, what began as Slumflower highlighting the similarities between hers and Florence’s book, yet the discrepancies in sales, soon led to a wider discussion of white supremacy when Chidera’s attention was brought to the google search bias given to Florence Given’s book. Even while searching specifically for ‘Chidera Eggerue book’, Florence Given’s book always appeared, sometimes before her own. In short, Florence was sharing Chidera’s sales space, while Chidera appeared nowhere in Florence Given’s searches. There was some speculation as to why, including…