WHAT LITERATURE?
I’ve been writing for publication for more than a decade. I have two books in print, released through an imprint of a large [read: majority white] Christian publishing house, and I am black. My works advocate racial reconciliation and forgiveness from a biblical point of view. My covers feature black faces.
Both novels have been marketed in major book catalogs for both black and white readers: Christian Book Distributors (CBD), Lifeway, and Black Expressions. Yet my books don’t sit in the Christian fiction section at some chain bookstores. They sit right next to the ‘literature’ whose covers feature images of barely-clad black women with large bosoms brandishing equally large semi-automatics.
Needless to way, I don’t take my children to see my books on the shelves anymore. Shoot, I’m embarrassed to even take my mother. Generally speaking, the African American Literature section bothers me. That’s a publishing construct that has outlived it’s usefulness, in my opinion. Good fiction should be good fiction. I’ve written about this before. And should be shelved with good fiction. Unfortunately the AALit section contains precious few works of good fiction. But I won’t get on that soap box today.
STOP ACTING LIKE A SLAVE
Bernice McFadden, author of two works of fiction, is very upset about the positioning of her books on store shelves. In well-written Washington Post article she seems to suggest that the current marketing of African American fiction to only people of color has more to do with the industry and less to do with the quality and tone of the writing. I disagree.
A little while ago a fellow writer Tracey Michelle Lewis shared about her shock over having an elderly white woman from Kentucky enjoying her book about a thirty-something black woman. Her book covers do feature black women (clothed, thank goodness) so I guess on some level having a white woman read your work would be surprising. Will there come a day when it’s not a shock? Who knows.
Toward the end of her post, Ms. Lewis makes a disturbing assumption. In a nutshell, she says that most publishers fail to realize that no one culture is monolithic. Huh? Publishers know what trash looks like. They went to college. But they are out to sell books. Selling books means they can keep the doors open another day. If trash sells, they will not only publish it but actively seek it out. Marketers will market trash to people who have demonstrated an appetite for ‘literature’ that portray blacks as immoral, wretched, and ill-bred cultural parasites. And the bookstores will corral it all in a place so that is easy for black folks to find.
My response: Don’t shoot Massa, yet. Stop acting like a slave.
ONLY FOR BLACKS
Canadian blogger, Laina Dawes blogged about a white book reviewer who dismissed a highly-acclaimed novel about a biracial woman as mediocre. His reason? He couldn’t relate to the protagonist. One question she raised is well worth an answer: Do readers prefer books written their own? One of the comments on the post saddened me.
“I was at a Barnes & Noble and I noticed a table where a black author had set up her books for autographs. Many people walked to the table, but no one walked away with a book. I overheard a couple of white women say, “The book looks interesting. Too bad it’s only for blacks.”"
Too bad it’s only for blacks? Part of me wants to believe that this anecdote is made up but as a black author who has sat behind many book signing tables, I know it is all too true.
Where does that thinking come from? I think it’s a product of this American life. The life that is still fractured, seemingly irreparably, by a horrible history. That history still affects every part of American society. Especially media. Race-based segregation did not go away in 1964 with the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Blacks didn’t create Sambo and his ilk but we sure play into it.
I feel that the sad part of this ongoing story is how some black writers segregate themselves with their writing quality (or lack thereof) and shockingly deviant subject matter of their works. They are celebrated and put on best-sellers lists. Regrettably, works like mine are not.
We are part of the system that is happy with a low standards but demands high sales. What can be done about that?
Gracism is a made-up word. It is defined by Dr. David Anderson, pastor of Bridgeway Community Church in Columbia, Maryland, as the intentional act of extending positive favor based on color, class, or culture.
