Black Like the Ivory Tower

Diversity in the New York Times "100 Best Books of the 21st Century" is skin-deep

Culture

BLACK LIKE THE IVORY TOWER

Diversity in the New York Times “100 Best Books of the 21st Century” is skin-deep

Jukka Savolainen

The New York Times is the most influential tastemaker in the publishing industry. Getting your book reviewed by the Times is a coveted distinction. If the review is good, it will be featured prominently in the marketing. Books that end up on the NYT’s best-seller list will have that information printed on the cover of later editions. For these reasons, it is important to pay attention to the kinds of books The New York Times chooses to elevate as great literature.

In his introduction to the New York Times’ list of “100 Best Books of the 21st Century,” the critic Dwight Garner wrote that “the diversity of this list is notable.” From a purely identitarian perspective, the list is quite diverse indeed. Women and racial minorities are particularly well represented. Out of the 72 books by American authors, 19 (or 26%) were written by a black person. This is remarkable given that black people comprise around 12% percent of the U.S. population. From another perspective, however, the list is incredibly homogenous—especially when it comes to the books by black authors.

Two of the black authors responsible for these 19 books were born and raised abroad but have lived in the U.S. for many years—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria) and Marlon James (Jamaica). Claudia Rankine was born in Jamaica but emigrated to the United States as a child and grew up in New York City. With the exception of Zadie Smith, the biracial British writer, all the black authors on the NYT’s list of best books are “African American” in the sense that they all live and work in the United States. Thus, from the perspective of the black diaspora, the list of best books is woefully America-centric. By comparison, the list of non-black authors is far more cosmopolitan, featuring writers from and residing in France, Germany, Iran, Chile, Ireland, and so forth.

Focusing on the smaller set of black authors born and/or raised in the United States, it is remarkable that only one of them (Paul Beatty, Brooklyn College) was educated at a public university. All the others (93%) attended such schools as Harvard (Colson Whitehead), Brown (Percival Everett), and Williams College (Claudia Rankine). By comparison, “only” 61% of the best books by white American authors were written by individuals who started their careers in higher education at a private institution. Although private schooling dominates both categories of writers, white authors are nearly six times more likely than black authors to have participated in the campus life of a state school. These observations raise important questions about diversity and representation.

First, only one percent of African Americans in the United States are graduates of Ivy League schools. Authors who belong in this category are thus highly unrepresentative of the contemporary black experience. Regardless of race, it is rare for even the most gifted high school students with limited means to apply for admission to private universities. Colson Whitehead, who graduated from Harvard, was born to a family of affluent entrepreneurs. Growing up in Manhattan, he attended Trinity School, an expensive Ivy League prep school. I assume he is an exceptional writer with a unique perspective, but it is a perspective that reflects a position of extreme privilege.

Second, Ivy League universities and elite liberal arts colleges are known for suppressing viewpoint diversity. Harvard was recently ranked dead last for student free speech and open inquiry by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). These academic environments are particularly close-minded when it comes to racially sensitive topics, such as affirmative action. According to a 2021 survey by FIRE, more than 40% of the students at Harvard, Brown, and Williams College reported difficulties engaging in class discussions about affirmative action. By contrast, only 20% of the students felt that way at Michigan State University and numerous other less selective state schools.

The 2021 survey identified only two private institutions where fewer than 20% of the students expressed discomfort discussing affirmative action: Hillsdale College and Howard University. The former is a bastion of conservative thought that rejects federal funding. The latter is a historically black university with a minuscule white student population. Two of the black authors on the list, Isabel Wilkerson and Ta-Nehisi Coates, graduated from Howard University.

Not only are most of the African-American authors on the NYT’s list products of elite education, but a majority (52%) of them are (or, in the case of Toni Morrison, were) English professors themselves. Saidiya Hartman, a graduate of Wesleyan, teaches at Columbia University; Jesmyn Ward, a Stanford graduate, is a professor at Tulane; Kiese Laymon, a graduate of Oberlin, is a professor at Rice University; the list goes on. By comparison, English professors comprise only 19% of the white American authors on the NYT’s list. This observation is important because, in American universities, English departments are places of extreme ideological homogeneity where Democratic faculty members typically outnumber Republicans by 50-to-1.

Critics of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives have argued that the hidden agenda is to include people who look different but think alike. The New York Times’ list of “The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century” serves as a perfect illustration of this dynamic. If we are supposed to be impressed by the list’s diversity, as Garner’s comment suggests, then we should be honest with ourselves and recognize that this kind of diversity goes only skin-deep. It largely ignores black voices from outside of the United States and it amplifies black perspectives filtered through the Ivory Tower. 

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Jukka Savolainen is a professor of sociology and criminology at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He is an active member of Heterodox Academy, currently serving as the moderator of the sociology community of the organization. In addition to his academic work, Dr. Savolainen has authored several essays challenging ideological conformity in public discourse. His prior commentary on racial politics has examined Kimberlé Crenshaw’s false claims about police shootings; media distortions in the coverage of racial disparities; and the lack of credibility in the federal government’s indictment of the Minneapolis Police Department. Professor Savolainen served as the Director of the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data from 2015-19. Follow him on X here.