"For me, as a Black writer, highlighting Black authors is incredibly important. When I was growing up, there were only a handful of Black authors I read the books of. I wasn't introduced to novels with Black authors that weren't children's books or discussing topics that I was too young for until maybe middle school, due to the fact that I grew up in a mostly-white area. My parents weren't really readers, so they didn't have much of a library. Let's say in elementary school, I was all Magic Treehouse, Little House, and Diary Novels (only one of which starred a Black girl)
Growing up, I never thought about it. But now, looking back, I think it's kind of sad. The only way I saw Black characters were if it was during slavery, in an urban setting, or they were side characters to a story that starred a white protagonist. Most people would be okay with that.
But the concept of a Black person as the protagonist in a fantasy novel was alien to me. I kind of accepted that the only way there would be a story about, say, a young Black witch going to magic school, would be if I wrote it myself. Heck, if I wanted to see a story with a girl like me in it (shy, bookish, nerdy and Black) I had to write it myself or pretend that a protagonist of a book was Black.
Sure, now I know there are far more Black authors than I thought. But the amount of highlighted ones in areas like YA Fiction and Romance, Fantasy and the like are hilariously lacking. Heck, the amount of important Black characters in YA fiction is so few overall that it's sad. I don't see Black characters on the covers of the newest bestselling YA novels. I have to go digging for them. There's no High Fantasy hit sweeping the market with a Black protagonist. If you're a Black fantasy author like me, you've got about a handful of contemporaries. If you're looking for the Black Katniss or Arya Stark, I certainly haven't found her. And that bothers me.
That's the 2000-word gist of my two cents on it :/ sorry for length" - @TSHana001
"@TSHanna001 touched on something that really bothers me with the way that African Americans are treated in literature. "The only way I saw Black characters were if it was during slavery" is extremely accurate. During black history month and whatnot, we would always read novels and literature dealing with black slaves, civil rights movements, etc, and I feel like this is the only context anyone ever sees a black character or learns about African Americans. Black people in literature are defined by how they are subjugated. I think slavery and oppression are /extremely important/ subjects to talk about and to be educated about, but I don't think they are the only ones we should talk about.
I think one of the reasons why this bothers me is because I've never been able to relate to the black characters I see in books and movies. I've never experienced the racism and tragedies that they do, because I've never lived in a place where those problems are prevalent, and I feel as though I've never read a black character who wasn't defined by their treatment by society. For once, I'd like to see a black character who is not a slave, who is not a gangster, or a comic relief or a sassy old wise woman. I just want to see a black character in literally /any other context/, especially in fantasy novels where such contexts easily don't even exist.
There's more to us than institutionalized racism. There's more to our history than slavery. Literature needs to reflect the diversity within a race, not just concerning race." - @ferret-bird
"My mother and father both come from a cultural diverse family. My music and my voice has never been "black enough" because it was so different. I didn't have many black friends because I didn't fit in well with their crowd. I still don't. I was uncomfortable in my own skin throughout my younger years. I couldn't find people I could connect or relate to. Most of my friends are white, which is fine, but there are some topics they just didn't understand. Now, I'm sixteen and I love my brown skin, even if some people don't." - @SmexySinowa
Honourable writer mentions: @CocoNichole @kwesiwoode @RoshlleD @rmcneary
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All About Race
बेतरतीबFor everything race, culture, and ethnicities. Here we share our stories, our interviews, and our aspirations for the future of diverse fiction.
