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This happens rather often: people come into the bookstore and ask where the "Latino" or "African American" section is. I then ask them if they are looking for history, lit, whatever. We do have our history section separated by country and we have an "African American Interest" section (non-fiction Black literature mainly) but other than that we don't separate our books based on what the author's race or culture is. I can understand if you are looking for literature by culture; that does make sense and I do think it would be kind of nice (albeit annoying to keep separate) to have a section specifically for each culture's literature. But we don't! Sorry. Now, that's all well and good, but it just gets downright weird when you get a customer like this...
Me: Hello.
Lady: Hi! Where's your Latin section?
Me: [thinking she means Latin as in the language] Over there blah blah blah.
{She leaves and then comes back)
Lady: Oh, I should have said the Latino section.
Me: Well, are you looking for history, lit, etc. Or a particular book? I can help you find it.
Lady: No, just the Latino section.
Me: [Okay...] Would you like fiction or non-fiction?
Lady: Non-fiction.
Me: Okay, so maybe history or...travel?
Lady: Well, jut all non-fiction by Latino authors.
Me:
Basically, this lady expected us to have a section where all the science, fashion, travel, history, EVERYTHING books were that were written by Latino authors. Can you imagine a racially-segregated bookstore like that? I think it would be kind of offensive, really. And wouldn't you have to subdivide it based on country of origin? The term "Latino" encompasses quite a lot of different cultures. And what happens when a Latino woman marries an English guy and has a last name like "Hawkins?" I guess we should also have a "Latinos who have entered into interracial marriages" section as well so as not to confuse people. She wasn't sucky at all and actually rather nice. Just... interesting.
Me: Hello.
Lady: Hi! Where's your Latin section?
Me: [thinking she means Latin as in the language] Over there blah blah blah.
{She leaves and then comes back)
Lady: Oh, I should have said the Latino section.
Me: Well, are you looking for history, lit, etc. Or a particular book? I can help you find it.
Lady: No, just the Latino section.
Me: [Okay...] Would you like fiction or non-fiction?
Lady: Non-fiction.
Me: Okay, so maybe history or...travel?
Lady: Well, jut all non-fiction by Latino authors.
Me:
Basically, this lady expected us to have a section where all the science, fashion, travel, history, EVERYTHING books were that were written by Latino authors. Can you imagine a racially-segregated bookstore like that? I think it would be kind of offensive, really. And wouldn't you have to subdivide it based on country of origin? The term "Latino" encompasses quite a lot of different cultures. And what happens when a Latino woman marries an English guy and has a last name like "Hawkins?" I guess we should also have a "Latinos who have entered into interracial marriages" section as well so as not to confuse people. She wasn't sucky at all and actually rather nice. Just... interesting.
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