I’d been thinking about interracial romance over the weekend, while I was trying to draft a section for The Book (OMG The Whole Genre?!) {that’s a working title, obviously} that examined minorities in RomanceLandia. What a verdant, green – or white, perhaps – pasture of peaceful writing that was. Not a landmine in sight for my clodding feet to trip on. No, no. *head desk* So when a friend of mine forwarded me a news article that Mildred Loving, the Black woman whose marriage to a white man overturned laws against interracial marriage died today at the age of 68, I had to think how different the world is in 2008 vs. 1958. Before I move on – our condolences to her family. I always thought it was unspeakably awesome that the name of the court case that declared laws restricting marriage on basis of race unconstitutional was called “Loving v. Virginia.”
Since I count among my neighbors several interracial couples and families, I have been spoiled with an experience that indicates interracial marriage as something that’s somewhat common. As the friend who forwarded me the article said to me over email, I’m nuts if I think that’s the rule across the US. It’s certainly not the case in romance – interracial couples in romance novels are still somewhat rare, though there are more of them of late. One writer of bestselling awesomeness told me recently that many romance writers, including herself, would love to write a romance that crosses racial lines – but those books are difficult to get into publication from established print romance publishers. In the e-format, there’s a more vigorous supply, but then, the “e” in romance is the one area that does tend to push the boundaries of the genre a little bit harder, giving the “nudge nudge” a more diverse meaning. Samhain has an entire section of interracial titles, featuring white heroes and Black heroines, and vice versa—and hero/hero, as well, so clearly someone or many someones are shopping for interracial romance specifically.
On one hand, it’s difficult to ask the right question. Would the presence of an interracial couple stop someone from buying a romance? (Would it stop me? Nope.) Is interracial romance solely the domain – and by domain I mean “located in the bookshop section” – of Black romance, because the minute one half of a protagonist pair is Black, the book moves toward Black Romance as a subgenre marker? Speaking solely for myself, I’m curious why interracial romance appears to be mostly found in epubs, small presses, erotica, or within Black romance publishing lines. Brenda Jackson has written several for Silhouette Desire, but those seem to be an exception among the backlist of series romance – and yet another reason how the dismissed-as-staid category romances can sometimes not just push but shred the envelope of boundaries every now and again like nothing else.
I’m also curious whether it’s a target people shop for, a type of storyline that some really enjoy the same way I am a total and complete sucker for a certain plotlines, including one that is too embarrassing to mention. If people shop deliberately for interracial romances, then why aren’t there more of them in mainstream romance (unless they’re there and my Google-fu has failed me)? Is there a difficult barrier towards publication of a romance that takes place across cultural and racial lines? And what counts as interracial, anyway? Does a Black woman and a Middle Eastern man count as interracial? (This reader thinks so.) Or is “interracial” code for solely white/black combinations? Hell, depending on what anti-Semite you ask, my marriage would be interracial.
Mostly I’m wondering simply why there aren’t more interracial couples in romance. There’s more than a few powerhouse examples in mainstream romance across several genres, so I am curious why there’s not more of it. For example, Ward’s Brotherhood plays with race, and the question’s been asked of her point blank whether the Brothers are Black (her answer was that they are not an identifiable human race so it’s impossible to say). Kleypas’ Mine Till Midnight also crossed a racial line in the historical sense, in that her hero was Rom and the heroine was white – a combination that caused me to question the endurance of their happy ending, given the social prejudice working against them. And someone will hunt me down and kick me in the knees if I don’t mention the multi-book subplot of Brockmann’s Sam & Alyssa. All three examples were holy crapping damn successful. Perhaps the problem is that what I perceive of as “few” needs to be adjusted. Someone else might think that’s plenty.
I’m not so much asking for a list of interracial romances, though feel free to suggest some that you’ve enjoyed, but more of a “Interracial romance: what’s up with that? How come there’s not more of it?” type of random musing. So? Your thought? Ha. I crack me up. I know you have more than one.
Hm. Books I’m embarrassed to be caught reading. I read Kerrelyn Sparks How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire. NOT in public. It wasn’t terrible, and was in fact more entertaining than a lot of what I’d read around that time, but DAMNED if I was going to be seen reading it in the staff lounge at work.
