Diversity, media and racial capitalism: a case study on publishing

Abstract

This article demonstrates the ambivalence of diversity in the cultural industries, and racial capitalism more broadly. Based upon an empirical study of the production of writers of colour in UK trade publishing, the article highlights how diversity acts as a form of racial governance but is also a source of anxiety for the dominant culture. Opening with an overview of critical approaches to diversity, we then introduce the study, based upon in-depth interviews with 113 people, which explores how publishers make sense of diversity, which includes moral and economic arguments. While publishers are convinced that both the moral and economic cases for diversity are aligned, we argue that they exist in a tension, which results in mostly reductive outcomes for minoritized authors. But the article also highlights how diversity potentially disrupts the liberal sensibilities of the dominant culture, especially their sense of publishing as meritocratic.