Booksellers know the power of words.

A peek at how one bookselling board is discussing current world events.

Let's take a peek behind the bookselling curtain. I thought many of you would be interested in what conversations are happening in the bookstore space. I currently sit on the board of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA), a trade organization of bookstores from Washington, D.C., to New York. Today, the NAIBA board sent the following letter, co-written by board president Hannah Oliver Depp and myself, to our member bookstores.

Dear friends in bookselling,

Booksellers know the power of words. We understand how words can affect our spirits and change our minds. We understand the importance of using the right words and calling things what they are.

The right word to describe the current federal government of the United States of America is fascist. And, in a moment we hoped would not arrive, we have to clarify that fascism is bad for us. An illegitimate task force is firing federal employees. An unpopular criminal president is shutting down entire federal departments at the behest of the world’s richest man, who became wealthy not through his own genius but through mythmaking and exploiting workers. Republicans across the country are proposing legislation to take away women's voting rights, strip health care from millions of people, and roll back initiatives that helped level the playing field for anybody who was not a cisgender, heterosexual white man.

And they are banning books.

The actions of President Donald J. Trump and his enablers (voters, legislators, and billionaire tech bros alike) have put booksellers, bookstores, and our communities in terrible danger.

We are on the front lines of the fight for free expression. As DJ Johnson from Baldwin & Co. reflected in one of the opening keynotes at Winter Institute, “You don’t have to burn books to stop a revolution. You just have to convince people to stop reading.”

We need to fight book bans because the new administration is targeting books—but they are targeting books because they are targeting the most marginalized among us. Books about queer identities have been stripped from government websites. Books about civil rights have been removed from military bases. They have not been removed just because those books are about queer people or people of color. They have been removed because books have the power to inform, educate, and change minds. They are, in a very real sense, one of the most serious threats to a fascist state.

We do not say this lightly. We say this because it is important to call fascism out for what it is, to let you know that we see what is happening and that we stand with you. You may feel that you’re alone. You may be afraid for your safety to speak out against the oncoming wave of repression, and we urge you to do what’s necessary to protect yourself.

But you are not alone. We are with you, and we have power. As Miss Janet Webster Jones from Source Booksellers said in her keynote at Winter Institute, “Literary life has always been based in movements…. The movements have always been based on literacy.... [We] are the workers that keep the revolution going. The literary foundation of life is where the work really happens for all of us.”

Independent booksellers are going to have a hell of a fight on their hands. Books will be challenged. Our communities will be challenged. And it will be on us to stand up for them and call out bigotry and fascism for what it is, because that is the right thing to do.

One of the glorious things about independent bookstores is that we are deeply entrenched in our communities. Change does not start on a federal level. It starts small—locally—and works its way up. We have the opportunity to make our voices heard in our communities, in our bookstores, in our classrooms, and in our libraries. We can each create a whisper of change, and a million whispers quickly becomes a roar. If we have learned anything from the books we have read—from our histories, and our fantasies, and our fictions—it is that an inclusive, thoughtful, and kind future is possible when we fight for it.

We must use the words we have to describe what is happening and to declare with our full chests: We do not comply.

And we will fight. Together.

Yours in reading, healing, and solidarity,

Nicole Brinkley and Hannah Oliver Depp
With support from the the board of NAIBA

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Here are some action items you can take right now to support your communities:

• Do not obey in advance — rather, as some of our friends have put it, embrace the mantra of “Fuck you, make me.” The administration is relying on people obeying illegal executive orders in advance. They are illegal. They are immoral. Do not bend the knee to what you do not have to do.

• Help inform your community about their rights. Hanging up posters in your store about Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) is a good place to begin. (English poster and Spanish poster.)

• Your voice carries the most weight with representatives, so reach out to them first. Also consider joining 5Calls, especially if you are a business owner.

• Track the bills against banned books in your state and speak out against them.

• Familiarize yourself with the Trans Literature Preservation Project: A Practical Guide to Resisting Censorship.

• Find your local Mutual Aid Network and plug in. They will know what the immediate needs in your area are and how to best deploy collective energy.

If you are in a state where activism work may become risky, keep yourself safe. Here are some ways to do that:

• Download Signal or another encrypted messaging app.

• Create a Proton Mail address or other similarly encrypted email account.

• Use a VPN, like ProtonVPN.

• Begin using Mozilla Firefox for your browser whenever possible.

• Turn off data tracking on your mobile devices and download data-tracking blocker extensions on your web browsers.

• Make sure you know what to bring to a protest. Make good trouble.

NOTE: This letter was shared publicly with permission from the NAIBA board.