Doin' that race and romance thing...

So there has been quite a bit of discussion about racism in romance the past week or so. As per usual, I was late to the convo, but I've finally caught up and gotten the full picture. Although it got a bit heated here and there, for the most part a lot of really interesting stuff got brought up. Only rarely did the conversation degenerate into idiocy, as when the French chick called all Americans racist because she knew someone who wouldn't let their kid watch "The Cosby Show." To which I say, that's a damn shame, because that? Was an excellent show. Also, I was watching "The O.C." a couple of weeks ago, and there was a smelly French character, ergo, all French people are smelly. Also the words "whitey" and "Negro" came up, I believe. Good times, good times. If you have been living under a rock, or if you don't normally frequent romance-centric blogs and are interested, the threads to which I am referring can be found here, here, and here.

This seems to me to be a three pronged issue:

1: Are AA (yes, this is pretty much a black/white thing I'm going to be talking about here) authors being marginalized by being shelved in AA fiction sections rather than the romance section?

2: Does this type of shelving hurt or help authors? On the one hand, AA readers can easily find AA fiction if that is what they are looking for. On the other, are they being limited from finding a wider audience? (Wait, is this actually part of #1?)

3: Do white/other readers not seek out AA romance? And if so, should they make more of an effort to do so?

Many of these blogosphere dust-ups have me rolling my eyes, but this one got me thinking about my reading habits. A little self-examination never hurt anyone. Also, it made me veddy, veddy curious. Bear with me folks, all kinds of thoughts are percolating here.

How much AA romance have I read? Erm, uh, hmmm...I'm sure I can think of something...

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Well okay, then, there's your answer. Perhaps. I cannot be positive that I haven't read more romance novels by AA authors, I don't pay attention to back cover photos all that much. But I haven't gone out of my way to read romances with AA content, though. Why not? Short answer: laziness. I have seen some AA romance, but they were of the contemporary or category variety, a genre that I am only interested in sometimes. It never occurred to me to look deeper. I am also really shocked by the AA fiction section thingy. I knew that there were AA sections in the bookstore, but I thought that they were more for historical/sociological type stuff. I know that bookstores have different aims than librarians, but this bothered my librarian soul. I feel that some labelling is good, but too much is detrimental to readers and authors (Rant to follow at some point). Is it true that AA romance is shelved separately? I am currently conducting a sociological investigation of bookstores in the 516. Results to follow soon, and strongly worded letters will be written if necessary.

However, this discussion really brought to my attention my lack of knowledge of AA authors. I discovered the following authors through this discussion. All shall be added to my list of authors to seek out:

Seressia Glass
Dyanne Davis
Roslyn Hardy Holcomb
Eve Vaughn (e-published author)
Lena Matthews (e-published author)

[Side Note: I am noting that the last two authors publish with e-publishers, because I feel that is a different situation. The act of browsing for books online at a site like Samhain or EC is very different from doing it in a bookstore. I usually browse by genre or theme. It's easier to find stuff up your alley and make random discoveries. I think the race factor is partcicularly incidental here, because of the different physical dimension. I had heard of them both, I just hadn't been hitting the e-pub sites due to lack of funds. They both do the interracial and the kink thing that I like. Wheee! I've gotta put aside some $$ for e-buys, 'cuz I've also gotta read the new Bonnie Dee.]

The first three authors publish through Genesis Press, an independent Af-Am press, and I can honestly say that I hadn't heard of any of them. I would assume that they are put in the AA fic section. And that just sucks, because if it wasn't for this dust-up they wouldn't have been brought to my attention. Do I feel like it's my duty as a liberal white girl to read AA authors? Not particularly. But we all have our reading preferences. Some of mine are vamps and other things that go bump in the night, uptight heroes, bookish heroines, reunited lovers, younger man/older woman, a bit of BDSM, black woman/white man...the list goes on and on. And these authors have books that fit within these preferences well. Ms. Glass has one about psychics that looks as thought it will be quite good, also some good IRs. Ms. Davis has some interesting ones, including one about a Pakistani med student and a Black nurse. Ms. Holcomb has one about a bookstore owner who gets involved with a Rock Star, which sounds like my teenage fantasy of my future. These books appeal to me not because of the color of the author's skin, but because of their content. However, if they are not shelved in the Romance section, then I probably wouldn't have found them. So yes, this white girl thinks that racism in romance is an issue.

Laziness on my part? Perhaps. But then again, you've never been in the bookstore with the Destroyer. She alternates between winging books at passerby, and sticking them in the stroller basket. I have to remember to check before I leave so I don't get busted for shoplifting. Then when she tires of these pursuits, she starts shrieking. So, yeah, it's a quick in and out. I can't be wandering around too much. But during my bookstore investigation, I'll bring potato chips. That keeps her quiet for awhile.

More to come later...