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Wherein I ramble about books, movies,
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Thursday, March 15, 2007
race relations
As it's ebook Thursday, I'll have a review over at It's Not Chick Porn.
Warning: serious post ahead
As many of you know, I have a book coming out with Loose Id on April 17. This story happens to be interracial, and as such, I'm opening a discourse on a touchy subject. Please leave your preconceptions at the door and let's talk honestly for a minute.
I've heard any number of things regarding multicultural stories. I'm told that a white woman / black man is a tough sell because white women don't want to read that, and black women get mad because there's another brother selling out and hooking up outside the race. Does that make him a race traitor? Why? Well, from a white woman's perspective, I hold no rancor for a white man who falls in love with a black woman. I'm all about the love, baby, however and wherever people find it.
Let me share with you a moment here. I come from a long line of racially intolerant folks just one generation removed from the Kentucky hills. I grew up hearing my grandparents talk about colored people and yes, the N-word, and how they're naturally shiftless. You'd think I would have internalized that attitude myself, but from the time I was a small child, their ignorance enraged me.
I remember being thirteen or fourteen years old, having an argument with my uncle, your typical flannel-wearing, deer-shooting hillbilly. I said to him, "I'm going to marry me the blackest man I can find, we'll have beautiful brown babies, and I will never invite you to my house for dinner." Needless to say my extended family does not speak to me anymore.
As it turned out, I didn't marry a black man. I married the man I fell in love with. Of course, I was six months pregnant with his child at the time, and we eloped to Vegas, but then I've never been one to follow the rules. My husband happens to be Mexican. Does that make me a race traitor? I don't see that I've weakened the white race by my actions. Hell, most of us are too pasty anyway and could use a little infusion of color. The one thing I liked about remake of The Time Machine was how the future race looked golden and gloriously Polynesian. I used to say all the races should just intermarry and breed out our differences because by the time we realize we all belong to the SAME race, the human race, aliens will be hovering over the earth with a giant laser, ready to blow our stupid, stubborn asses all to hell.
Anyway, I'm sympathetic to the struggle for equitable treatment. I feel the black authors protesting that they're pigeon-holed and they aren't getting read by a wide audience like the average white author. That said, I read black authors, not knowing they're black. I just pick out the story I want and buy it. But after hearing the problems black authors face, I made a point to seek some out and buy their books.
Here's the thing that struck me. I ran across this paragraph in one of the books I bought.
To me, the white reader, this feels like a slap. Before I moved, I lived in Indianapolis on the West Side. My neighborhood was predominantly black and Hispanic, and that was fine with me. People who know the area (south of 38th along High School Road) can confirm this. These days, I live in Mexico, so I am, in fact, surrounded by Mexicans, all the time. I'm a minority. I know all about being a minority, but I don't for a minute feel anything like this author describes, even isolated like I am. I don't see it like that. I'm surrounded by mostly kind, occasionally rude Spanish speaking people who are often amused by my efforts to do the same. We're all just people, and all the rest is sort of crazy. It's like fighting because I got vanilla frosting and you got chocolate when we're all strawberry cake underneath.
So I would offer the following thought. If black writers want a wider audience, they should write to a wider audience. Why alienate people like that? I have black people in my books, Latinos, white folks, Asian, and mixed race people. It's how I bring them all together that matters, and that's sort of the point. So to black authors, I say, don't write your stories for black people, making other readers feel like it's a club they don't belong to. Write your stories for people, and people will read them.
Warning: serious post ahead
As many of you know, I have a book coming out with Loose Id on April 17. This story happens to be interracial, and as such, I'm opening a discourse on a touchy subject. Please leave your preconceptions at the door and let's talk honestly for a minute.
I've heard any number of things regarding multicultural stories. I'm told that a white woman / black man is a tough sell because white women don't want to read that, and black women get mad because there's another brother selling out and hooking up outside the race. Does that make him a race traitor? Why? Well, from a white woman's perspective, I hold no rancor for a white man who falls in love with a black woman. I'm all about the love, baby, however and wherever people find it.
