Must Read Article on Racism in Romance But As I Argue, It's Not Just About Romance

I had a different post planned for today, but I pulled it so that I could post this important article and give you some of my thoughts on it too.

First the article: "Fifty Shades of While: The Long Fight Against Racism," is a well researched, "long read" from The Guardian.

Please go read it. All of it. Really think about it- especially all of you who are white, which in our profession is over 80% of us, so....

There is a lot to digest here I know, but here's even more for you to chew on- if you are reading this as only about romance, you are missing the point. This article describes EVERYTHING in publishing and also libraries.

Let me explain by tackling a small part of this article which mentions black authors being put into "black romance" publishing lines [actually it is mentioned more than once]. This is no different than libraries who have had and still have "African American" sections. I know these are still common because I have library workers argue with me, in my training sessions, for these sections to exist so "those readers can find them!"

Yup, this is said to me a few times a year, like clockwork. To my face. And the people saying it are not bad people; they are misguided and wrong, but not bad. They all truly think that they are doing the right thing and helping readers find books. But as I hope you can see, this is not only racist-- othering all books not featuring white people-- but it also limits all readers from finding book they may enjoy.

"African American" is not a genre. Horror, Romance, Fantasy, etc... are genres. The race of the characters is not a genre. I am white and Jewish. I do not only read books featuring white, Jewish people [thank goodness because I'd run out of books quickly and be bored].  I, like most fiction readers, read to escape. For that reason I mostly read books about people who are NOT like me. It's one of the reasons I like horror so much.

Romance, as a genre, has a big issue with racism, yes. But all fiction does. Romancelandia happens to be going on the offensive and its members are all talking about it-- openly and with no holds barred.

Good for them. But don't read this and think that all the other books and genres are doing just fine. They are NOT; they are simply not addressing it in public.

So please read this article and use it to think about the way you present, display, and showcase titles. Make sure you are including all voices in your displays of all genres. We need to be deliberately inclusive because for so long we have been blindly discriminating.