The Romance Writers of America Board of Directors has addressed the lack of Black representation in the finalists for the RITA award in a recent statement (nb: emphasis herein is mine):
The RWA Board spends a portion of every year reviewing, discussing and revising the RITA® contest to ensure that it meets its stated objectives and is reflective of the best books in the genre. Specifically, during the last few years, we’ve taken a hard look at contest issues, including judging, categories and scoring. A recent discussion among our members has highlighted a systemic issue—black authors are significantly underrepresented as finalists.
While the Board only votes on changes to the contest during the July Board meeting, the only in-person meeting when the contest is not active, we do assess it all year long and the lack of representation of our black romance authors as RITA finalists and winners is a serious concern for us.
We’ve only recently started collecting demographic information on our members, and that is on a voluntary basis. But from what we could determine, the statistics for black author RITA finalists from 2000 to 2017 are:
• The number of finalist books by black authors is less than half of 1% of the total number of finalist books
• No black romance author has ever won a RITA
We understand there are questions about which authors enter and what percentage of entrants are black authors. We will attempt to gather that information in the future to answer these questions but, in the meantime, it is impossible to deny that this is a serious issue and that it needs to be addressed. The RWA Board is committed to serving all of its members. Educating everyone about these statistics is the first step in trying to fix this problem. We know there are no perfect solutions but ignoring the issue is that not acceptable. To the extent members have suggestions, the Board would like to hear them.
This will not be an easy or quick fix, but we are committed to RWA being a welcoming and fair professional writing organization, open to all romance authors and celebrating the best romance books through our RITA contest.
You may contact any Board member with your thoughts, or President Dee Davis directly at president@RWA.org.
As you might imagine, this statement has caused exactly zero discussion online and off – kidding, kidding. There is a lot to talk about here.
As someone who has paid attention to the RITA for several years now and who has asked an increasingly annoying number of questions about it every time I speak to an RWA board member, I’m pleased with this statement. Effectively, RWA is saying, “We have a problem. We need to fix it.” Definitely true.
I also know that fixing or even changing the RITA is a tricky business. For starters, as it says in the board statement, the only time changes to the RITA can be voted on is while the contest is NOT in progress, so only during the July meeting. That means every suggestion and idea or new method of managing the RITA contest is evaluated all year but changes can only be voted on once a year.
But more importantly, fixing systemic or institutional racism is not an easy task either, to say the least. And that’s what needs to be addressed. The lack of Black author representation among the RITA finalists and RITA winners is not the only issue; many other writers have spoken up about hostility, exclusion, and racism at conferences that mean Black authors, authors of color, and writers from marginalized groups feel not only unwelcome but unsafe at romance writer conferences and chapter meetings. Courtney Milan wrote about the experiences of several authors on Twitter in a thread, as have many others, including Marjorie M. Liu. While there isn’t an easy-to-follow (and therefore easy to derail and spam) hashtag, the discussion among romance readers and writers on social media and individual loops continues.
Board member Adrienne Mishel tweeted at length about how the national board wants to fix things, and how members can go about asking for help, or calling out acts of racism or marginalization at local chapter levels:
https://twitter.com/DrenzPen/status/980950716285161472
The RWA statement and the ongoing conversations that followed about racism, moments of exclusion, and examples of marginalization on personal and professional levels are all part of the upheaval of change. It’s familiar, difficult, and necessary – much like individuals revealing stories of sexual harassment in the media, in movie production, or in their workplaces. Making public the extent of the problem is part of fixing it, as is naming that problem, and moving the discussion of safe spaces from private forums to public ones.
As creators and consumers of stories, confronting these accounts is important, as is ensuring that everyone is heard, and that real change can happen. And as I said, institutional racism is not an easy problem to fix. Part of that racism being “institutional” is that it’s welded to the foundational structures of organizations, of society in general, of social rules, everything. Reframing “this is how things have always been done” to highlight how those ways are unacceptable and reckoning with what has been, as National Geographic did recently (TW for that link) is exhausting, painful, relentless work.