They recently experimented in our (only) local bookstore with having the erotica at the start of the romance section, but they’ve lately moved it back to be at the front of the general fiction section. If I’m expecting a new release by an erotica author I like, I’ll gird my loins to go check it out, but I’m mostly embarrassed to be seen looking at the erotica. Which irks me, because I don’t want to be as prudish as I evidently am.
We don’t have a Blacks Only section in our pitifully small bookstore (not sure if it’s different in the big cities in Canada), so I haven’t had to face that particular social challenge. I did get challenged by a young lady at work, when I asked her to show ID before I would give her what she was asking for (privacy laws). She said, are you asking me that because I’m brown?
No. I ask everybody I don’t recognize, because I’m required to by law, and I don’t remember faces very well. It upset and shocked me, and I sputtered incoherently in response. But I couldn’t really take it personally, because she was young and clearly getting active in taking pride in her heritage. Or she was getting caught up in the Brown Nation (gang made up of Indian, Pakistani, and/or middle eastern thugs), but that’s a whole other thing.
I’m pondering the differences between bigotry and prejudice, the latter of which I define as assumptions I make about people based on their ethnicity, and don’t take the time to check. I think it was Trevallian who wrote that stereotypes are usually true when describing general populations, if not individuals within that population.
So, when I was talking about chakras with an Indian friend, and was totally surprised when she didn’t know anything about it, I was prejudiced, because I assumed that all Indians know about chakras. It led us into a discussion about the differences in the actuality of our cultures versus stereotypes, which was interesting and good for us, and the outcome is that now I can’t admit to reading Deepak Chopra around her because she thinks that he’s got a successful racket going on to sucker gullible white folks.
(She was surprised to learn that most blond kids grow up to have brown hair, unless they dye it.)
And now I’ve gone totally off topic, and should probably get back to work.
I don’t know if I can explain what I mean clearly, but I’m going to try.
Obviously race—be it artificial, unreal, a myth, or a tool of economic domination (i.e. “The Invention of the White Race”—great book, IMO)—matters to us or we wouldn’t be having this conversation. And some of what has been said during this and other conversations on this topic goes along the lines of, “white readers and authors possess a privilege that they are often unaware of, which makes them insensitive to the challenges faced by black authors and AA/IR Romance.” Which strikes me as a call to be more self-conscious and more aware, which can also mean more sensitive to a situation that already has an incredible amount of exposed nerve-type sensitivity attached to it.
But if a white reader confesses her hypersensitivity—that she is afraid of offending black readers—then there’s an implication that that’s silly. If there were parity between offending a literary snob and offending a black author or reader, this sensitivity wouldn’t exist to begin with. But it does, and it creates a sort of double bind, where on the one hand white readers are told they’re not sensitive enough to the position of black authors and AA/IR Romance, but if they internalize a hypersensitivity for whatever reason, then that’s wrong, too. And it may be unwarranted (aren’t so many of our hypersensitivities). But in a conversation where people are struggling all over the place to refrain from stepping on someone else’s toes, or stepping over someone else completely, I understand the hypersensitivity, where it comes from, and how difficult the bind is.
Truly, in perfect honesty, sometimes it looks like white readers can’t win for trying: if we don’t read AA/IR Romance, it’s because we’re racially insensitive, and if we do read it but don’t like what we read, we’re racially insensitive, and then if we read some, perhaps we’re just pandering, and if we don’t like some, it’s because we just don’t get it, or we’re racially insensitive . . . . I don’t struggle with these issues personally because I’m not in conflict about what I read and what I like, but I really understand how others feel a little like they’re trapped regardless of where they are, even though I know that no one’s trying to make them feel that way, and that the position AA authors is in IS incredibly unfair and discriminatory. And even as I understand that black authors feel the same double bind when they try to explain their position and the effect of the discriminatory treatment. I realize that such sensitivity on the part of white readers must seem a bit petty (i.e. we already have the privilege and now we want to claim the sensitivity??). But it’s there, nonetheless.
NOT that this is anyone’s fault; it’s just, IMO, a side effect of this incredible hypersensitivity we have around race and the imperfect ways we’re trying to negotiate these issues. We all say that race shouldn’t matter, but we all know it does, and the very deliberateness of the way we’re trying to get integration and equity for AA/IR Romance illustrates that. Hopefully someday it won’t matter, but as long as it does, people are more likely to have particularly areas of ultra-sensitive reactions that may not be logical or desirable, but are, IMO, inevitable and hopefully transient.
Has anyone mentioned Natalie Dunbar yet? She had a couple books in the Bombshell line. I’ve read “Model Spy” but haven’t yet put hands on her other. In fact, there are several Bombshells off the top of my head where the heroine was non-Caucasion (although I don’t think the author is): three of Cindy Dees’ Medusas (although one hasn’t had her story yet), Maureen Tan’s “A Perfect Cover”, Crystal Green’s “Baited.”
Considering the premise of the Bombshell line was focus on the heroine’s journey (and of course, her general bad-assedness!), the ethnicity/race in the above books was generally brought in as an issue when it was part of her tale. The Tan book focuses on the heroine’s ties the Vietnamese immigrant community and investigating a crime therein, so yes, it was part of the plot. But in Dunbar’s “Model Spy” book, the plot points were more universal. Our spy-babe is a recovering addict working undercover, trying to do her job but faced with a choice between the stable detective or the exciting playboy with the fast lifestyle. Some of you have been refuting the “relatability” comments about reading AA or other non-Caucasian stories, and here is a prime example of your claims. Why would it be any more relatable if our model-turned-spy were white? Unless, of course, you are a white model-turned-spy.
I do think it would be better to have the AA romances shelved in with the genre as a whole, it certainly would bring the books to my attention. I tend to pick new authors up at the UBS (especially Half-Price Books clearance rack), and if I like them, glom them until I’ve covered their entire backlist. If they aren’t in front of my face when I’m rack-surfing, I’ll likely never get to them because the TBR pile on authors I’ve already discovered never seems to get any smaller.
hours72: If there were 72 hours in the day, I could finish that pile of books.
Natalie Dunbar is a black woman, and she’s very nice. I met her at the Romance Slam Jam last week and she gave me some very beneficial advice.
I think the general issue is, however, that universality is coded as “white”, which is part and parcel to the privilege that white people have in this society. As others have said, I as a black woman don’t look odd thumbing through “mainstream” romances, so why should a white woman look odd if she’s thumbing through multicultural romances written by authors of color? Some of the biggest benefactors of black artists during the Harlem Renaissance were white people. So many creative writing teachers say the more specific a writer gets, the more universal the story becomes. THE KITE RUNNER is written by an Afghani man, but I really appreciated reading that story. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is told through the lenses of a young white girl in the 1940s. I’m certainly not a young white girl in the 1940s. ENCHANTED by Elizabeth Lowell is one of my favorite romances, but so is THE COLOR OF LOVE by Sandra Kitt. And anything written by Beverly Jenkins is on my TBR list. Each story is specific, but there is a universality that I responded to.
There’s still that “THEM” v. “US” thing going on even in this discussion, a separatedness that is a consequence of a social construct that still applies and that science is still trying to find biological evidence with which to support it. Being honest means having to discuss some difficulties, and yeah, they might even come up in the romances, particularly IR. But is not the ultimate goal of a romance is an emotionally satisfying ending? Who sad a reader can’t expand her mind as she goes on that journey too?
Savannah
I have to admit that I have seen some behavior in the AA section of places that I was not too approving of—yes, there was a definite vibe of “What does that [insert non-AA] person think they’re doing here?” I’ve seen the same vibe in a hip-hop club. And in the Gospel choir my first month of college. It wasn’t pretty.
This comes from a lot of sources, primarily the historical tendency of mainstream U.S. culture to lift/pinch/borrow/outright steal certain creative elements from AA culture without giving credit (or cash) where credit was due. (e.g. This was downright systematiic in the music industry relatively recently—say a generation ago.) So the bitterness is rather instinctive and understandable. But it doesn’t help anything.
I think that the onus is not only on white readers to branch out fearlessly, but on AA shoppers to also curb some of our suspicions—especially of strangers we know nothing about. (It’s different when you’re interacting with a friend or acquaintence whom you KNOW is fetishizing you. Not acceptable, of course. So cut your eyes freely. I shall do the same.)
What I’m saying is, 1. I don’t think the white readers on this board are imagining things (although I don’t think it’s anywhere near universal, and definitely not a majority reaction…really, most people are just minding their business. LOLOL—And if you exhibit too much nervousness, THAT can be offensive—“What do you think we’re going to do??!” This sucks, doesn’t it? It’s a minefield! Yikes. :-D) and 2. we can all work together for this; we all have something to contribute to the… smoothing of the atmosphere.
I’ve felt like a big weird otaku in Books Kunokiniya, but I was never made to feel uncomfortable there—Japanese patrons and staff always seemed pleased that an outsider was showing interest in their culture. I’d like to spread that attitude.
But if a white reader confesses her hypersensitivity -- that she is afraid of offending black readers -- then there's an implication that that's silly.
I don’t think it’s silly and I certainly didn’t imply that in my post. Now if I’d replied with “welcome to my world” that would have been flip and dismissive.
When you’re out of your element you have three choices: You either ignore it, deal with it, or let it rule you. As a black professional woman, and a woman with some interesting friends and hobbies, I’m often the only black person in a group at any given time. At least once a week if not more. I could be hypersensitive about it, but mostly I acknowledge it and do what I came there for—whether that’s jamming to Disturbed, attending a pagan festival, strolling a comic book store, or browsing the erotica section.
I was the only black chick at a Dierks Bentley concert (he’s country) and yeah some of the girls looked at me cross-eyed. I didn’t give a damn. I came, I had fun, I bought the t-shirt. Sure I could have let it freak me out, but why give them that victory? If I had told my (white) friends “no, I’m not going—it’s gonna be nothin’ but white folks!” I would have missed out on a fantastic experience. Same as when I went to the Metallica/Korn/System of a Down concert a few years back, or Def Leppard back in the early 90’s.
I don’t think how a person feels is silly. It’s valid for them. But I know I’ve had to learn to deal with being in a place where “my kind” shouldn’t be. I don’t think it’s too much to ask the same of others.
Of course, you can just go to amazon.com and go “Books > Romance > Multicultural” to bring up an extensive list of AA books. Once there you can type “interracial” to narrow to just those books and use the Look Inside feature to browse in the comfort of your own computer..
if a white reader confesses her hypersensitivity—that she is afraid of offending black readers—then there’s an implication that that’s silly.
Robin, I read those quotes from Seressia and Ree as being encouraging, not implying that the white reader was “silly.”
I thought Seressia was suggesting that precisely because we’re romance readers, reading a genre with covers that often get mocked, and that people sometimes call “trash,” we’ve learned ways of dealing with that. Knowing that we’ve got those strategies for dealing politely but firmly with people who query our reading choices might help us feel prepared if we’re venturing over into the AA aisle for the first time.
As for Ree’s comment,
there is no reason to think we are putting all that thought as to what you are doing in the AA sections. *lol*
I didn’t think she was brushing off white readers’ concerns, but was trying to boost those readers’ confidence. I know that when I first started buying romances I was self-conscious, and thought the librarians and booksellers would be watching me and thinking about my book choices. If in a discussion online a librarian had said “there is no reason to think we are putting all that thought as to what you are doing in the [romance] sections,” I think I’d have found that reassuring. Nowadays, of course, I’ve got to the point where, as Seressia implied, I’m able to give a good “response when people look cross-eyed at [me] for reading ‘trashy books.’”
And there’s always the online book-buying option and/or the ebook option.
sometimes it looks like white readers can’t win for trying: if we don’t read AA/IR Romance, it’s because we’re racially insensitive, and if we do read it but don’t like what we read, we’re racially insensitive
I’ve read some I’ve liked and others I haven’t liked, just as when I’ve ventured into any new area of romance where I hadn’t yet established which authors’ styles suited my tastes. That’s one reason why I think that more reviews would be helpful. Readers who haven’t tried an AA or inter-racial romance before might feel they were venturing out into uncharted waters, but recommendations from a reviewer they trust and whose tastes they share might help make sure they pick up a higher proportion that they will like.
