Inclusivity Statement from Sisters in Crime Chicagoland

We asked Sara Paretsky, one of the tough visionary women who founded Sisters in Crime and a member of our Chicagoland chapter, to offer her thoughts about our organization’s commitment to social justice, Black Lives Matter, and supporting the fight against racism and hate. Please read her thoughtful remarks below from June 2020.

When we started Sisters in Crime in 1986, we were driven by a desire for equality: we wanted women’s talents to be accorded the same attention as men’s. Not more, not better, but equal.

As an organization, our high ideals were distorted because we looked at writers, readers and publishing through the lens of white women. This distorted vision was rightly challenged by women of color. We have as an organization haltingly tried to change our vision, to become more inclusive. The hardest task white people seem to face is to listen when people of color speak to us. Sisters is working to listen, not to preach, but like all white-majority organizations we have a distance to travel.

As the letter from the national board makes clear, Sisters stands with Black Lives Matter, but we need to act, not just to stand. In these days of violence, following yet another extra-judicial murder of an African-American at the hands of police – the fifth such murder committed in the month of May that received national reporting – we need to renew our commitment to listen, to strive for justice and equality in ways that are meaningful for all our members, and to all our readers.

This is a time of terrible grief, terrible fear. I’m not the only person who’s constantly breaking down in tears these days. There is no panacea, but there must be good will, a willingness to listen, to learn, to change and to effect change.

Since we’re mystery writers and readers, the place we can seek to do that lies in our pens and pocketbooks. Tracy Clark, Alexia Gordon, Sandra Jackson-Opoku, Jo McEntee, Andrea Smith, Rachel Howzell Hall, Grace Edwards, Frankie Bailey, Attica Locke, Valerie Wilson Wesley – these are just a handful of the African-American women writing mysteries. Buying their books helps their pocketbooks; reading them entertains the reader and helps broaden understanding. (Consider supporting Chicago's only Black-owned bookstore, Semicolon). Barbara Neely, who died two months ago, wrote books that gave readers the pleasure of inhabiting the rich tapestry of African-American life, and of understanding the pain and fear in which too many African-Americans still, today, 56 years after the Civil Rights Act, endure. Blanche on the Lam still speaks volumes to me.

In the meantime, in the words of one of my all-time favorite white male writers, Abraham Lincoln, With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.