How Reading Diverse Voices Can Help You as a PR Professional

There are more diverse voices in media than ever before, yet when taking a snapshot of the PR profession, our industry comes up short in measuring up with the larger consumer audience. In fact, in 2023 the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 81.4% of public relations specialists identify as white, 12.2% identify as Black, 2.4% identify as Asian and 11.9% identify as Latino or Hispanic. The journalists we interact with are also a largely white-identifying group. According to a 2023 Pew research study, 76% of all reporting journalists identified as white, while 8% identified as Hispanic, 6% as Black and 3% as Asian. 

I began my career in PR aware that I would be in the minority as a Venezuelan-American woman, and as I’ve continued to progress in this field, the need to amplify minority voices has only grown in my eyes due to our profession being historically white. While others might not see the same need, it should be noted that PRSA highlights diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts as an important aspect of PR. PRSA even created a DEI toolkit with various resources geared toward helping PR professionals become better educated about underserved populations. In my own journey of personal and professional growth, I found that one of the best ways to understand those with different backgrounds than me is by reading. 

For that reason, I created a book list of award-winning and nominated books by authors of color. I set out to create this resource for those at Bospar who have a shared love of reading with the aim of introducing minority narratives. But besides being educational, how can these books help PR practitioners and others working on public relations in a professional sense?

Empathy helps PR pros make more connections

A study on reading done by researchers for The New School for Social Research found that reading has all types of benefits, from stress relief to improving theory of mind, and has “the human capacity to comprehend that other people hold beliefs and desires and that these may differ from one’s own beliefs and desires…Understanding others’ mental states is a crucial skill that enables the complex social relationships that characterize human societies.”

Understanding the mental states of others is not only a skill to be used in our personal lives. It is essential to being a well-rounded business professional. Empathy, in other words, can empower you in making connections with those you might not have been able to previously. 

Reading can improve emotional intelligence

Many of the books in the list are literary fiction, which might be a surprise considering that I mentioned this list is useful for professional development. But interestingly, research cited in Harvard Business Review suggests that while nonfiction is certainly valuable for gaining knowledge, it does little to develop emotional intelligence.

However, literary fiction can open our minds, and the workplace benefits when that happens and employees improve their EQ.

Books can also spark PR pros’ creativity 

Novels can also enable readers to comprehend other people’s motivations, which is quite the superpower. It creates a more understanding workplace dynamic. 

It also can help people think outside the box. Creativity is essential in PR, a profession in which you must find new angles every day to pitch more reporters and develop authentic angles for clients. That skill is also necessary for branching out and working with diverse communities.

And they can bring more authenticity to our work

In February, Bospar had the opportunity to hear from Shaun Saunders, founder of Graffiti Creative Group. He spoke about how honoring Black history and valuing diverse cultures should be a year-round endeavor in our profession. He also said what could make us stand out as PR professionals is branching out from the calendar hook mentality and asking ourselves whether what we’re pitching has authenticity. Can we connect the pitch to a movement and/or data? 

Authenticity can only come from a regular stream of exposing yourself to diverse stories. I feel lucky to work alongside wonderful colleagues who share a similar desire to lift diverse voices and learn from them. In Bospar’s book club last month, for example, we read Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot. During our meeting, we talked about what we learned from the experiences of Black women in the book and realized things we had never even considered before. The discovery of another person’s reality was very impactful, and I think about how my actions affect those around me in my day-to-day life while at work and at home. I also recognized an influx of new ideas and a desire to expand my network. 

Take another step in your professional development. Make room in your life  to read diverse voices. Lucky for you, this can be fun. Dive into any book in any genre you’re interested in. 

Need a little help to get started? Use our book list – with our shortened versions of summaries from Goodreads – to start your journey into the wonderful world of diverse narratives.

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Award-Winning and Nominated Books by Authors of Color

Fiction

• “Family Lore” by Elizabeth Acevedo
  • This is the story of a Dominican American family through the eyes of the women, each of whom has a special gift. Flor’s gift is to foresee a person’s death. So when she decides to hold her own living wake, her family speculates about what she saw in her last dream—but Flor won’t tell. The generations come together to celebrate her life as each of the women tells her own story and shares her gifts.
• “Yellowface” by R.F. Kuang
  • When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song. But as evidence threatens June’s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
• “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin
  • In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.
• “Black Buck” by Mateo Askaripour
  • For fans of “Sorry to Bother You” and “The Wolf of Wall Street”—a crackling, satirical debut novel about a young man given a shot at stardom as the lone Black salesman at a mysterious, cult-like and wildly successful startup where nothing is as it seems.

Fantasy & Sci Fic

• “Chain-Gang All-Stars” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
  • Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far removed from America’s own. Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly popular, highly controversial, profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators, and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.
• “We Hunt the Flame” by Hafsah Faizal
  • Inspired by ancient Arabia, “We Hunt the Flame” tells the story of Zafira, a legendary hunter who disguises herself as a man in order to travel into a dangerous forest to feed her people. The story also follows Nasir, the crown prince who acts as an assassin and is kept on a tight leash by his father.

Mystery and Horror

• “And Then She Fell” by Alicia Elliott
  • A mind-bending, razor-sharp look at motherhood and mental health that follows a young Indigenous woman who discovers the picture-perfect life she always hoped for may have horrifying consequences
• “Mexican Gothic” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  • Mexican Gothic is a 2020 gothic horror novel by Mexican Canadian author Silvia Moreno-Garcia. It centers on a young woman investigating her cousin’s claims that her husband is trying to murder her.
• “The Violin Conspiracy” by Brendan Slocumb
  • A mystery about a Black classical musician whose family heirloom violin is stolen on the eve of the most prestigious classical music competition in the world.
• “My Sister, the Serial Killer” by Oyinkan Braithwaite
  • The book revolves around sisters Ayoola and Korede living in Lagos, Nigeria. Ayoola is a stunningly gorgeous young woman who is notorious for killing her lovers, and Korede is a fastidious nurse who helps cover up Ayoola’s crimes.

Historical Fiction

• “The Wind Knows My Name” by Isabel Allende
  • This historical epic spans 1938 to 2019, illuminating the stories of children separated from their parents while fleeing war. This deeply felt novel is a tribute to both the sacrifices parents must make to protect their children as well as the resilience of those children who must face the unthinkable.
• “The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan
  • This book is about the complex relationship between mothers and daughters, and the inherent bond that’s always between them despite generational and cultural conflicts.
• “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride
  • In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pa., were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows.

Non-fiction

• “I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban” by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb
  • “I Am Malala” is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls’ education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.
• “Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot” by Mikki Kendall
  • Through an intersectional framework, Kendall argues that mainstream feminism has excluded a number of women’s issues, particularly those of women of color, and explores how a number of issues affect women, including the education gap, poverty, food and housing insecurity, and gun violence.
• “Crying in H Mart” by Michelle Zauner
  • A memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity.