White Readers Meet Black Authors
White Readers Meet Black Authors
Your official invitation into the African American section of the bookstore! A sometimes serious, sometimes light-hearted plea for EVERYBODY to give a black writer a try.
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(via Cecily)
Er, this rubs me the wrong way.
Why would I read a book based solely on the color of the author? I like to read and the books I choose have nothing to do with the color of the author. In fact, I don’t know the color of most of the authors I read unless they have a very a last name like “Yang” or “Morelos.”
And it seems almost condescending to both black and white people. Black people because there books shouldn’t be read solely based on their merits, but their color. And white people because it assumes white people don’t already read books from black authors.
No where on my blog do I assert that black authors should be read based on their color and not on their merit. I’m all about good books, well-written books…just trying to raise people’s awareness that there are good books by black writers.
As Carleen said (and she would know best), it’s mostly about raising awareness. Also part of the issue is the fact that most bookstores have an African-American section, and the Af-Am authors get shelved there even though they are writing in a wide variety of genres instead of just being shelved with the other books in the genre.
Kassie,
Where does Carleen say read black authors solely on their color. Why did you assume she expected you to read a book without matching it to your standards?
If you don’t think the race of the author or the characters is a non-issue may I suggest you google the recent controversy over the Liar book cover. The backlash is in part a reaction to the long-standing practice of whitewashing covers. The reality is POC books are underrepresented in the marketplace. A lot of non-POC readers are not reading POC writers.
That’s why Carleen is trying to raise awareness because other readers, obviously not you, mistakenly believe that works by black writers are intended only for black readers. And like you, I don’t read solely based on race. I read a well-written book, and if it’s written by a person of color, yes that’s a bonus because it’s nice every now and then to be acknowledged, to know I’m not invisible.
This, like virtually any discussion that touches on race has from the beginning raised some interesting questions and I think some confusion and I commend Carleen Brice for continuing to try to raise awareness despite some backlash.
What Kassie says has merit of course. None of us would seek out books written by authors of a particular description without regard to the work.
The part of the message that often gets lost is this. Books, and in particular fiction written by black authors is very often marketed differently than novels by white authors. It wasn’t until fairly recently that I learned many book stores (some of them large chains) shelve books by black authors in a separate African American fiction section.
What I learned and what I hope all fiction lovers will come to understand is that when we browse the front table for new releases, or the mystery section, literary fiction section, etc., we aren’t seeing everything we have to choose from.
When an award winning black author like a Toni Morrison comes out with a new book, it will likely appear on the front table and in the mainstream fiction section because she has crossed over and all readers know who she is.
The vast majority of writers of all races are not household names and even many black authors who have established followings and reputations will still be shelved in the African American fiction section that many people (and I’d guess most white readers) don’t even know exists. I knew there was an African American section, but I had assumed that it was for African American studies and I never thought to even look there. To be honest, I thought the books there were specifically written for black readers — which I know sounds dumb now, but it’s true and I’d wager that like me, many white readers don’t even feel comfortable browsing back there. I thought I’d be an interloper.
So you are correct in assuming you shouldn’t have to search specifically for authors of another race, but if now and then you don’t — you’ll miss out and never know they’re there.
I’d also point out that fiction written by black authors has nothing that distinguishes it as different from any other fiction beyond the author’s race. I was actually shocked to see the books in the African American fiction section that were shelved together. It didn’t make any more sense to me than if I’d come across a white fiction section that collocated John Updike, Stephen King, James Patterson, Robert Frost and Barbara Cartland.
Alexander McCall’s No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series (which I love) is set in Botswana and doesn’t (to my recollection) have any white characters. Alexander McCall is white and so you’ll find that series along with new releases and I assume, the other cozy mysteries. If Alexander McCall had been black, it’s highly unlikely any of us would have heard of these stories because his books would have been marketed differently. And as with all marketing — there isn’t a consistent rhyme or reason to it. The reason some stores choose to keep all black authors together, regardless of what they write is that they believe it makes it easier for readers who want to find black authors to find them. I’d say this is an outdated concept that hurts black writers and non-black readers more than it helps anyone.
Carleen’s site and many others are great resources to learn about titles you might otherwise not hear about.
When you recognize that you aren’t getting exposed to everything that’s out there, does the proposition that we need to make an effort to seek out the best in fiction make more sense?
Af-American people have a 200-year old literary tradition in the United States. If you don’t know any of it, ‘Tant pis pour vous’. The rest of us know what you are missing.
btw, Toni Morrison has not crossed over. If you are familiar with her writing, you know that she writes the kinds of books that she wants to read (this is her own sentiment — goolge it). It’s the non-Black reader who has crossed over, and they are better for it.
Wow! I must say that after reading all of the comments above, it is very clear that getting a book written by a black author on the same shelf as other books still has a way to go. My children’s book “Imagia and the Magic Pearls” is due out in November of this year. It will be the first in my series of “Tales From the Mapmaker” Chapter Books. I now wonder if it will be shelved in the AF-American section or will it be placed with the other Children’s Chapter Books for Classical Fantasy(if it is shelved at all). A comment from one of the larger book chains told my publisher that the cover was too busy so they would not be interested at this time. I have wondered if that comment was code for something else since this was something we has focused on after getting some feedback from stores to begin with. This really has me concerned that my book will not get the same exposure just because my illustrations have a darker complexion. I have done test reads with just as many white children as I have AF-American and get the same acceptance. Childern do not focus on if, “this is a Af-american children’s book”, but unfortunately Distributors and stores do. This fustrates me, but by no means will I be giving in to this. As I’ve told my publisher, this is a fight worth fighting. I will also bring awareness to this in my upcoming interviews. So I too would like to think Carleen for raising awareness on this issue. Like the comment above, we should not read a book simply because of the race of the author, but based on if it’s something we enjoy. Maybe one day we will become a society that see’s a well written book, as a great book no matter whom it is written by.