Reading While Black

I don’t have TV so I’m getting my news from the internet, but between the murder of Jessie Davis, the murder-suicide of wrestler Chris Benoit and his family, and the murder of Christopher Vaughn’s family by Christopher Vaughn himself, things are getting crazier and crazier in America.

And all I want to know is:

Where is Stepha Henry?

Why is Genarlow Wilson still in jail when Paris Hilton catwalks free after a circus that kept her out of jail?

RACIALICIOUS.COM 

Generally, I am a Liz Carlyle fan. She has one of the most distinct, delicious voices in historical romance and has made a mark in the Regency Historical field for imbuing the sort of darkness into the Regency one tends to see in the Victorian era. Granted, outside of her great “historical” voice, her books seem anachronistic (come now, what are the odds of a female child psychiatrist existing in Regency England?), but as with Elizabeth Hoyt, the ability to sweep me away with the story can trump historical accuracy.

Partially through NLTaL, I’m experiencing the same reaction that caused me to skip over Carlyle’s Sins,Lies & Secrets trilogy: deja vu. I’ve seen this before in a novel by Liz Carlyle: the dark and dangerous hero, the often sexually-liberated heroine, a suspense plot mostly set in be-fogged Regency London (though 1828 is stretching that setting quite a bit), a dissipated sibling, and a cast of zany family members, associates and friends. Perhaps I’ve grown hard to please in my admittedly short tenure of reading romances, but I’m left wanting thus far. Oh, Carlyle still delivers the searing sexual tension, the cutting wit,the well-plotted suspense sub-plot; however, I wonder if she would be hard-pressed to bring something “new” to the table.

Despite the sense of deja vu, Never Lie to A Lady is an enjoyable and refreshing to read when looking at the ratio of bland, interchangeable historical romances to unique, or at least unique-sounding, historicals that have been released within the past year…

Last week I did a Wal-Mart run to see if they had Liz Carlyle’s latest in stock and was floored by the transformation of the books & magazines department. I’d already known about Wal-Mart’s change in policy back in April and witnessed it a month or so ago when they’d chucked a lot of the African-American section to focus on the best-selling authors, but now, the section has completely changed. The entire African-American section is gone, replaced with books in Spanish. The romance section has been pushed to the back of the aisle and sf/f is now featured prominently beside the racks of mainstream best-sellers. YA & children’s books are facing the outer aisle, and where the African-American section used to be, prior to the store moving it beside the magazines, is where the Christian fiction and non-fiction is hosted.

It was already bad enough that only Wal-Mart’s in “urban” areas hosted an African-American section in their book department, but now it appears they are no longer stocking the books if they aren’t selling. And they weren’t. The section was always full, so I agree with the business decision. However, I am forced to buy online because the Borders and B&N in my city are in the wealthier suburbs–mostly white–and rarely update their stock of  African-American fiction and literature.

This is bad news not only for those who depend upon Wal-Mart for their new releases, but for the mainstream audience black authors hope to attract. It is especially damaging to black authors since a great portion of their audience is not online. This creates an even more arduous up-hill battle for black romance authors when the online romance community stubbornly resists integrating their reading choices.

So what to do?

Courtesy of Crunk & Disorderly comes MTV’s Dances From Tha Hood!

Now, instead of being a wallflower, wishing you knew the latest dance moves, MTV can show you how to Walk It Out, or do the Chicken Noodle Soup, or dance with your Aunt Jackie!

BET and the Po Black Man (now owned by Viacom, who owns MTV)

Young African Americans Against Media Stereotypes

How to Put on a Minstrel Show (old text from Google Books)

Courtesy of Salon.com