Let me share with you a moment here. I come from a long line of racially intolerant folks just one generation removed from the Kentucky hills. I grew up hearing my grandparents talk about colored people and yes, the N-word, and how they're naturally shiftless. You'd think I would have internalized that attitude myself, but from the time I was a small child, their ignorance enraged me.
I remember being thirteen or fourteen years old, having an argument with my uncle, your typical flannel-wearing, deer-shooting hillbilly. I said to him, "I'm going to marry me the blackest man I can find, we'll have beautiful brown babies, and I will never invite you to my house for dinner." Needless to say my extended family does not speak to me anymore.
As it turned out, I didn't marry a black man. I married the man I fell in love with. Of course, I was six months pregnant with his child at the time, and we eloped to Vegas, but then I've never been one to follow the rules. My husband happens to be Mexican. Does that make me a race traitor? I don't see that I've weakened the white race by my actions. Hell, most of us are too pasty anyway and could use a little infusion of color. The one thing I liked about remake of The Time Machine was how the future race looked golden and gloriously Polynesian. I used to say all the races should just intermarry and breed out our differences because by the time we realize we all belong to the SAME race, the human race, aliens will be hovering over the earth with a giant laser, ready to blow our stupid, stubborn asses all to hell.
Anyway, I'm sympathetic to the struggle for equitable treatment. I feel the black authors protesting that they're pigeon-holed and they aren't getting read by a wide audience like the average white author. That said, I read black authors, not knowing they're black. I just pick out the story I want and buy it. But after hearing the problems black authors face, I made a point to seek some out and buy their books.
Here's the thing that struck me. I ran across this paragraph in one of the books I bought.
...wasn't the type to tolerate being around a whole lot of white folks for long. She didn't know many white folks who'd put up with being isolated with a whole lot of black folks for very long, but they hardly ever took into account the stresses black folk go through all the time in the same situation.
To me, the white reader, this feels like a slap. Before I moved, I lived in Indianapolis on the West Side. My neighborhood was predominantly black and Hispanic, and that was fine with me. People who know the area (south of 38th along High School Road) can confirm this. These days, I live in Mexico, so I am, in fact, surrounded by Mexicans, all the time. I'm a minority. I know all about being a minority, but I don't for a minute feel anything like this author describes, even isolated like I am. I don't see it like that. I'm surrounded by mostly kind, occasionally rude Spanish speaking people who are often amused by my efforts to do the same. We're all just people, and all the rest is sort of crazy. It's like fighting because I got vanilla frosting and you got chocolate when we're all strawberry cake underneath.
So I would offer the following thought. If black writers want a wider audience, they should write to a wider audience. Why alienate people like that? I have black people in my books, Latinos, white folks, Asian, and mixed race people. It's how I bring them all together that matters, and that's sort of the point. So to black authors, I say, don't write your stories for black people, making other readers feel like it's a club they don't belong to. Write your stories for people, and people will read them.
Labels: Ebook Thursday
I'm not white, but I don't consider myself black, either. I'm just Erica. I have friends who are all or part of any number of ethnicities but I never think of them in those terms or describe them in that way. I think we've got to get beyond that idea and fast.
The problem with a black coach going to the SuperBowl or a black politician running for prez? That we're noticing! Color should be the least of our concern.
Because I'm mixed, I don't look white and I don't look black. I get away with claiming all sorts of things (and have gotten the "local's discount" in a few Hispanic countries--go me with the shysterness!)
I will not be marketing myself as a black author. Why? I want people to choose my books because the story intrigues them, not because they're sticking up for my half-blackness.
I'm on some loops with black authors who don't feel that way, who want a Black Author section so they know right where to go to support their non-white brothers and sisters. I understand the support/encouragement idea behind this, but I think it's a bad idea. Once you remove those titles from the mainstream fiction shelves, even less readers will find them.
One of my (white, if you want to know) chaptermates had a book out and I went to the store to buy it. I didn't find it and would've given up if she wasn't my friend. As it turned out, she was shelved in "regular" fiction instead of Romance. Separating books by color of author instead of genre of book would be even worse.
Also (holy sh*t, Annie, you unleashed a rant in me!) unless an author is writing "black" fiction, I doubt the reviewer has any idea what race the author subscribes to. ("Subscribe" b/c most of us are mixed to some degree, like it or not.) So the books are reviewed based on the story (as they should be) not the author photo.
