American Greed: Who Enabled Cummins?

You may have read my negative review of Jeanine Cummins’ novel American Dirt. I wanted to follow that piece up with a discussion of how such a book can come into being.

First of all, let me reiterate. There is nothing wrong with a non-Mexican writing about the plight of Mexicans. What’s wrong is erasing authentic voices to sell an inaccurate cultural appropriation for millions. And believe me, Jeanine Cummins gets SO MUCH wrong. Read Myriam Gurba and David Schmidt for the receipts.

In the case of American Dirt, I blame Cummins’ enablers:

• Flatiron Books (the imprint publishing the book)
• Macmillan (the parent company underwriting publicity)
• The New York Times and other major outlets (that printed fawning pieces)
• Kirkus and other journals (that gave it starred reviews)
• Oprah Winfrey (who selected it for her influential book club)

Now, make no mistake: we Chicanx and Mexican people have been speaking out the last few days about the pre-ordained crowning of American Dirt by the trifecta of publisher, press, and popular personalities as the novel about the border crisis.

But are they listening? Do the voices of the “faceless brown mass” actually matter to them?

Oprah in particular ought to keenly understand the danger of someone NOT from a particular community of color making herself rich off a melodramatic caricature of their pain.

Of course, Bob Miller — the man behind Cummins’ million-dollar stereotype-ridden appropriation — also acquired Oprah’s What I Know for Sure, so I can only imagine what backroom deals prompted this continued fêting of American Dirt. If you don’t know him, Miller began his career at St. Martin’s Press, later working at Delacorte Press. He then founded Hyperion for Disney in 1990, serving as president and publisher until 2008, when he moved on to HarperStudio at HarperCollins. Jumping ship, he took over control of Workman from its founder Peter Workman before moving on to create the Flatiron imprint with Macmillan. Miller has acquired some big titles, among them Promise Me, Dad by former Vice President Joe Biden.

Jeanine Cummins, interestingly, also worked in publishing for a time. After moving back to the United States from Ireland in 1997, she got a job in sales at Penguin. She was soon able to parlay that sales position into a…