Amanda Gorman’s Dutch translater sacked for being ‘white and non-binary’

And what if Amanda was fully involved in the decision and chose Marieke Lucas on account of their experience being the author translated (like that debut novel that won the International Booker Prize ) and because Amanda thought that Marieke's literary style in their own poetry gelled with her own? What then?

I used google translate to read the article from Janice Deul that brought the discussion into the media.

www.volkskrant.nl/columns-opinie/opinie-een-witte-vertaler-voor-poezie-van-amanda-gorman-onbegrijpelijk~bf128ae4/

I've got a lot of sympathy for the point of view that people from ethnic minorities than white peers usually find it much harder to break into publishing, and that this would have been a good time for people to consciously counteract the subconscious prejudices that lead established people in publishing to employ more people like themselves.

On the other hand why would a publisher have approached the author and poet who won the International Booker Prize just last year, was the first ever Dutch author to win it, and the youngest ever author to do so?

Ultimately, if they go with someone else who is lower profile, whose sales and finances might suffer? Who will lose out financially? Well, the obvious answer is Amanda Gorman, whose past travails Janice Deul discussed as part of her argument that Rijnweld was unsuitable.

It is mad and discriminatory. It means a white hetero woman has far more options when it comes to choosing a translator than a black lesbian. I suspect white women may even be able to choose white men to translate stuff without the woke crowd getting involved.
It's not a fecking kidney donation. It's language ability that's needed not genetic matching.

It's not a gender issue. The furore is to do with using a white person but this person was chosen by the author. So they have disrespected a black woman's own view on who should translate her work

www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2021/01/21/book-review-discomfort-evening-marieke-lucas-rijneveld-239781

Interesting review of 'their' book. Religion, loss and maturing.

So, I think it was the fact 'they' are a white Dutchie which might be the issue.

Dutch?

Interesting eh?

The Netherlands have a vivid and rich multi-racial mixtory (in major areas). Like the UK.

What has gone wrong in their inter-sphere/law lands?

So, this is a rough translation. Rijnveld resigned 'themself' after the discussion about 'their' suitability and why a black translator hadn't been used. I think.

Why not a black translator?
According to the publisher, Rijneveld, winner of the International Booker Prize and also young and with his own style and tone, was the right person to do so. Critics, especially from the black community, disagreed. They wondered why no good bilingual black poet had been found to translate the work. They received a lot of support, especially on social media.

Publishing house Meulenhoff initially defended itself by stating that Gorman and her team had themselves agreed with Rijneveld. The American and her team had asked for a translator who felt a personal affinity with Gorman, also in style and tone.

According to Meulenhoff, it was found in Rijneveld because it makes issues such as gender equality and mental resilience open to discussion and works with passion towards an inclusive society.

The publisher also promised that the Dutch translation would be read critically by so-called 'sensitivity readers' with different backgrounds. That didn't help. Black critics in particular kept repeating that this way good black authors and translators will not get a job .

This is Marieke's tweet in English:

I hereby inform you that I have decided to return the assignment to translate the work of Amanda Gorman.

I am shocked by the fuss around my involvement in spreading the Amanda Gorman message and I understand the people who feel hurt by Meulenhoff's choice to ask me. I considered it a great and honorable assignment to translate Amanda Gorman's inaugural poem and her collection into Dutch.

Amanda's team has announced that they are still behind the choice of de Meulenhoff and I thank her for the trust that has been placed in me. What interests me is the richness of the language. I had lovingly poured myself from translating Amanda's work where I saw it as the biggest task to keep its strength, tone and style government.

However, I am well aware that I am in a position to think and feel that way, where many are not. I still wish that her thoughts would reach as many readers as possible and open more hearts.

In my experience, non-binary people expect full inclusion in women's spaces

Yes I've seen this - most women's activities/groups I see ads for now say they welcome "transwomen and non-binary people" - why? That could just mean any bloke at all.

