Seressia February 11th, 2008
This weekend I’ve been over at Teach Me Tonight adding comments to a post called “Voyage of Discovery” in which Sarah Frantz shares some romance books that she’s introducing her class to. Jane Austen, Jenny Cruisie, Loretta Chase, Suzanne Brockmann are the main books, then alternates could be Emma Holly (erotic romance) or Francine Rivers (inspirational.) She opened the semester with Monica Jackson’s free online read, The Choice.
Did I mention that the class consists of all black women? Kimberly Kay Terry pointed out the need for these women to be exposed to black romances, and rightfully so. Sarah has substituted Loretta Chase with Beverly Jenkins, which I think is a great choice. (I’m not a fangirl–if I didn’t squee over meeting Coretta Scott King back in the day, I’m not going to squee over meeting a writer–but Beverly Jenkins writes a great historical romance with realistic black people doing something besides being slaves.)
Talk progressed well, but there were some assumptions (it’s been a couple of weeks for assumptions–see my whole Super Tuesday post for my thoughts on people assuming things about me because I’m black.) There was an assumption that black people only read books by black authors. This isn’t true, especially in romance. The survey I spoke about earlier this weekend proved that black people do buy books by non-black people. I have to wonder, however, how many white people buy books, romances or otherwise, by black authors.
I admit, I got irritated. This assumption irritates me to no end. The conversation went to people wanting to read about people who are like them (a specious argument, given the glut of paranormals and historicals out there) to well obviously readers are more accepting of other ethnicities in their books because look at all the white authors putting black people in their stories.
Excuse me while I roll my eyes.
Why is it that when people talk about the invisibles of romance, they mention all the white people who are breaking ground and being daring by including black characters? At least they admit that they were supporting roles–hey, we’ve been the all-wise, joke-cracking, sexless sidekick for years. Let me break it down for you:
1. Black romances have been around for more than a decade.
2. The black experience is rich and varied–and so are the characters in black romances.
3. You can’t say that “mainstream” readers are accepting of black characters in lead roles when black romances by black authors aren’t on any bestsellers list. Kayla Perrin and Brenda Jackson have both made the USA Today extended, but I think we can (assumption warning) count on one hand the black romance authors who’ve cracked the top 100.
4. Black romances are not “fringe”.
Sometimes I despair of ever getting my point across. I think I understand why Monica got tired of doing this.