Book cover race row

In one of my other book blogs I commented on the fact that I didnt believe the cover represented the books story well at all. The other day while on the 'GUARDIAN' website I saw an article commenting on this idea. But instead of the cover not representing the story the cover purposely showed a totally different person then that described in the book.                                                                                                      

The book ‘Lier’ by Justine Larbalestier, not yet published in the UK, is about a black woman with short hair and on the cover of the original book was a picture of a white women with long hair, the publicist told the author that this had to be because books with black people on the cover don’t sell well, this is both false adverting of the book and morally wrong and raciest I personally cant believe this happens. Thankfully so many people complained about this as well as the author her self that the publicities Bloomsbury decided to change the book cover to a black women not one that the author had imaged the women to be but nether the less better than the first cover, so if the book ever comes to England we shall not be horrified by the deliberate and obvious racistum.

Thinking about this more however I have noticed that books about black people don’t have them on the cover. At the moment I am reading the book, 'the other hand' by Chris Cleave that is about Jamaican and Nigerian asylum seekers and on the front cover is only a silhouette of a small child either back or white. I am so shacked by this concept, and strangely agree with Larbalestier comment ''If black kids, Hispanics, Indians both Eastern and Western, don't buy fantasy – which they mostly don't – could it be because they never see themselves on the cover?"