By Najma Sambul
The owner of a Victorian bookshop has apologised after facing backlash for calling for more books with “white kids on the cover” and an end to the “woke agenda that divides people” in literature.
Susanne Horman, who owns the state’s oldest independent bookshop, Robinsons Bookshop, caused outrage on social media when a series of posts from her X account were uploaded to Instagram by the account coffeebooksandmagic. The post has since received hundreds of comments condemning Horman’s views.
Susanne Horman at Robinsons Bookshop in Greensborough in 2012.Credit: Michael Clayton-Jones
In tweets from early December, Horman said books with “any traditional white family stories” and those with “no wheelchair, rainbow or indigenous art, non indig aus history [SIC]” were missing from bookshelves.
“What’s missing from our bookshelves in store? Positive male lead characters of any age, any traditional white family stories, kids picture books with just white kids on the cover, and no wheelchair, rainbow or indigenous art, non indig aus history,” she wrote.
In another tweet, Horman vowed not to stock diverse books that were “against white Australians” and “[books that] cause harm and make Australians hate each other”.
“Books we don’t need: hate against white Australians, socialist agenda, equity over equality, diversity and inclusion (READ AS anti-white exclusion), left wing govt propaganda. Basically the woke agenda that divides people. Not stocking any of these in 2024. #weneedbetterstories,” Horman wrote.
The comments have sparked outrage on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram, and some users have said they will boycott the Robinsons stores.
“Guess I’m not buying from Robinsons while Susanne Horman is still in charge,” one user wrote on X.
Horman, who has been the owner of Robinsons since 2007, has seven stores across Melbourne, including in Frankston, Narre Warren, Maribyrnong and Werribee.
She has since issued a public apology to staff and “anyone who was offended by the comments”, which she said had been taken out of context.
“We clearly state, so there is no misunderstanding, that we fully support and encourage stories from diverse voices, minorities and we are most definitely stocking these important topics and the authors that write them,” Horman told The Age on Sunday night.
“As a business we will continue advocating for positive hope-filled stories that bring out the best in all our community and make all people feel supported and fulfilled ... we kindly ask everyone to treat all of our staff with kindness and respect,” she said.
Award-winning Yorta Yorta writer and radio host Daniel James said the comments by Horman were shocking and come after a damaging national conversation that took place during the Voice referendum campaign.
“I think conservative culture warriors thought that with the referendum and one tick of the box, they would put an end to progressive social causes around race in this country,” said James, whose book on Indigenous activist William Cooper will be released later this year.
He said there were plenty of books written by white authors, and that trying to “cancel” Indigenous stories and other minority voices by not stocking them was a farce.
“I’m perplexed by [Horman’s] position considering how many books and stories are written by white men,” he said. “The way we change things and get Australians to understand issues facing First Nations people is through stories ... we are in the golden age of First Nations storytelling through books, music, television, and anyone choosing to not stock our books would be doing themselves a disservice, because these books sell.”
Horman said her buying team at Robinsons have noticed publishers were releasing an overflow of similar books with “little variation of themes” in the past two to three years, which has caused what she described as an “imbalance” in the market.
“For one reason or another, we have various categories of books not being written or published in sufficient quantities to meet customer demand,” Horman said. “Some genres are overflowing on our shelves and others are noticeably bare. Positive stories with men and boys as the hero are almost missing from the mix.”
Horman has since deleted her X account due to the backlash.
“People tend to say things that are untrue and can get quite nasty on X. This X account was barely used and had very few followers,” Horman said.
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