Victoria’s oldest independent bookshop has apologised after its owner called for more picture books with “just white kids on the cover” and claimed that the chain would stop stocking “woke agenda” content that divided people.
Susanne Horman, the owner of Robinsons Bookshop chain, posted a series of tweets in December where she called for an “substantial shift” in Australian publishing, arguing the focus should be in line with public opinion, requests for books and “for what is good”.
“What’s missing from our bookshelves in store?” Horman wrote in one tweet, before the account was deleted. “Positive male lead characters of any age, any traditional nuclear white family stories, kids picture books with just white kids on the cover, and no wheelchair, rainbow or indigenous art, non indig [sic] aus history.”
Another post read: “Books we don’t need: hate against white Australians, socialist agenda, equity over equality, diversity and inclusion (READ AS anti-white exclusion), left wing govt propaganda. Basically the woke agenda that divides people. Not stocking any of these in 2024.”
In a Facebook post on Sunday night, Robinsons Bookshop said the comments had been “taken out of context” and “misrepresented the views” of the company.
I love how the response to backlash against comments like this is almost always along the lines of ‘sorry if you’re offended’ and ‘the comments were taken out of context’.
These comments by Horman are very clear, they have plenty of context on their own, and they give me a pretty good picture of what kind of person the owner is. It’s enough for me to make sure I don’t set foot into their shops if I am ever in Melbourne.
The first tweet is almost satirical, so if it had stopped there I might have bought it being “taken out of context”.
I’m curious to know what possible context would make those tweets okay.
The context where the person reading them is also a bigot?
I agree, it was incredibly clear that no one should support “Victoria’s favourite bookshop” anymore. The one that really got me was the line about children’s books needing to have more white people, nuclear families and less indigenous art on the covers. Sure, white kids don’t have any media to look to for role models except for 95 fucking percent of media out there.
I really hope this business crashes and burns and we stop seeing cultivation of this kind of hate in this country.
I mean, it mentions “socialist agenda”
That’s a buzzword for “I’m a dumbass”
Same goes for Anti-Woke.
Funny how those people tend to be the same who tell the ‘sheep’ to ‘wake up’.
The context where there was a reasonable study without political bias made that proved there was an “anti-white” movement or intentional pandering for profit.
Hard to find one though it seems, else it would already be in the news.There is no such study because there is no ‘anti-white movement’. Diversity, equity and inclusivity are not zero-sum games, even if reactionaries like to pretend they are.
Diversity, equity and inclusivity are not zero-sum games
In the sense of individuals treating each other humanely day-to-day, sure. But when viewed through an employer lens, it’s a collection of strategies whose purpose is to maintain poor conditions for the coalescence of labor solidarity. There’s nothing non-zero-sum about that.
But they seem to be for you. You aren’t willing to settle for anything less.
I am not sure you know what a zero-sum game is.
I proud to say I have no idea. But it sounds like it has something to do with a sum of things that equal zero.
Nobody likes those things which is why we invent more money when there aren’t any left.Let me give you a hint: not wanting to settle for less has exactly nothing to do with zero-sum games. Nothing whatsoever.
writes several paragraphs of white nationalist racism and bigotry totally unprompted across multiple tweets
gets called out for it
“It was taken out of context”
I don’t think this person knows what the phrase “out of context” means, they are just parroting it.
Ask any former employee about just how much those comments were not out of context.
Horman’s been awful for years. She just decided to be publicly awful this time.
We sincerely apologise to anyone who has been offended by online comments that are being edited by individuals and posted on social media about Robinsons
I don’t even see how that could be called an apology. Just flat out denial of the truth.
Robinson’s must be jockeying to be first choice for rusted-on One Nation grandparents buying books for the grandkids their kids would rather they stay away from.
Looks like I’m not shopping there anymore.
This is extra funny considering I bought Piketty’s Time For Socialism from a Robinson’s.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Victoria’s oldest independent bookshop has apologised after its owner called for more picture books with “just white kids on the cover” and claimed that the chain would stop stocking “woke agenda” content that divided people.
Susanne Horman, the owner of Robinsons Bookshop chain, posted a series of tweets in December where she called for an “substantial shift” in Australian publishing, arguing the focus should be in line with public opinion, requests for books and “for what is good”.
The posts – which were shared on an Instagram account – sparked backlash on social media, with some users saying they would boycott the stores.
In a Facebook post on Sunday night, Robinsons Bookshop said the comments had been “taken out of context” and “misrepresented the views” of the company.
“We clearly state, so there is no misunderstanding, that we fully support and encourage stories from diverse voices, minorities and we are most definitely stocking these important topics and the authors that write them.”
The bookstore said it would continue to advocate for “positive hope-filled stories that bring out the best in all our community and make all people feel supported and fulfilled.
The original article contains 363 words, the summary contains 191 words. Saved 47%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Still posting on Twitter -> actual fascist pipeline
I somewhat agree with the sentiments. There’s a monoculture in Australian popular publishing that tends to be reluctant to acknowledge its own existence. Its preferences and peccadilloes are obvious to any switched-on reader. I’ll continue to shop at Robinsons.