Furthermore, I know of white authors who write urban "black" fic, just like I know female authors who write m/m erotica. Point in three words: Separating is stupid.
As for interracial romance in the story itself, I am ALL FOR IT.
P.S.
Not sure if it counts, but Daisy is "mixed"--her mom's a fairy godmother and her dad's a guardian angel. Plus she's getting it on with a human, who has no fairy/angel blood whatsoever. g*
P.P.S.
I didn't marry a black man, either. I always assumed I'd marry a Hispanic man of some flavor. (Spain's my favorite country but Costa Rica comes in as a close second.) As it turns out, no Latin lover for me. (He's white, and has a complex about it. When we first met, he was jealous of me for being mixed. Not a prejudiced bone in his body.)
This is true in my case. I don't know, don't care. Write me a good story. That's all I want or need from an author.
I believe that every family has its intolerant angles in there somewhere - hillbilly shotgun toting uncles included. For the most part, my family is a pretty mixed lot. There is Mexican, black, anglo, Irish, Creole, German, and Native American... all kinds of ethnic flavors mixed up in there. It's something that sort of blends with you as you grow, it's a part of you that you never really think about - at least until someone blatantly points it out to you.
I feel the same way when reading fiction. The written world is a varied place. I don't want someone pointing me out when I'm reading a book like that author's excerpt did. If a book is what I'm looking for - paranormal, historical, contemporary, horror etc. - I read what's there, with the characters in whatever color the author pens them. Life is change. So is reading.
Finding cultural differences in a written work is part of the reading experience; however, an author can choose to address this in one of two ways. They can either make a statement by emphasising and pushing those cultural differences. Or they can mention them in a way that is personal and intimate, yet open to others who might not have experience with it. There are times and instances either way may come into call, but I feel it's an author's responsibility to use this wisely.
Authors who choose the "in your face" method about anything regarding race or religion should expect a certain number of people to feel cut off, and even like they've been slapped - as you said, Annie. They shouldn't be shocked to find they are only read by a certain demographic. They are alienating themselves from potential readers.
On the other hand, there are authors who know how to take cultural differences, and boil them down for everyone to expose the root human condition that makes these stories transcend race and religion. Those are the books written for everyone. And if you'll notice those are the ones that end up with a broad readership.
The thing that I keep turning over in my mind is: I've read over and over again how black authors (who market themselves as such) want to be un-niched and just read by anyone. I can understand that and get on board with it. But some don't ever write anything but black characters.
Okay, well, that strikes me as limiting, but whatever. They will go on to say there's no reason white folks can't read about black folks, we all have the same wants, needs, and desires. Again, I can get on board with that. Where I part ways with this is when the books I buy says to me: "I don't really like white people but I sure would like for them to buy my books."
Okay, no. Black authors don't have to write anything but black folks and I'll read the stories, if they appeal to me, but I don't want to feel such hostility radiating from the book, you know?
People fall in love with whoever they do. That's why we see so many mixed couples roaming around today, and I say more power to em. If I see an Asian woman with a white man, that doesn't mean some poor white woman will die an old maid.
I agree with Erica who said we need to stop seeing color like that. In fact I don't.
PS The cover art on that link is spank-my-ass sexy. I like interracial romances myself.
kc
If only it were that simple. It is for me. Give me two people of any race/religion/etc believable chemistry and entertaining conflict and I'm in!
But while on one hand there are black authors who want un-niched, recent market proves there are many eager to ride the wave of the niche.
Harlequin Kimani Press, anyone? Black authors, black characters.
I first read the guidelines and thought, "Whoa, that'd be the day an imprint clearly stated: okay you white gals, get in there and pen us a nice wonder bread story"
Then I read the guidelines for the 5-6 imprints within Kimani and it got almost funny. Absolutely no swearing, premarital sex, drug use, relationships outside of the primary relationship etc. etc.....doesn't even sound to me as though they want 'people' they just want 'black'
I know all the Harlequin/Sil guidelines are stringent enough to be comical, but really, this is BAD.
I adore this line, Annie. So, so true and so beautifully stated!
