Backlash Tweets: Barnes and Noble Attempts Black History Month

Sooooo you may have heard about the Barnes and Noble Black History Month fiasco. Some folks sat in a board meeting and said, “hey guys, let’s get our literary blackface on.” Then proceeded to redo covers of books with white characters depicted as black characters. Instead of simple promoting black authors and black characters. We took to the Twitter streets to find the best tweets.

1.  Ryan La Sala gives us a sneak peek on the Barnes and Noble take for Pride month:

Just in!!! To celebrate pride month Barnes and Noble will be releasing gay editions of your favorite straight people classics!!!!

– To Stan a Mockingbird
– The Bottom in the Rye
– Mr. Penguin’s Poppers
– LOOKING?👀 For Alaska
– BeoWOOF
– Peter Pan

— Ryan La Sala (@theryanlasala) February 5, 2020

2. Sylvia K. Alston reminds us that black authors do in fact exist:

https://t.co/Br6ZRppX4G

Instead of highlighting Black authors during Black History Month, Barnes and Noble decides to take white novels and reprint them in black face.

This is what happens when you don’t employ, seat or invest in diverse talent in your leadership teams.

— Sylvia K. Alston (@SylviaKAlston) February 6, 2020

3. Neasa queues us in on why diversity in the workplace is so important:

https://twitter.com/nessanihil/status/1225144441163395073

4. Most of us were living for the responses to pour in:

https://twitter.com/BMWardwell/status/1225802306203070465

5. Not sure how no one caught he already had a flat top anyway:

Barnes and Noble celebrates Black History Month by giving Frankenstein an afro https://t.co/wr4FTQ3zGu pic.twitter.com/2W6dOig5Oy

— Jezebel (@Jezebel) February 5, 2020

Let’s do better and have a Happy Black History Month.