Dragging Out The Soapbox: Being Black in Romance Fiction

Various blogs are discussing the issue about racism in the black romance industry and acceptance of black romance in the mainstream romance fiction world. Since I'm still waiting for my registration password to appear in my mailbox, I decided to post my response on my blog (forgot I had just created this time-eater).

BLACK SEGREGATION OF ROMANCES IN BOOKSTORES

I don't think the problem of segrating is a simple cut and dry issue of racism or maybe I should couch that term as classic racism. I say classic because if you were to accuse anyone, regardless of their race, he/she would violently deny being racist. But if you start examining their thought process and where their thinking originated, it is sure to be traced back to prejudices that they didn't even know existed.

I think there are several vantage points that we need to consider for the topic of book segregation. There is the bookseller POV which is purely dollar motivated. Can I get maximum return on my investment when I put black books in the black section? There is no social pressure to force them to do otherwise. And authors screaming about it won't be enough for the nudge. It's all about money, so you need 3rd party involvement. The publishers have too much of an incestuous relationship with the big chains to risk anything for a small percentage of their authors. 3rd party involvement would mean celebrity, library associations, universities etc. to make the difference because it would take a spokesperson with economic value to warrant face time with our fickle media.

There is also the black reader POV, which is divided. But there is a vocal percentage who like being able to see the big white-owned bookstores acknowledging black literature/fiction despite that recognition means two to three bookcases. These readers don't have a political agenda. They simply want to be able to come into a store, get their books and go on about their business. Nothing personal to anyone.

Likewise you have the black reader who wants the books to be placed with the others in as part of the respective genre. But these (and please forgive my non-survey, non-scientific estimates) readers have been educated, probably by the authors they read, about what the downside is to such segration.

Then you have the authors who, again, can be split into the same two camps. For me, I'm greedy. I want my book in both sections. I'm here to make money. I have dreams and lifestyle that require a certain income. And I see the segregation of my books as a rubberband on my income potential. So my strategy around it is to write in both markets, whether it's under another name or my name. Everybody seems to be in it for the money, but I'm suppose to be in it for what, pray tell?

On the other topic: Acceptance of black romance in the general realms of romance fiction.

This is another tough subject. In our own community, we face criticism for even writing about romance. Then we face those (sad to say, even from black snobs) who think our black romances can't hold a candle to white romances. And no amout of blogging, chats, workshops, conferences, are going to change their minds until their personal friend gets published and they dare to open a book and have an A-ha moment.

And really, are they worth the dollars necessary to change their minds in the form of advertising and other publicity - NO!

Then we have again in our community, black romance readers who feel that you haven't paid your dues until you've reached a certain number of books or received a certain number of accolades. I've run into quite a few of those at some conferences. But that's easy, I don't go and thus, cut off spending my hard earned money to be ignored. For the new writers, this is tough. For the midlist writers, this is tough. But they are worth spending the dollars to convince, otherwise, because it's a case of eventually they will buy the book.

For the white romance community, as the topic is addressing - it's their house. They built, furnished, renovated this hellafied mansion. Then we, black authors, came along and tried to work outside of the big house, but those small presses folded within five years. It wasn't until the white publishers decided to build that extension onto that house and invite the black and latinos in did the landscape change. But it wasn't an inclusive plan from the beginning. It was always the noticeable, not so pretty, extension to side of the house for those books, and so the multicultural tag came into existence.

Change and acceptance in this country (a capitalist attribute) is based on monetary value. And many see the genre as thriving before we, black authors, got there and thriving whether we are still here or not. I thought that when Arabesque started its rollout in the early 90s that it would have created a wave of competitors with the likes of Harlequin, Avon, St. Martin's etc., producing the same number or more titles.

But instead what we have is a slow drip from many houses. So if the publishers are showing restraint toward our economic value- I'm sure our advances are lower than our white counterparts and our print runs are lower than our white counterparts, the bookseller, reviewer, fellow white author, reader of any persuasion will also show restraint.

And, BTW, I'm only joking that I'm greedy because what I expect as a monetary exchange for my talent isn't greedy. Suzy Q (white author) writes her book and doesn't deliberately decide that she is going to market to the whites only. But nevertheless she manages to capture both white and willing black readers with her advertising dollar. When I write, I don't market to the blacks only, but the effort required to gain both readers is costing me a fortune in time and money.

Damn - I was suppose to be in a cup is half-full mood.

Michelle