And alas, I don’t have an easy answer to the representation in the RITAs or to the other issues being raised. My personal choice was to stop reviewing the RITA books here and to start judging the contest this year (which I did in the preliminary rounds). I don’t want to prescribe a specific action for others, such as advising marginalized writers to join an organization or chapter they feel has been hostile or hurtful to them – but I also want RWA, and romance, to more accurately and inclusively represent all the people who read and write it. Seeing the national board acknowledge the problem and name it is a step. It’s a long staircase to climb, but it’s a step.
As Courtney Milan put it:
I know we can have the community we deserve because I see it everyday. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
— Courtney!!! Milan 🦖 (@courtneymilan) April 3, 2018
For a start, RWA can certainly make sure that ALL Rita finalists are asked to sign at Nationals. I would love to heat the reason AoC were excluded. This is totally under their control and RWA owns the failure.
Thank you for this thoughtful report, Sarah. It’s heartening to hear this is being recognized as a serious issue–change can’t happen until the crisis is acknowledged. And I’m a firm believer that real change happens from the bottom up, in situations where people interact with something they’re passionate about in their everyday lives. We need everyone who reads and loves romance to be aware of the problems identified here, face the realities of this experience, and carry that new awareness with them not only in their reading choices but into the wider scope of their lives. That’s how a society moves forward.
That said, I wonder if this is an opportunity we can take as a community to do something with our own resources. I think you made a wise call not to participate in a seriously flawed system, but I was really looking forward to reading the RITA reviews this year, and I’m probably not the only one. Could we take that energy and do our own inclusivity challenge? With the time and space we normally devote to RITA guest reviews, we could challenge ourselves to find and review books by authors of color or marginalized groups. It could be a way to purposefully and positively highlight the writers and novels that are already out there and deserving of recognition, and jumpstart some productive discussions.
That’s only my suggestion–I’m sure there are lots of great ideas out there for how we can start to address this. Thanks as always for making the Bitchery such a welcoming place to be!
the only time changes to the RITA can be voted on is while the contest is NOT in progress, so only during the July meeting
Why? I’ve never cast a vote that resulted in IMMEDIATE change in policy, so I’d think it would be a given that a contest in progress would continue under the policy set out at its onset and any changes voted upon would be applicable to future contests.
“Sorry, our hands our tied because we can only address this in July and in person and if the moon is full and if the omens are favorable, and before you know it, November submission time will be here and it will be too late. Oh well, maybe next July!”
Same old.
Rose,
I love your suggestions about what we can do ourselves. I’ve been thinking about this long and hard. I myself am a lady of color, and I did a quick and dirty count of my books read last year. Only about 30% of my books read were by Authors of Color. If anyone could do better it should be me!
This year I am challenging myself to go 50-50! I am voting with my wallet, and I feel like that something a lot of us could do? Make an effort to read more AOC, signal boost the book they love, and shout to the rooftops that THIS IS NOT OK.
I’m a WW and only a reader, so this is just one small data point –
A few years ago, after a similar discussion here about marginalized voices, I made a conscious decision to read more diverse books, especially in romance. No regrets. I’ve found a lot of great new authors that way. Once a year, I pick a month and read only WOC because I like to give myself nerdy book challenges.
The website WOC in romance is a good resource and the website Book Voyagers has a great Twitter feed called “diverse book aesthetic.” Like Pinterest boards or “tumblr aesthetic” posts all for books. Although they need to update more often.
Also, I’ve found my library is very responsive to buying diverse books. I use the app “Overdrive” to recommend e-books so it’s just a button tap. I’m sure every library system is different but something to keep in mind.
(My comments weren’t meant to be directed at Rose or Darbi, or anyone in particular just general, this what I’ve found useful as a reader)
Rose, I like your idea, too. I just came back to Romance, and, as you do, soon stumbled upon the Bitchery. I have learned so much here, and discovered Alyssa Cole, Sharon Cooper, and, the life-changing Beverley Jenkins through these posts. But, yeah, could do better. 50-50 scares me! @Darbi, but maybe that’s the point of a challenge. If I can help by reviewing a book by a AoC or other non-traditional writer, I would be delighted. I feel like RWA are scared of rocking the boat–we all need to let them know that they don’t have a choice.
