Olympia book stores’ best sellers reflect community’s reckoning with racism

Since the death of George Floyd in May and the ensuing protests throughout June and July, people have been reconsidering their relationship with race, police and justice. That reckoning has boosted sales of books about racism to the top of best-seller lists nationwide, and in downtown Olympia, two bookstores have seen the shift, too.

Browsers Bookshop on Capitol Way and Orca Books, relocated to Fifth Avenue and Adams Street, both told The Olympian that sales of books about racism and efforts to combat it increased tremendously — so much so that customers had to be put on waiting lists while publishers reprinted and shipped out more books.

“All those books ran out and you couldn’t get them anywhere,” Linda Berentsen of Orca Books said about the anti-racist titles her store has been selling. “And people are still ordering them.”

While Thurston County was working through the first two phases of Gov. Jay Inslee’s Safe Start Plan, Orca and Browsers got an influx of online orders for books. Berentsen said sales shot up “10 times” from where they were in January and February. Then after the killings of Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, “the sales of all the anti-racist books went up,” Berentsen said.

Browsers just finished compiling their best sellers list for June, which reflects the increase in demand: of the 15 books on it, 14 are about race and 12 of the books are by Black authors. The number one best seller in June was Ibram X Kendi’s “How to Be an Antiracist” in its pricey hardcover format. More of Kendi’s work appears throughout the list, including his anti-racist children’s book “Antiracist Baby.”

“I think it’s a hopeful and exciting trend that people really do want to educate themselves about what’s going on and how they can be anti-racist,” said Andrea Griffith, the owner of Browsers.

Robin DiAngelo’s “White Fragility,” which was first published in 2018, has received newfound popularity, including landing a spot on the New York Time’s best-seller list. At Browsers, the book was the number two best seller in June and has been back ordered multiple times by the store.

Griffith has owned the bookshop for almost six years and said the recent demand is a new phenomena. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” Griffith said. “This is really one of the biggest moments that I’ve seen since the store transitioned to mostly (selling new books).”

At Orca Books, Berentsen tried to keep track of what books were selling during the pandemic, but was not able to compile the data as the store was in the process of relocating. However, she did say in an email to The Olympian that sales of books about anti-racism, injustice and Black history were five times greater in June and July than they had been at the beginning of the year.

When it comes to who’s shopping for an anti-racist literature, Griffith said she’s had a diverse group of customers come in and out of her store. “It’s a broad cross section of our community — families with children, people of color — we get everyone in the store. But I’d say it’s really wide and varied, we have young people and older people all coming in.”

“One thing that’s really exciting, too: I’m noticing is a lot of families buying children’s books that feature children of color throughout the pages,” Griffith said. “Representation matters and there’s a whole new demand for titles that feature people of color. It Just makes me so happy, it’s really wonderful.”

This story was originally published July 22, 2020 at 5:45 AM.