Why Translating Black Writers Matters? This question made us think of all black authors that were neglected throughout the history of the whole world. Get some insights on the topic and learn how you can help.

1. Why Translating
Black Writers
Matters
H T T P : / / W W W.T H E W O R D P O I N T. C O M

2. What is Racism
Racism is the term we frequently hear and use but barely ever
mull over. It is commonly defined as a belief that one race is
superior to another. However, it may not be very precise. What
lies in the core of believing, is a hope that something is true.
While in the case of racism, it seems to be more like blind
confidence in a certain idea. Superiority also does not reflect
this concept in the right way. In broad terms, it can be seen in
many human relationships that involve subordination but it in
no way presupposes disrespect and hostility. It is more of a
two-way recognition of a hierarchy between the subjects. So
what drives racism then is not a belief that one race is superior
to another one, but the inability of individuals or groups to
understand the perspective of others, a failure to accept
equality because of some assumed difference based on the skin
color.

3. Black
Lives
Matter
Movement

4. #BLM
Currently, the BLM protesters are concerned with the case
of George Floyd who was killed by a police officer during
the arrest. It received unprecedented publicity as
witnesses recorded a video of blatant violent misconduct
of a police officer that led to the death of Floyd and
posted it on the internet. The video soon went viral and
has led to massive protests and unrest in Minneapolis
where the situation took place. The main demands of the
protesters are to have those police officers who have
committed ungrounded violent actions against black
people to be prosecuted and their ultimate goal is to stop
violence against black people and have systemic racism
come to an end.

5. #BLM
The movement called Black Lives Matter (BLM) has started as a
hash tag on social media back in 2013 following the murder of
a black teenager Tray von Martin in 2012 by George
Zimmerman who was acquitted in the following trial. A year
later the BLM reached the national level after the two murders
of African-Americans Michael Brown and Eric Garner that
resulted in protests. Since then the movement has developed
into an organization with a wide network across the country
and abroad having loose structure and no centralized
authority. It has been primarily concerned with the actions of
the police who have exceeded their limits of justifiable
defense or their duties in situations that did not require it.
One such horrifying case was the accidental shooting to death
of a 7-year old girl Aiyana Jones in Detroit in 2015 by a police
officer that shook the entire country.

6. Translating
Colored
Writers
Matters

7. The industry of literature in the US including translation and
publishing has always been characterized as predominantly white.
Of course, there were some fundamental works of black authors
such as Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) by
Frederick Douglass, Twelve Years a Slave (1853) by Solomon
Northrup, and The Souls of Black Folk (1903) by W. E. B. Du Bois.
However, for each of those works, there were dozens of literary
pieces written by whites that gained the same or even greater
popularity. More than that, there is a huge amount of works written
by non-English speaking white authors that were translated to
English and are widely known across the US. But the literary pieces
of black written in a language other than English are barely known
to the American general population. It demonstrates that there are
a considerable gap and imbalance in the literature available for the
US readers that also contributes to the issue of racism by fostering
the ignorant consciousness of the white population.

8. Translation of texts written by black authors signifies unfolding
for the non-black society what it means to be a person of color
and providing an insight into the perspective of black people.
Black literature, especially that of non-English speaking authors
is an entirely different paradigm of sense and expression. It
possesses unique poetic characteristics and thematic range
while describing the experience that cannot be found
anywhere else. Thus being the only source of this knowledge,
literary works of black authors outside the US need to be
translated and popularized in society as much as any other
foreign literature.

9. What
Has
Been
Done

10. Hopefully, the recognition of the issue of underrepresentation
of black literature has already come to many organizations and
professionals and there is active work being done to change
the situation. The projects such collaboration between Wave,
Action Books, and Don Mee Choi successfully discover black
literature to the English-speaking readers by providing
translations to the works of unconventional authors as Kim
Hyesoon whose thrilling poetry discovers whole new
dimensions of blackness. With the efforts of Johannes
Göransson and Joyelle McSweeney, the co-founders of Action
Books, a press that is concerned with publishing international
works, the readers on the internet now have more possibilities
to get familiar with black literature in quality translation. The
work in this field is further supported by the Poetry
Foundation, a popular internet resource for literature in free
access. In order to bring to light the problem of the gap in non-
US black literature and the importance of its translation, they
posted a brilliant article by John Keene called Translating
Poetry, Translating Blackness. Another project on supporting
the translation of black literature is Antena Aire that aims to
provide language justice.

11. How
You
Can
Help

12. • One can do it by signing petitions at BLM, Change.org to
support justice for George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, and also
many other similar ones. Each sign matters, as collectively
millions of signs demonstrate the government how huge the
number of supporters is and how seriously the case should be
treated. Further on, one can take part in peaceful
demonstrations in local areas. It is essential not to use force
during them because violence only breeds violence. As the
examples of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi
demonstrate, a peaceful protest is one of the most effective
ways to fight.
• It is also important to help organizations that battle racism
with donations. Some of the charities that need one’s financial
aid are:
• The Liberty Fund
• The Bail Project
• Campaign Zero
• Black Lives Matter
• National Police Accountability Project
• Unicorn Riot

13. TheWordPoint is proud of being multicultural and
multilingual having employees from all over the
world. Essentially, we believe that every life is
important and that any person should be treated with
dignity, respect, and humanism. In our view, the Black
Lives Matter movement makes the immense
commitment to fighting racism and making the world
a better place for all.