@Rose – I absolutely love your suggestion and would love it if the Smart Bitches could set something up like that to replace the RITA Reader challenge. I haven’t tried to track my own reading based on author identity, but my guess is that I am doing very well at reading a lot of women, but dismally bad at how many PoC, LGBTQIA and disabled authors I am reading and I need to do better.
I do know that I just finished a book by WOC author Lindsay Evans from the soon to die Kimani line and was like the heroine’s sequel-bait sister (who was almost 40 owned and ran a strip club as well as other very successful businesses) MUST have gotten her own book, but alas it seems not! How could there not be a book where this awesome millionaire (or billionaire) woman gets her own story (and how could the editor at Harlequin not have begged the author to please please please write it)? But as I was searching for that book it seemed to me that Harlequin just does not promote their Kimani books as well as the other Harlequin lines and that just makes me mad! I know that is slightly off topic to the main discussion here, but thought I would mention it.
“You can only change what you measure”, I’m not sure who said it (or the fancier version of it), but for me, as a reader & reviewer, I’ve added “authors of colour (AOC)” as a tracking criteria so I can make more informed choices about where I spend my time & money.
Jill Q mentioned Women of Colour In Romance as a great resource starting point, just thought I’d drop the link here.
Kathy: Any review you write anywhere, e-store of choice, Goodreads, facebook etc will help. Any time I write a review, I repost it in all the places 😀
Thanks Jill Q for mentioning that idea of recommending diverse books and authors on overdrive. I’ve done that with LGBT themed books I wanted to support the purchase of.
I am still working on that stereotype reading list from a while back. But so far I plan to mention the author’s history bio if I do further book reviews. Perhaps I’ll come across POC authors from random places.
I am glad the RWA has acknowledged the issue, but it doesn’t lie only with them. Although it sounds like some RWA members need to be a little more tolerant after reading some of the links. Shame on them. Those ladies, and I use the term loosely, should be giving a hand up and not a push down.
Consumer demand is what drives what the publishers sell. And, just like any other commodity, the offerings are based on past sales. Vote with your library Overdrive button if you can’t spend the cash. I consciously read a variety of authors from a variety of ethnicities, even if it does appear I am a reader of only lily white Duke books around here.
@Katie C. Oh, don’t burn yourself out over this.
Sadly, I wasn’t aware of the Kimani line until I tried to research a Book bundle I bought long ago.
I didn’t have enough knowledge or foresight about their product lines so I couldn’t subscribe to their book subscription service. But I don’t want to let that get me down.
POC authors, feel free to send amazon or ebook links to your books to my e-mail. Author blurbs are great.
@Rose. I really like your idea of the SBTB community reviewing books by AOC as a replacement for the RITA reviews.
I’m a white reader and self published writer. I can do better. We can do better than this. I’m very guilty of both being oblivious to this (waves from my white privilege bubble) and of doing very little to diversify my reading with regard to AOC. I made a conscious decision a few years ago to read more LBGTQ authors and books and it’s time I made a real effort. I appreciate @Rose’s recommendation of the web site. I’ll start there.
Thank you for this coverage.
Love Rose’s idea too, and would definitely be up for reviewing some works by WOC. I always enjoy doing the RITA reviews
Because they force me to read new-to-me authors or genres, and I think this would be even more fun.
The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators established a new anti-sexual harassment policy. At every Regional event as well as the national conferences someone is appointed who can be approached if an attendee has a problem to report. People can also report directly to the national office, anonymously if they choose. Something similar might help avoid overt racism at events. Of course it would be harder to judge subtler racism such as someone feeling left out of a conversation, but it might help identify and curtailed some problems, especially if the advocate reported everything to the main office so problematic regions could be identified.
Speaking as a white reader, I started tracking a couple things about the authors I read a few years ago (I think in response to a post by Courtney Milan) -consciously trying to read more AOC and more LGBTQ authors. It has helped me find new authors. It’s also made me uncomfortable at times, because I found myself social media stalking authors to try to figure out their race / ethnicity and if they’re out as LGBTQ.
