Beyond Blogging, The Unity Stops
May 6, 2008
A recent article in the WSJ narrarated the journalist’s experience at Duke University, one of the many campuses across America where Senator Barack Obama garners an unprecedented amount of support (70% to Senator Clinton’s 30%) that crosses the lines of color, gender and class. “But after classes — and after the occasional Obama rally — most black and white students on college campuses go their separate ways, living in separate dormitories, joining separate fraternities and sororities and attending separate parties.”
Voting for Obama is an easier choice, a student interviewed said:
“When you’re actually trying to change your behavior, you are putting more on the line compared to voting in the privacy of the booth,” he says. “There are millions and millions of people voting for Obama. In no way are you sticking your neck out.”
I was struck by this article because it rather reminds me of the clash that occurs when the topic of racism and segregation in the publishing industry–the romance genre in particular–is raised. Everyone is whipped in a lather, and the trite phrases: “I don’t see color,” “I have friends/lovers/relatives of all different races,” or the doozy: “I just want a good book” are trotted out, despite evidence to the contrary. For a brief moment in the discussion, everyone is on the same page, patting their backs over having raised awareness of the situation and for their perceived tolerance and love for diversity.
Then along comes the “I shouldn’t be forced to read black romance novels” battle-cry, which signifies righteous anger against attempts to make one feel “guilty” (definition: “Responsible for a dishonest act“). The tide turns and suddenly, the participants trot out any variation of the “Author X writes minority characters and is successful” argument. As though ugh, it is your fault you’re not as successful as Author X, stop trying to pin the “blame” on me. The conversation generally dissipates by then, hackles raised and nostrils flaring, the haves pitting on the side against the have-nots. Then it withers away and a lot of folks feel the last sentiment is justified and go back to ignoring the issue.
And this has happened um…how many times? With the same non-result? Yeah…insanity (definition: “extreme folly; senselessness; foolhardiness.”).
The romance genre closes ranks when outsiders sneer at it and it is ignored by the mainstream, yet within, a group is marginalized and ignored. [x]
And dare I even go as far to wonder why sexuality trumps race within the genre? Very interesting how readers and writers will fight tooth and nail against anything regarding non-vanilla types of sexuality as abhorrent, yet crickets chirp when the lack of color (and even non-WASPs)–and no, those fetishized and offensive “savage Indian” romances, billionaire shiekhs, and Greek tycoons don’t count–is questioned. Or a more realistic scenario: no one even questions the “whiteness” of the genre.
I can go to bat with the best of them. If you were a frequent visitor to AAR, you’d see that 99% of my 500+ posts are just about books and reading, so I can never be accused of failing to put my “race” aside to discuss my enjoyment of the romance genre. But I do however, feel obligated to be conscientious about the dynamics that are in play within this stratified society.
One can say that the online romance community makes up a small percentage of the general romance reading public and has no effect on buzz, but the presence of a review quote from Dear Author (a site but two years old!) on the cover of Meljean Brook’s upcoming novel tells otherwise. If this online community possesses readers who delve deeper than sighing over cover models and gobbling romances indiscriminately, readers who are on the cutting-edge of the genre, why is this issue, a powerful issue, deemed out of our hands?
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1.
Sherry | May 8, 2008 at 6:01 pm
I wrote a long and possibly thoughtful post at SB and the software ate it.
Sometimes I wonder whether the inevitable downhill slide of discussion topics on the segregation by race within the romance community isn’t another manifest consequence of the said segregation itself.
I will admit, I’d never read an AA romance before reading Farrah Rochon’s DELIVER ME for judging this March. I’d been reading your column for a while. And while your posts always strike me as intelligent and thoughtful, I approach them as I do any other commentary, with a pinch of skepticism.
After I read and enjoyed Rochon’s book, your words on the difficulties facing AA writers of romance echo a lot louder in my head. I wondered why I’d never heard of her before–and I tend to have a pretty good memory for authors even if I don’t read them. So I went to all my usual sources and searched both the author and the book, and the only thing I got was a picture of her taken by Jane of DA at last year’s RWA.
I’m not a browser. I rarely pick up books that I haven’t heard a whole lot about. This “not hearing about” could be caused by a host of factors, some you have discussed in the past, such as bookstore segregation and selective marketing, etc., but the result is that someone like me has very little idea what’s out there.
