The Arrogant Racism Of Rejecting A White Translator In Favor Of Someone Who Is ‘Preferably Black’

A translator from Spain, Víctor Obiols, was recently commissioned to provide a Catalan translation of Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb” poem, which went viral after her performance at Biden’s Inauguration on January 20. 

However, once the project was completed, Obiols said the publisher chose to reject him as the translator because they instead wanted someone who was “a woman, young, activist and preferably black.”