I just recently discovered the WOC in romance site and I like that resource, because it eliminates the slightly creepy feeling SM stalking. And then the whole Santino Hassell thing reminded me that pen names and personas are not 100% reliable. For LGBTQ authors I know that some choose not to be out and I respect that. And I suspect that some AOC choose not to be public about their identity to avoid some of the BS that comes with being an AOC. So I know that tracking my reading in terms of diversity is an imperfect thing, but it’s still the main thing that I know to do.
@Rose – I interpreted SB Sarah’s statement differently – I read it that she personally didn’t participate in the SBTB RITA reviews this year so that she could be a judge for the RITAs (and in that way, do her part in keeping really problematic books from becoming finalists), not that SBTB is going to stop doing the RITA guest reviews.
@Cleo – and one more thing – speaking as a queer reader, I have a LOT of complicated, occasionally conflicting, thoughts about queer romance and m/m and author identity.
I apologize that this was not clear: we aren’t hosting the RITA Reader Challenge this year, in part because I judged the preliminary round. RWA’s leadership had no problem with my hosting it again while also being a preliminary judge, to be clear, but I felt it was inappropriate.
That said! I absolutely welcome guest review submissions. If there’s a romance you’d like to guest review, email me – sarah AT smartbitchestrashy books DOT com – and we’ll discuss. I don’t accept every guest review, and I edit every submission, but I would love to read your guest review of a book you’d like to tell everyone about. Please get in touch!
I LOVE where the comments are taking this!! And as a white reader (waves from the bubble of white privilege with @Lora) I would happily devote to actively upping my romance reading to include as much AoC and LGBTQ stories as possible.
Maybe the Bitchery could start highlighting these authors/books in all our comment and articles to help out?
After all, if we as readers create the demand for these authors and books, it would only make sense for the world of romance to include more right?
And I’m going to think of this as my books-out-of-box challenge…because who doesn’t want more BOOBs? (Sorry if that offends…I have the mind of a hold that still laughs at fart jokes)
I don’t have a cheery comment to share. I just feel sick. Marjorie M Liu was one of THE authors for me a few years ago. I probably first read about her on Dear Author. I gobbled up all of her Harlequins when I hadn’t read anything from that company since I was a kid. I pushed her on every potentially receptive reader I knew, even those who didn’t read romance, because I thought her characters and stories had real crossover appeal.
I noticed that DA hadn’t reviewed any new titles from her but I thought nothing of it. I read so many different kinds of books and I know authors who have taken long breaks before reemerging. To learn in this way of what her experience in romance publishing was like…that they asked her to take a “white name”!?!?! “Ethnically tainted”!?!? I want to cry. (I probably will. Idk why it’s affecting me so much but it is.)
@JayneH thank you for the link to the WOC in romance. Now I have a whole slew of authors to check out.
Basically just signal-boosting what was said above, but…
SBTB is a large, prestigious website and community. Couldn’t it/we/they/you just… create your own awards?
NOT that the RWA stuff doesn’t need fixing (to say the least), but if people on the site miss the SBTB RITA events AND Sarah wants to continue judging RITA in the future AND doesn’t want to be involved in both for ethical reasons…
Maybe?
To add a bit of context to the “ethnically tainted” comment, that came from Jade Lee, who specifically addressed the issue on Dear Author in 2009:
http://dearauthor.com/features/letters-of-opinion/a-special-guest-post-on-cultural-appropriation-by-handyhunter/comment-page-1/#comment-219701
“Jade Lee
October 27, 2009 @ 12:42 pm
Coming up for air from a tight deadline. Thanks to those who mentioned todays blog to me and encouraged me to check it out.
I just want to make a few things clear. Harlequin recruited me into the Blaze line specifically to add a dimension of multi-culturalism to it. I’ve written 3 books for them, one historical, two contemporary, all with Asian characters. No paranormal elements. Harlequin promoted me well, especially The Concubine which was the second historical Blaze ever, not the first. I think I write good books, but The Concubine was especially good and fit perfectly with senior editor Brenda Chin’s vision for the Blaze line.
