They don’t call it “Black Friday” because they love Black
people; they call it Black Friday because many
businesses are pushed into the black (from the
red ink of losses to the black ink of profits)
on that day or into the holiday season. In
just the three days from Black Friday until
Sunday, November 26, online sales jumped by
more than seven percent, according to one of
the credit card companies that tracks spending
from credit receipts. Even with economic
anxiety, people are spending money.
If your email inbox is anything like mine, you are
barraged with ads and promotions offering 25,
50, and even 75 percent off. These retailers
aren’t giving anything away for free. A 75
percent offer means they had marked the
product up by three times what it cost them to
produce it to get their retail price. The
original tag may have said $99.99. Trust and
believe that the item didn’t cost more than
$25 to produce unless it has been sitting on
the shelf for so long that it is cheaper to
mark the item down to free up shelf space for
something else.
Books are the same way. Booksellers mark books down when
they need to make room for new inventory. But
there is a big difference between giving
someone a jacket and giving them a book,
especially if the book is a gift for a young
person. Too many children don’t have books or
access to them, and the gift of a book can
transform a child’s life. You can open a world
for a youngster with a book that shows her
other countries and offers him different ways
of thinking (thus the scientific fiction genre
and Afrofuturism many young Black folks are
getting into). Vanesse Lloyd-Sgambati, founder
of the African
American Children’s Book Fair, which will be held in Philadelphia on February 3, 2024
ends her voicemail message with “buy a book”
because she is passionate about the power that
literacy has to enhance a young life. So, if
you are playing Santa Claus laden with gifts,
make sure at least one is a book. And if your
funds aren’t challenged, bring at least one
book to your cherished child and gift another
child or two with a book.
COVID-19 and the ease and speed of online ordering have
challenged the vitality of independent Black
bookstores. But Mahogany
Books, founded in 2007 as an online bookseller now has two
brick-and-mortar locations and thrives. In
Oakland, California, Marcus Books, the first
Black bookstore west of the Mississippi River,
continues to thrive despite challenges. One
recent list of independent Black-owned bookstores counts 89
suggests patronizing them in person or online.
Independent Black-owned bookstores are now more critical
than ever. As of this April, twenty-eight
states have
passed laws preventing teaching “critical race theory” which can sometimes be broadly construed to include the
simple teaching of African American history.
Several initiatives have been introduced, with
some implementing and regulating teaching,
library content, and more. One disgruntled
racist parent can cause a book to be removed
from a library or banned from a syllabus. The
American Library Association keeps track of
the more than 1600 books that were challenged
in 2022, with the thirteen most frequently
challenged including Toni Morrison’s The
Bluest Eye. Rabid parents want to keep these books out of the
curriculum and ban them from libraries. That’s
why every home needs a library, and every
child needs to have their own books.
The culture wars are here, and with the 2024 election,
they will likely start sizzling. There’s a big
battle that groups like the American Library
Association, the National Education
Association, and other organizations,
including civil rights organizations like the
National Urban League are taking on through
the Freedom
to Learn Campaign.
This cause is good trouble! At the same time, we can
provide education child by child. Buy a child
a book for Christmas! Talk to her about it.
Give a book to a child you don’t know. Give a
book, give a book, give a book.