I’m like Seressia and Shiree, in that as a black woman, I’ve always been into things that the ignorant consider “white”. My first love in a rock band was and is Journey. I still have the biggest hots for Steve Perry (he’s a client of my firm’s and I got to meet him AND get a hug—go ME!). I was a pre-teen but my parents allowed me to go to all their shows with either my cousin (also a Journey fan) or my best friend and fellow Journey-girl, Edith. Did it ever bother me to sometimes be one of a handful of black faces in a predominantly white crowd? Hell no, because I wasn’t there to see the crowd—I was there to rock out to Steve, Neal, Jonathan, Ross and drummer Steve. Now I keep the metal faith and just last month went to see Symphony X and Epica at the House of Blues and as usual, was pretty much the only dark chica there. So what? I’m there to see Russell Allen cause he’s got a great voice and is way hot!
I do Elizabethan re-enactments and am a member of the SCA. I am a past tournament D&D;gamer who still has the most kick-ass 36th level warrior-cleric ever. And never ONCE did it ever occur to me that I shouldn’t do or have done any of those things because of my race or that I should get all hypersensitive about being the only one with a decent tan. Life’s too short to get stuck on other folks’ head trips.
The point is, it is way past the time to step out of the limiting comfort zone. I know race is a touchy subject, but one reason it is has to do with how dishonest we as a society are about it. It’s the bull in the china shop we try to ignore while it’s smashing away at the Waterford crystal. Yes, there will always be the “more revolutionary than thou” types who will think it’s their business to criticize, but you can’t make those folks happy no matter what, so screw ‘em! By the way, not every AA book is ‘The Thug Who Loved the Stripper in Da Hood With His 22-Inch Rims on Da Bentley’. There are a lot of quality love stories featuring AA h/h, as the lists posted have shown.
Honestly though, who cares what someone who isn’t taking care of you thinks anyway? Frankly, I don’t care if you go to the AA section of a bookstore and I don’t see it as “fetishizing” people of color when you buy a Parker, Kimani or Genesis book. In fact, if I’m there, I wouldn’t pay attention to you at all because I’m too busy trying not to blow two to three-hundred bucks on books (which I’m very good at doing).
Fanboys give me looks when I’m over at the Forgotten Realms section, but I happen to LOVE Drizzt so they can kiss my butt. And yes, you might not like EVERY AA or IR book out there (believe me, I’ve run into some stinkers—ask my fellow IMRR’s about a certain writer who always gets my goat), and that’s your right. There’s quite a few caucasian writers who had to have slept with someone in order to get a contract because their books suck and yet they sell zillions.
My thing is, don’t go into a AA or IR book with all these silly (and yes, I said SILLY) preconceived notions of what the characters are going to be like. Nine times out of ten you’ll be disappointed. Open your minds, hearts (and pocketbooks) and see that love is truly a universal emotion.
Well, as one of the people who expressed a hypersensitivity that I FULLY admit is patently ridiculous (hence my shame), I will say that I was not offended by the comments in response. Well, maybe vaguely annoyed by Barbara Karmazin’s first response, but the second was much less annoying. 🙂
I can tell you, though, that this hypersensitivity in me is a product of two things. First, I am by nature hyper-aware of others’ reactions (unless I’m tired, which, by virtue of being hyper-aware, I often get very quickly around large numbers of people), and struggle to NOT be completely paranoid. (My Issues! Let me show you them! To think I pay my therapist for this!) I feel totally out of place in the comic book store, too—and not just b/c I have a vagina (though that’s part of it), but also because I feel like I don’t know enough/don’t have enough street cred in comics to be there. Of course, in order to get that cred, I have to browse the comics! Vicious circle.
Second, I am in academia. In English. In graduate school, aka Land of the Judgiest of Judgy McJudgersons. Mostly, I ignore it/shrug it off/flaunt my “lowbrow” taste (now that I think about it, I am going to make sure to read Big Spankable Asses right smack in the middle of the department, hopefully somewhere where my arch-nemesis, Dr. Dementor, will see me). But with some stuff, you do internalize the sense of judgment, the concern with appropriation, etc.
