Has the DEI Backlash Come for Publishing?
In July 2020, Lisa Lucas was hired as the publisher of Pantheon and Schocken Books, prestigious imprints of Penguin Random House. She was the first person of color to hold the post. Black Lives Matter was resurgent after the murder of George Floyd. Demand for books by Black authors had spiked. Publishing employees had organized a day of action to protest the industry’s ongoing “role in systemic racism.” Publishers, compelled to act, released statements, hired more diverse staff, and acquired books by writers of color. Two years later, Lucas anchored a feature essay in The New York Times about the changes in the industry. Maya Mavjee, Lucas’s boss, was quoted as saying, “It’s extraordinary how much she’s managed to achieve in such a short time.” But on May 20, 2024, Lucas was let go. The move, Mavjee wrote in a memo to employees, was “necessary for our future growth” (at the same time, Knopf’s publisher, Reagan Arthur, was also laid off).
To many in publishing, Lucas’s rise and fall has become the most revealing example of how quickly efforts at diversity in publishing can be rolled back in the name of economic realities. The TV writer and novelist Kashana Cauley responded on Bluesky to Lucas’s ouster that it was “like watching a serial killer work. The George Floyd era is over and it’s amazing how many people don’t want us around.” Lucas herself posted on X, “The only hard part is what I meant … to Black writers.”
The gains in diversity in recent years were real, and unprecedented. One of us—Richard—published a study in 2020, “,” showing how many more white authors of fiction than authors