Surely there are going to be multiple instances where translating a book has to be done by someone not of the same ethnicity as the author. Isn't it better for the best available Greenlandic translator to translate a black female author or must they find a black female Greenlanic translator? What about white authors, can they only be translated by white Indian, Japanese or Nigerian translators? It's daft.

This is often just about someone looking for something to condemn someone for - anything, anyone just so they can climb the purity spiral by pointing at another's failure to be woke enough.

Kazuo Ishiguro has spoken about the restrictions inherent in the current fashion for demonising anyone who dares to write from any point of view but their own.

And at the same time they don't want to hear about the lives and views of anyone they deem 'privileged' - which includes most women.

I have to admit, I was actually surprised at her non binary identity actually being a liability for once. I remember not too long ago a non-binary author was shortlisted for a woman only fiction award, and of course she was quite happy to be identified as a woman so long as a prize was up for grabs.In my experience, non-binary people expect full inclusion in women's spaces - there was a piece posted here a while ago about a non-binary mother explaining why she was entitled to join women only mothering groups.

"Luxury beliefs and liberal narcissism innit.

It's no accident that the more advantaged in economic terms absolutely love this shit because it means the focus moves from their huge privilege due to wealth and/or class and is directed instead to race/sex/sexuality etc. Same for institutions and corporations.

There can be lots of performative handwringing and focus on the importance of identity, but nothing actually shifts to help the most disadvantaged and the economic status quo is maintained."

You've nailed it. Plus these culture wars, identity politics etc are so much more fun than the boring work of bringing about real social change and progress around the key issues that actually matter most like jobs, housing, training, childcare. To have the luxury of focusing on these very niche issues in the lofty worlds of poetry and the like is a sure sign that people don't have, and never have had to worry about having their basic needs met. They like things just how they are thanks, just with more diverse cultural products and signifiers like food, music, books etc

It's no accident that the more advantaged in economic terms absolutely love this shit because it means the focus moves from their huge privilege due to wealth and/or class and is directed instead to race/sex/sexuality etc. Same for institutions and corporations.

There can be lots of performative handwringing and focus on the importance of identity, but nothing actually shifts to help the most disadvantaged and the economic status quo is maintained.

In Dutch.

nos.nl/artikel/2370409-marieke-lucas-rijneveld-geeft-vertaalopdracht-voor-gedicht-amanda-gorman-terug.html

Marieke Lucas Rijneveld returns translation assignment for poem Amanda Gorman

This is 'their' twitter.

twitter.com/MLRijneveld/status/1365293135996325895

Interesting how those people born of a particular sex can't win, isn't it?

Marieke has been condemned for not being female (but they are!) for crying out loud, because they identified out of womanhood and go by they/them in English. (Whatever that means im Dutch.)

If Marieke hadn't made that announcement, then they would be that worst of all things, "a cis woman" and would have got condemned for cis privilege at some other point.

By the way, Amanda Gorman is 22/23. Marieke Lucas Rijnveld is 29, according to wikipedia. Do you think anyone has specified the exact age range from which they'll let Amanda Gorman and her publishers pick?

Well, maybe they even have a problem with the translation of works by Amanda Gorman. Was AG AMAB? If not, maybe the gender woo church don't think AG should be translated at all.

Sorry, was so long reading, I cross posted.

Does anyone have a link for any articles about this case being discussed I'd like to get some more info

Oh law, just shows you should never presume anything. Wiki says 'they' won the 2020 International Booker Prize for the debut novel 'The Discomfort of Evening' . Rijneveld is the first Dutch author to win the prize and only the third Dutch author to be nominate.

It says on wiki that 'they' identify as both male and female. Interestingly from Reformed Church family, in the bible belt area of the Netherlands. I'm surprised the gender woo church had a problem with such a woke profile.

Yes, I agree

Would their whiteness have been assuaged if they had the right type of trans identity? If they were amab?