I have always found librarians to be unfailingly helpful. Whether I’ve asked them to add a new title to the library’s collection (admittedly, sometimes those titles were my own), or where I’d find a particular book genre, librarians have leaped into service with kindness and enthusiasm.
But the other day at the Beverly Hills Public Library, I found that some librarians are a little too enthusiastic about leaping into service, even before they are asked. I was headed to the circulation desk to check out several books, but as I passed the shelves featuring new hardback releases, I stopped and stared. Many, though not all, of the new non-fiction titles were political, written by authors ranging from Stacey Abrams on the left to John Boehner on the right. One book per shelf had been selected to face out on a generous vista of open space, beckoning readers to notice them. Every book granted this prime real estate was not only political in nature, but anti-Trump or left-of-center. Where bookstores still exist, publishers pay for such valuable display opportunities.
The books given pride of place were “Rage,” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa; “Persist,” by Elizabeth Warren; “The Room Where It Happened,” by John Bolton; and “Bag Man,” by Rachel Maddow. While Bolton is a Republican, this tell-all by Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor heaps scorn on the former president.
I tilted my head to read the titles on the spines of the other new releases snugly fitted on the shelves and smiled ruefully at the irony of what the library had done. The publishing and writing professions are obsessed with “marginalized” writers and issues of diversity, inclusion, and equity. Several publishers of literary magazines or book imprints have announced they would only accept submissions from people of color, gender non-binary, and other favored minority categories for the time being. Yet these anti-Trump or anti-conservative titles were all written by whites; their privilege had not been checked at the Beverly Hills Public Library.
Meanwhile, no new titles written by conservatives earned any such favored placement. These included works by writers who really are marginalized: Candace Owens’ “Blackout;” Ben Shapiro’s “The Authoritarian Moment;” Dan Crenshaw’s “Fortitude;” and Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s “Prey.”
Hirsi Ali and Owens are women of color. Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born former Dutch politician, is a leading activist against the brutal treatment of girls and women in the Muslim world. It is bizarre and disturbing that her courage in standing up for the rights of females makes her a pariah of the left. Shapiro is an Orthodox Jew, certainly a minority within a minority. Crenshaw, a Republican Congressman from Texas, was blinded in one eye and lost a leg as a Navy SEAL fighting in Afghanistan. No special accommodations for access were made for this disabled American in the library.
Librarians and booksellers naturally promote titles and authors they like, and I have watched with growing frustration over the years as their “recommended” books on display nearly all favor a clear political agenda.
Librarians and booksellers naturally promote titles and authors they like, and I have watched with growing frustration over the years as their “recommended” books on display nearly all favor a clear political agenda. This includes at children’s bookstores. As an Orthodox Jew working in the writing field, I feel increasingly marginalized—the views of traditionally religious Jews and Christians are nowhere sought by publishers. The concern for inclusive language, taught by many editorial organizations and publishers, is fixated on sexuality and race.
This ham-handed politicking was too egregious to ignore. The library is not privately owned; it is a public trust. And so, I decided to take a stand for diversity and equity on my own. I checked the privilege of Bolton, Maddow, Woodward, and Warren and let them rubberneck with the other new titles, even if it meant they’d touch a conservative book. I set Owens, Hirsi Ali, Shapiro, and Crenshaw free to inhale deeply of the library air, facing out.
How I wish I could have been there to see the shock on the face of the librarian who discovered my moment of mischief. It’s doubtful that the librarians will understand the message I left—that their hard-sell of their own political views is unwelcome and inappropriate. When we want their advice on what new books to read, we’ll ask for it.
Judy Gruen’s books include The Skeptic and the Rabbi: Falling in Love with Faith.