So, yeah. Like I said, I know the hypersensitivity is kind of silly. But it’s there all the same, and I have to deal with it all the same. And not let it stop me from reading good books!
My apologies again. I realized as soon as I submitted my first response that it was too flippant. Which is why I immediately apologized with my second response. Then, Ree sent in her very thoughtful and excellent response which explained what I was trying to say in the first place.
Slinking away, now that I succeeded in putting my foot in mouth.
Barbara Karmazin
No, don’t slink away! I understood what you were getting at, and your second post made the point very well.
I’m sorry if it looked like I was pointing fingers at some of the commenters; it just occurred to me when I was reading Jana’s post that what seems like an obvious case of “overthinking” to one person is a serious dilemma to another. I just pulled a couple of snippets out of the responses to Jana’s comment to give some context to what I was thinking. See, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to be all that clear.
Thanks, Laura.
Oh, and if I may point to a review site for AA romance, try http://www.romanceincolor.com/ They’ve been reviewing black romance since 1994 and have reviewer’s choice awards as well. I’ve seen ratings as low as two stars, if that helps.
Upon a Midnight Clear by Amanda McCabe ( Jamaican heroine, upper class English hero) in the anthology Regency Christmas Magic.
If you want a romance set somewhere other than the British Isles, and not within the last 300 years, search the UBS for Dark Priestess by Juanita Coulson. Its set in Babylon ( modern day Iraq) during the reign of Hammurabi ( 1790-1750 BC). Spamword ‘ago46”. No, it was a lot longer ago than that 😀
This is totally out of place, so I apologize in advance.
Where is Candy, why am I not seeing more of her? Candy, when will you be back? Are you working on that book of yours or do you not want to come and chat with us no more? We miss the witty conversation that the two of you use to have. Please, please come here more often or I will commit suicide very soon.
This is totally out of place, so I apologize in advance.
Where is Candy, why am I not seeing more of her? Candy, when will you be back? Are you working on that book of yours or do you not want to come and chat with us no more?
Please, please come here more often or I will commit suicide very soon.
Looking forward to the days when you will be back.
if I may point to a review site for AA romance, try http://www.romanceincolor.com/ They’ve been reviewing black romance since 1994 and have reviewer’s choice awards as well. I’ve seen ratings as low as two stars, if that helps.
It would be so convenient if they could post their reviews with an rss feed. I’m lazy sometimes, and it’s so much easier to keep up with blogs because they appear in my feed reader, whereas if something’s on a website, I have to remember to check it. That’s not an excuse, just me acknowledging my laziness. Blogging in Black has an rss feed, which means I get notification of when APOOO’s selection of reviews, and the month’s selection from Romance in Color, are up there. I should probably use that as a reminder to click across to their websites and read all their other reviews for the month.
As for them giving a mixture of high to low ratings, that does help inasmuch as it demonstrates that they’re prepared to criticise the books and don’t just praise all of them.
I was thinking, though, that it can take a while for a reader to work out which reviewers’ tastes match their own, and until they do, the results can be a bit hit and miss. Which is fine if someone’s prepared to keep trying but if a reader has a limited budget/limited reading time, then it can be helpful for her to get reviews from a reviewer she already knows has tastes which match her own, because that way she’s more likely to feel confident that that books will please her. It’s not an either/or situation, but one where the two would complement each other, because once someone knows a few books they like, they can check out what the new-to-them reviewers thought of those books. I know that at AAR and Dear Author, for example, there are descriptions of the reviewers’ tastes, illustrated by a list of books they’ve liked. That can help guide a reader, but the technique won’t work unless the reader already knows those books and how she herself felt about them.
Sometimes comparisons can help too (like the AAR if you like … (By author/style) section). I’m not sure if anyone else would agree, but there’s something about Beverly Jenkins’ style which reminds me of Nora Roberts’. And of course, they both have a tendency to win awards 😉 [Beverly Jenkins pretty much swept the board at the Emma awards]
I think sometimes interracial relationship books are hard, because the interracial part becomes THE book… thank you 4 this nice post…