The Publishing Race: a debate

Abstract

In October 2020, The Thinker received an open letter from Waghied Misbach as part of a call for papers on a special edition on “Race. Racism. Anti-Racism.” As this letter was about what he termed, “the erasure of black lives” in publishing, I decided to publish the letter and invited Terry Morris from Pan Macmillan to respond in the interests of fairness and open debate.

Terry Morris, in turn, sent the letter to Fiona Snyckers. While Fiona Snyckers send me a response, it was not addressed as an open letter. As such, it has not been published here. What follows is the original open letter from Waghied Misbach, Terry Morris’ response and finally Waghied Misbach’s response in return. Due to publication deadlines for this issue, we have not been able to follow up on this debate any further at this time. The Thinker supports open debate and academic freedom. However, a portion of the first letter has been redacted with the author’s permission, due to the potential for litigation. The Thinker encourages a scholarly engagement of  ideas and does not serve as a vehicle for potentially litigious comment.