After 3 books, Harlequin considers the experiement over. The sales were extremely poor. It was not the fault of promotion or marketing. I got a TON of promotion. It was also (according to senior editor Brenda Chin and the few who read the books) not the fault of the writing. The books were excellent. The problem? Her exact words were the “Jade Lee name is tainted as Asian.”
So, as of my April book, I will be writing for Harlequin as Kathy Lyons. Look for Under His Spell with a very caucasian cover then.
My opinion? Social changes come…eventually. Harlequin is to be commended for working with me, giving me this shot, and doing an excellent market test. BTW, I believe Historical Blazes with traditional settings are doing very well, so we can’t blame the historical setting for the lack of sales. Dorchester Books also did the societal experiment with my tigress books set in historical China.
The conclusion? Both publishers have decided (and I agree) that the audience is not there yet to support Asian-set romances. An odd one here and there may do okay, but in general, there is not wide-spread support of that setting or ethnicity. Not as a primary element in the book.
The sad truth is that I cannot continue to write for societal change. I write to support myself and my family. I can tell Caucasian stories. I can tell Chinese stories. As of the moment, I am telling Caucasian stories because that is what sells.
So…for now, Jade Lee will write historials set in Regency England with completely white people. And Kathy Lyons will write Caucasian stories for Harlequin. I am now deciding whether or not to put up my picture on my Kathy Lyons website. Is it even worth letting people know that I look and am half Chinese?”
While several other instances of Harlequin’s behavior in the Milan thread are clearly racist, I don’t see how Harlequin’s behavior here was. Instead, the editor–who specifically recruited an Asian author to write Asian characters (and who I believe was stated in another comment is married to an Asian man)–used the “tainted as Asian” comment to acknowledge the racism of her readership–and ends up being called racist for calling out the racism of others. Would it have been better if they’d dropped Lee based on low sales (and she did get a big push, so that can’t be blamed) without explanation? (Well, it probably would have been better for the company in that case so the comment still wouldn’t be hung on them.)
Oh, and Marjorie Liu never wrote for Harlequin. Her tweet refers to racism she encountered in romance publishing, not at Harlequin.
I was just remembering that Monica Jackson used to strongly encourage everyone at SBTB to make a point of buying and reading black authors, because they are routinely sidelined, under-promoted, and poorly placed in bookstores. You have to go looking for them on purpose.
@Deb Kinnard —
It’s not RWA who didn’t set up a signing for Phyllis Bourne.
It’s HARLEQUIN. Her own publisher!
Is there any movement to call HQ to task for their continued treatment of AOC? Are authors and readers doing anything to call attention to it? If so, where can I sign up?
Thanks for this recap and especially all the links.
I’m a dumb white chick who has exposed my white-blindness in embarrassing ways, and I am sure I will do so again. All us white folks see through a white lens, though some of us are trying to make the lens less distorted.
It’s painful and embarrassing to say or write something that is inadvertently racist, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t racist.
In any kind of writing it’s not about what we intend. It’s what about the message we actually send.
And that goes for actions, too.
i tweeted HQ to let them know that their discriminatory actions are noted by both authors and readers. if other authors/readers did this in mass, the message might get through. also, boycotts have proven effective.
Thanks, @sharon cullars. I’m sure the problem is bigger than HQ alone, but certainly they should be called on it.
It was heartbreaking reading the reason Jade LEE stopped writing Asian romances. Way back then they gave me hope and helped me feel normal that I am attracted to Asian men. They helped me believe in possibility and that all hope is not lost.
Although not related to romance, on my blog and elsewhere I do my best to read and review authors that are marginalized, be they self published or major published. Heck I even started to do what I call diverse reviews where I post previous books I reviewed that deal with diversity.
In relation to RITA, I am not surprised, as sad as it sounds. Change often takes a long time to materialize. I am hoping that RITA will see the world as more than just black and white, that there are native Americans, people from central and South America’s as well as Asia, and religious minorities for only then will the world be more inclusive.