YouTuber craftswithannie just dismantled the narrative that the Goodreads Choice Awards are “too white,” and the numbers back her up. In a video responding to Kelly Jensen’s Book Riot article “The Unbearable Whiteness of the Goodreads Choice Awards,” the creator methodically breaks down the actual demographics of the 2024 winners and nominees, revealing that non-white authors are overrepresented relative to both the US population and Goodreads’s user base.
Jensen’s article claimed the awards suffer from systemic whiteness, citing that “just over 11% of the total number of authors who have won a Goodreads Choice Award are authors of color.” The YouTuber counters with the 2024 data: “Out of the 15 categories, we have two black winners, one Indian winner, and one Chinese winner. That means four out of 15 winners are people of color, which is 26.7%.”
