Black Authors segregated in major US bookstores!

There is a story this morning on Wall Street Journal about how the book stores in the US have separate sections for White and Black authors!

The story starts with Brandon Massey – a black author – who finds his books next to other African American books! The stores that regularly do this segregation are: Borders, Walmart, and the ones at the Airports. The stores that do not segregate are: Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

Is this a good practice or not? Well in a way it is good for the author because African-Americans spend a lot of money on books. While the book sales in first 9 months of 2006 in the major book stores fell by 1.6% to $12.1 billion, the black authors were “flourishing”! So, in a way it helps the black authors in a commercial way.. but it does irk many on the diversity and tolerance perspective!

Double-edged sword.. eh?