I'm going to push back a bit on this - it's predominantly wealthy white men and women who have dominated the publishing industry (and the arts in general). What you're seeing now is a problematic trend and it goes like this...

We are white and wealthy but we are also just people... we become the DECIDERS of what the industry looks like. We need more black authors you say? Let's have a scout round and find some black authors so we can empower them. At this point, they don't really have to be 'good' in any technical sense of the word, they can just be black, trans, LGBTQ+ or some part of a minority group - because then WE the rich wealthy white people get a pat on the back for being great humans.

This creates a two stage problem. There are excellent writers out there, black, white, gay, straight, trans - but the main disadvantage to any form of creative art is social capital. That can be acquired by getting into the right schools, knowing the right people, and yes indeed by being white (but from a particular group of white people). This means we're mostly hearing from a particular subsection of the black community (at least here in the UK) those privately educated or who are handpicked by those privately educated. You get lots of schemes taken up by those people who were already usually in a position of economic privilege anyway and they KNOW what they are supposed to write, because it's what the white folks want them to write. Some of them also aren't very good

And that's problem two.

If you stage anything by a minority group because it's by someone from a minority group, it needs to be the best damn thing you can stage. It can't be and shouldn't be a patronising pat on the back for taking part. If you consistently let work out because you're skewing the selection process via social engineering then you create a two level system. This will come back to bite you in the ass in the long run - because people will equate minority theatre or minority writing with 'being a bit shit' - when it absolutely isn't... but in their desperation to showcase their inclusively they don't do due diligence we get problems here,

There are three ways to resolve the problem. You ban nepotism and the old-boys network, which disproportionately affects everyone outside of that privileged bubble. You make all work anonymously submitted and you judge on the merits of the work alone and not on the demographic of the author... and finally, all these wealthy white people who think they're being great for being inclusive should be asked to step down from their jobs in the name of inclusion. What we need are minority groups in a position to be the SELECTORS, and they need to select the work that they think is quality because it speaks to them. That's how you level the playing field.

And you're levelling it then for all people. That includes white men who are also disproportionately under-represented in the theatre when compared with middle class people (including minority groups from the middle class). Trying to do it any other way is just race and class based shamfuckery and capture the flag for idiots. Enjoyed this article - still never read a Patterson.