Candace Owens demanded a public apology from the American Booksellers Association on Aug. 11 after CEO Allison Hill apologized to their readers after the ABA accidentally promoted Owens’ new book “Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation.”
In an initial tweet, Owens said ABA labeled her book as racist and apologized for promoting it. “The is the CEO, Allison Hill, who sees no irony in calling a black woman racist,” Owens wrote over an image of Hill.
In an email sent to ABA members on Aug. 5, Hill explained why Owens’ book cover appeared on an Indie bestseller list instead of the correct cover for a book with the same title, “Blackout” by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon.
“A staff person was filling in on creating the bestseller list while the staff person typically responsible was on vacation. Rather than pull the cover image by ISBN as they had been trained to do, they pulled the image by the title, Blackout, and didn’t realize they had pulled the wrong cover image — same title, different book,” the letter stated.
The error resulted in the ABA promoting the book to hundreds of bookstores.
“They did not check the cover image against the title and author listed. They were not familiar with Candace Owens’ face, so they did not recognize her on the cover of the wrong book. A second employee, new to copyediting, was charged with proofreading the bestseller list before it went out but they didn’t check to ensure that the correct cover image was used.”
The statement continued, “It was a terrible mistake with terrible racist implications. However, based on our investigation and the demonstrated diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitment of these individuals, we have no reason to believe the action was malicious in intention.”
According to Hill, the act of mistakenly promoting Owens book was an “egregious, harmful act that caused violence and pain. One negligent, irresponsible, and racist.”
In response, Owens called on the ABA to apologize for “denigrating” her book.
“I am calling for a public apology from @ABAbook and Allison Hill. It is an act of unspeakable, explicit racism for a white woman to send around an e-mail slandering and denigrating an autobiographical book from a black woman who came from nothing. We cannot accept this racism,” Owens wrote.
On social media, users called out the apparent irony in Owens pointing out instances of perceived racism. “Oh, so you’re Black now?” one user asked.
Another user turned Owens’ demand for apology back around against her.
“Apologize to Ahmad Aubrey’s family for crowdfunding the legal representation to his racist murderers. Apologize to Stamford School district because racism doesn’t exist.
Apologize to the @NAACP for using them to collect $37K because, racism doesn’t exist.
Apologize to Ahmad Aubrey’s family for crowdfunding the legal representation to his racist murderers.”
Another asked, “Oh, are we playing identity politics now? I thought that was the left’s thing.”
But other users were supportive of Owens and claimed the controversy surrounding her book was the work of a “woke mob at its finest.” Many suggested they would flock to buy Owens’ book in response to the backlash.
Owens’ book contends that Democratic policies have continuously hurt and not helped the Black community and urges Black Americans to turn to the Republican Party.