I am about as white-bread as you can get (my ancestry is Northern European mutt). Like you, I married a man of Mexican ethnicity (although he's American, not a Mexican national, and I speak more Spanish than he does--long story). I have gorgeous, light-brown children with dark brown eyes that melt my soul.
When I was younger, though, I used to say I wanted to have one baby with a man of each ethnic group because, honestly, I think the more distant the parents' gene pools, the better looking and smarter the kids turn out to be.(And this explains why Erica is so lovely AND so smart!)
I had two au pairs from South Africa. One was Zulu and one was "colored" (she had African, Indian, and European ancestry in unknown proportions). Their take on "race" was very interesting and very different from Americans'. They both had fascinating insights that I'd love to share but it would take way too long here. Suffice it to say that, despite a history of recent and institutionalized racial inequality, they were much less race-conscious than most Americans I know of any stripe.
I am of mixed race too. Like Erica, I don't look like anything and I look like everything. I've seen good and bad treatment all over the country for that. It's just the way it goes.
And, like her, I will not market myself as a black author. As I've said many times before, unless an author *says upfront* what color their skin is when they submit a book or attaches a picture, there's no way for an editor or agent to know. With a few exceptions, I can't imagine why they'd care.
What you read in that book is a slap, Annie. It's dismissing someone else's experience because it's "not as bad as mine". As if being uncomfortable or made to feel that way is ever a good thing. It's a "my pain is greater than yours" statement and it just doesn't make any sense.
FWIW, my husband's Cuban. Well, Cuban American. I say bring on the interracial romances. I've written some. I'm waiting for Harlequin to give us a line too. ;)
Sara, I don't want anybody to stop talking about this. I want to know what people really think.
As for mixed race...well, Jacq, I have wonderful, smart, adorable children. I know what you mean about the heart-melting dark eyes. Here's my son, around a year old.
Look at those curls. We called him Boucles (Spanish for locks or curls). I cried when I had to cut them off cos he was starting to look like a girl. How can anybody look at children this beautiful and see something wrong?
My oldest also had really cute curls at that age, which I refused to cut off even though he was often mistaken for a girl. He was really so pretty until he was about three years old, I swear I could've tatooed "I'm a boy" in bright red letters across his forehead and people would still have congratulated me on having such a beautiful daughter! (Too bad I don't have any electronic versions of the photos of him at that age to prove it.)
I truly look forward to the day when there is no "race," just people. And my mother used to say that what the world needed was a good invasion from outer space to show us we're really all more alike than different. I think she just figured humans would never get our act together without outside help!
I think you can extrapolate this to encompass cultural values, as well. Children of interracial marriages tend to become tolerant, sensitive adults who bring the best of both cultures to bear in their lives.
Coming from a country that has "institutionalized multi-culturalism" I can tell you, there's much to be said for the idea of a melting pot. Encouraging immigrants to maintain their own cultures to the exclusion of everything else only leads to voluntary segregation. Entire neighborhoods devoted to one ethnic group abound in the suburbs of Canadian cities--IndoCanadians, Chinese Canadians, Native Canadians, Canadians from Africa and the Middle East. And yes, those with European ancestry, as well. This does nothing to promote understanding and tolerance between these peoples. It highlights those things that make us different from each other, and dismisses all the things we have in common as human beings.
As far as I'm concerned, the sooner we reach the point where we're all having beautiful, light brown children, the better off the human race will be--genetically and culturally.
It's inherently reassuring that there are still people willing to be the lone black face in a neighborhood of whites--or South Asians, or Hispanics, or Arabs. Or the lone black author on a shelf of white ones. It gives me some hope that one of these days, we'll all just get over it.
This hullaballoo over race relations? Like a foreign tongue to me. Or like I stepped into a time machine and somehow found myself 100 years in the past.
Or maybe I'm from the future Annie envisioned, and all the differences of my ancestors have been bred out.
Let's see ... a bit of southeast Asian mutt (specifically Pacific Islander, mostly Filipina, but no telling what else), some Spanish, some English and German from a generous American soldier mutt. Yep. At least four parts in the mix. I've got so much DNA in me, I might well be on my way to being The Fifth Element personified.
