Dear signers, the photo you see in front of you is the window of the McNally Jackson Williamsburg branch on the evening of Oct. 6th, mere hours before the first anniversary of the Oct. 7th atrocities.
In this window you'll find two books from the Palestinian perspective, Naomi's Klein's Doppelganger (a book that rather than staying true to its proposed premise ends up criticizing Israel), and of course, Ta-Nehisi Coates' new book, which also shows a very one-sided narrative of the conflict. Coates has referred to the conflict as "not complicated," and, as reported in The Free Press, the book "doesn’t even mention the word Hamas—or Fatah, or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or Hezbollah, or Iran—once."
This very disheartening display which lacks any positive Israeli perspective, is there for all to see even after continuous back and forth with owner Sarah McNally. Even though we sent her multiple pictures showing this exact problem, we felt that the issue was downplayed, if not even denied. But pictures don't lie. Nor do our own eyes.
If you visit the database, you'll find additional photos that show the systematic issue at McNally Jackson.
After weeks of correspondence with no results, we've decided to cease it on our end. It is very clear the chain is problematic. Though, as always, when owners do soul-searching and wish to turn things around, we're happy to work with them.
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Speaking of Ta-Nehisi Coates, he was on CBS on September 30th to speak about his new book. He was asked, naturally, about the one-sidedness of his book by co-host Tony Dokoupil.
You can watch the interview here.
Dokoupil is now paying the price (admonishment) for what we thought was a polite, calm interview, raising legitimate concerns. Especially considering Coates' answers weren't factually accurate.
More on the aftermath of the interview in this Free Press piece, which includes leaked audio from a network meeting.
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Multiple stores have failed to engage with us for a month even though we followed up. This will be noted on our "problematic stores" portion of the database as well as in the petition itself.
The stores are: Bank Square Books, Brick Lane Bookshop, Book Culture, Strand. At least for New Yorkers, Book Culture and the Strand are a big hit, but sadly, we haven't seen positive signs. We will start adding pictures to the database when possible, and you're always welcome to submit imgur photos through the form.
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We will be adding a few more problematic stores shortly. Please feel free to submit more through our anonymous form.
Thank you and Shana Tovah.