After today's "Genre Gender and Race A Panel Discussion", I brought the topic up with my teen-aged daughter. She laughed at the concept of segregating books and quipped,"Your 'white' book can't be shelved near my 'black' book!"

While I find the idea of book segregation ridiculous at best, I can see where certain readers might find the practice leads to easier navigation in a bookstore. Even after admitting that fact, I can't help but wonder if, in a situation such as this, the best practice wouldn't be to ask if the benefit outweighs the negative impact? Anyone with basic search skills can turn up a list of titles that meet their 'racial' criteria, either on the internet (before going to the store) or on a store computer- even in the library. So is this really necessary in our organization of books within a retail location? What is the take-away message the market is providing to everyone by indulging in this practice?

As Samantha and I discussed the topic further, I brought up Kamy's reference to her recent conversation and the idea of everyone being 'woman-born'. My daughter grinned and said, "Your woman-born book can't sit near my...uh...wait..."