Some of my cousins have other parts in their mix -- black, white, yellow, pinks, grays. I wouldn't be surprised if there were plaids and paisleys, too. And a couple of my aunts have adopted other races -- long before Angelina Jolie invented the concept.
Oh, yeah, and my fiance is Irish with a Czech name and a German upbringing. Our favorite foods are Japenese, Thai, Italian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Middle Eastern, and heck ... never mind. We both like everything, and with me being a super mutt, every "new" food he has ever introduced me to is somehow a lot like the food I grew up eating ... because even the foods of my family are mutts -- a mix of Asian, European, and American foods. It also helped that my father was a chef.
But I never had labels for these things. Everything just was. I guess I lived in a Star Trek world.
The point is ... I've kind of grown blind to discrimination. I don't really see it happening to other people. I don't even see whether or not it happens to me (most of the time, anyway; there WAS one time in South Korea, and another time at a Veterans' get-together). So, really, the entire discourse is kind of lost on me, and I have a hard time taking the issue seriously. What? People discriminate? No way.
However, I do notice bits of silly profiling here and there used for marketing purposes. I hate it when I get junk mail in Spanish because of my last name. I don't even speak the language. I speak French!
Come on!
Anonymous, you make some excellent points. I wish I had some hybrid vigor, particularly now.
Encouraging immigrants to maintain their own cultures to the exclusion of everything else only leads to voluntary segregation. ... This does nothing to promote understanding and tolerance between these peoples. It highlights those things that make us different from each other, and dismisses all the things we have in common as human beings.
This is so, so true. I've noticed in Mexico City, there is less of this than in the states. I can think offhand in the city of two zones that are like, "Little" Something. Polanco has a strong Jewish and Middle Eastern community. Santa Fe has a large Anglo population. Other than that everyone seems to be mixed up pretty well. I don't mind being the only blue-eyed person in a crowd.
I don't believe that having segregated neighborhoods is an entirely bad thing for understanding and tolerance of different cultures, so long as there is a good flow of different people in and out, openly learning or sharing.
There is one good thing about immigrants maintaining their cultures, and it is that their kids and grandkids can better understand where it is they come from.
My fiance is always on me about how I have no culture and how I don't understand what little traditions my family has. It took him introducing the different foods and cultures to me for me to fully understand my own genetic and cultural makeup.
I see it as mostly learning your history, though -- sort of like mapping out your family tree and noting all the different grafts.
As for the cover ... yep, that would be me. :)
I am not an intolerant person. I love talking with people different from me. I hate it when people hold being white against me, because I sure as hell don't hold their skin against them.
You shouldn't be proud of anything you are born with, race, money, whatever. You should be proud of what you acomplish.
That's a quote from somebody over on Karen Scott's blog.
Do you guys agree with that? Is it accurate? I always thought racism is racism. She's talking about it on an institutional level, like there's a central board that makes sure minorities are mistreated and discriminated against, and it's run by the white man / woman.
That said, there are still, even in enlightened Canada, instances of institutionalized racism against minorities. Recently, it came to public attention that a provision in federal social services regulations prevents the release of funds for aboriginal children in trouble unless they are taken into provincial care. That is, if the provincial government doesn't take a troubled status-holding native child from his or her parents, that child doesn't qualify for federal assistance. This is freaking ridiculous, and measures are being taken to change it.
Other problems have recently emerged now that we live in more progressive times--many chinese Canadians are seeking restitution over the discriminatory "head tax" that Chinese immigrants had to pay in the early 1900s. The trouble is that such cash grabs--especially when most of those who paid the tax are now deceased--only penalize governments that are progressive enough to end unfair treatment. Imagine if every black person descended from slaves in America suddenly demanded a cash settlement from the government over the suffering of their ancestors. I believe in helping minorities through grants, scholarships, incentives and even sometimes, reverse discrimination. But there has to be a limit.
And regardless of whether institutionalized racism exists in North America, no one can tell me that a lone white person in a neighborhood of blacks or hipanics or asians or muslims can't experience racism there because the white guys are in charge of the government. In many schools in Canadian cities, minorities are the majority. Feeling like an outsider is becoming more common among white, Canadian kids all the time--and the problem is only exacerbated when minority groups are encouraged to only stick to their own kind, as is so often the case.