Diversity, media, and racial capitalism: a case study on publishing

This article demonstrates the ambivalence of diversity in the cultural industries, and racial capitalism more broadly. Based upon an empirical study of the production of writers of colour in UK trade publishing, the article highlights how diversity acts a form of racial governance but is also a source of anxiety for the dominant culture. Opening with an overview of critical approaches to diversity, we then introduce the study, based upon in-depth interviews with 113 people, which explores how pub-lishers make sense of diversity, which include moral and economic arguments. While publishers are convinced that both the moral and economic cases for diversi-ty are aligned, we argue that they exist in a tension, which results in mostly reduc-tive outcomes for minoritised authors. But the article also highlights how diversity potentially disrupts the liberal sensibilities of the dominant culture, especially their sense of publishing as meritocratic.