Publishers Weekly's Afro Picks Cover - Yuck, by La Shawn Barber

I'm working on a novel (third draft!) that falls in the Christian and paranormal genres, and one of the main characters is black. I don't consider it an "African American" novel. If published (woo-hoo!), I want to see it in the Christian fiction section at Barnes and Noble, not the African American (cringe) fiction section. (Why am I cringing?)

Unfortunately, I don't think I get to decide that.

A periodical called Publishers Weekly, an informative read for writer types, put the image below on its cover, itself a photo from a book about black people. The PW cover announces "New books and trends in African American publishing" inside.

Someone at PW apparently thought the cover and the copy was clever word-imagery play. (Misfire!) I don't usually complain about magazine covers or photographs, or comment on other people's comments about "offensive" images, but this one leaves me with a headache.

The afro picks image as "art" in a book of photos isn't a problem. The way PW used it is a problem.

This blogger sums up the problem nicely (emphasis added):

"The photo Reid chose is arresting -- and ironically comes from 'Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present,' a book celebrating the diverse beauty of black women. But PW's cover misses the mark because it turns a compelling photo into a joke with the 'Afro Picks' text. Meant as an inside joke, it's subject to all sorts of misinterpretation in the larger world, Clearly, the topic of image is too sensitive to be tossed off lightly. At least the PW editors were quick to note their error in judgment."