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…