(The rise of blogs as a power in romance is a great thing. But it is also a personal vehicle–the blogs tend to reflect their owners and their blogging friends and their existing tastes and preferences. )
Then authors who feel segregated and the readers who feel they have never done anything to segregate anyone talk past one another.
And this is where your Obama analogy comes in. It is easy to pull a lever in a booth, if you were inclined to vote anyway. It is hard to get people to do things differently–browse in an unfamiliar section of the store, write chain bookstore headquarters about segregation–especially when the status quo does not seem to adversely affect them in anyway.
A good author not getting any notice hurts both the author and the readers. But it is an asymmetrical relationship: it hurts the individual author far more than it hurts the individual reader, who might already have a TBR six foot tall and teetering over.
I posted about Rochon’s book at DA and I recommended it in my newsletter. Other than that, as a reader, I’m not sure what else I could do. (The book was very enjoyable, but not quite blow-me-away enough to prompt me to write a whole review and beg Jane to post it, the way I did with Bettie Sharpe’s Ember.)
I think I’m rambling. But I guess my gist is, I do agree with you in that the status quo could and should change for the better. But such a change would require actual change on the part of readers and bloggers. And that is what makes it an uphill struggle.
2.
Angela | May 10, 2008 at 1:27 am
This isn’t an accusation–and hey, I experienced it too!–but I’ve found that many readers expect that first dip into romances authored by black writers to lead to an A+++ book, and when the book doesn’t live up to those inflated expectations, it justifies their canter back to “white” romances.
Which is why a balanced view of the romance genre is paramount to successful integration. One or two books reviewed here and there fails to give an accurate view of the “black” romance sub-genre and doesn’t “force” readers to browse, the way they are so willing to when they walk into a bookstore.
There are many popular romance authors whom I’ve never read, or felt meh about, but I sure do know their names and the names of their much-loved books. Why? Because significant portions of the romance reading community know about them and pass their name along to both newbies and readers who’ve never tried them. Black authors of romance rarely experience that sort of “communal” buzz, even though many authors have been around just as long as the Linda Howards, and Mary Jo Putneys, etc.
When AAR posts their Top 100 romances list, it is perceived by many new visitors and those new to the genre as the definitive list of the best romance novels. It also happens with the RITAs, even though there have been recent mumblings over their worth. I believe it was Monica who said that many, many black romance authors don’t even bother to submit because people have said “I don’t read black romance”–how is that fair and inclusive?
And yes I do agree that blogs reflect the tastes of the owners and their regular visitors, but I can attest that I visit sites like Dear Author, AAR and SBTB, even though my reading tastes can be far from what’s usually reviewed–I enjoy the camaraderie and the discussions. I’m sure those sites have lots of lurkers who enjoy them for the same reasons I do, and are probably open to introductions to new-to-them authors because they trust those owners’ tastes.
In closing, I am a firm believer that nothing is impossible. When I read the books assigned for my minor in Ethnic studies, I’m just so overwhelmed and amazed at how far we all have come, and have hope for how much we have left to achieve.
3.
Sherry | May 12, 2008 at 8:36 pm
I very much believe that too. And then sometimes I remember that history does not always progress in a linear line; we are just as likely to regress. But in general I am an optimist. Perhaps Obama becoming president would be a boon for AA romances, in having such a prominent role model in the white house. I remember reading about how people in Peru would have elective surgery to look more Japanese when Fujimori was president. It would be good enough here if the media would give a less skewed view of black america.
One thing you might want to suggest for AA romance authors is e-ARCs, at least where DA is concerned. From what I understand, DA does not get very many ARCs from AA authors–prolly publishers of AA romances do not think first of a site like DA in their marketing. But that particular crew is very receptive to e-ARCs.
And I do agree with you that having your name talked about and your books nominated for stuff matters a lot–which was why when I searched around on Deliver Me and found not a single review on all of the most popular sites was when my eyes were first opened to everything you’d been talking about.
In my case, it was the opposite. I was binge-reading for Ritas, and had read some sucky titles. So when Deliver Me came up I just prayed it wouldn’t suck–truly a color-blind prayer at that point. And I was very happy that it didn’t.
But I totally see what you mean. It is the burden of minorities everywhere that a person–or in this case a book–is all too often judged as a representative of the group.
My husband once told me that he used to think Chinese girls were all plain and nerdy, because the female Chinese grad students in his department (EE) were. 600+ million Chinese women in the world and he’d formed an opinion on our attractiveness as a group based on a tiny handful.
But he ended up marrying a Chinese. So there is hope.