First, Sarah Addison Allen is the Featured Author on Books on the House this week! Pop over there and enter to win The Girl Who Chased the Moon! She’s giving away 3 copies! Stop by Books on the House for Kids and Teens, while you’re at it. Debbie Dadey is giving away her latest Keyholder books!
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And now… Stripping Down Multicultural Characters…
This is a hot topic and worth stripping down. Here’s the thing. The more I read, the more I realize how few characters of color / multicultural characters there are in genre fiction. There are probably more than ever before, but it’s still not even close to enough. And usually, at least in my very unprofessional and statistically invalid poll, those multicultural characters play supporting rather than starring roles.
I wondered why this was, but then, as I listened to conversation unfold at a recent book club meeting where we discussed Kathryn Stocket’s The Help, I realized that a lot of it comes from the fact that there’s still a lot of prejudice in the world. And publishing being a business, I can only assume that there’s an assumption that having multicultural characters limits the target audience.
I’d like to think that the underrepresentation of multicultural characters in genre fiction has more to do with ignorance than it does with strategy, but knowing what I know about people and their beliefs from where I live in the South, I do think strategy and business planning plays a big part in the homogenous characters in genre fiction. Prejudice exists, even in those who don’t believe it does. Even in people in towns that think they are open-minded. Even in children today, which, to me, is the scariest part.
What I love about The Help is the message that we are all the same underneath our colors (not a new concept, but one that is worth repeating), and that change can truly begin with just one person. It may be slow, and it may be an uphill battle, but it can happen, and it has happened–over and over again.
The discussion of African American writers’ books being placed only in the African American book section of the bookstore has been going on since I began my writing career years ago. Book sellers, it seemed, thought putting all the books that had black characters and/or themes together would make them easier to find. On the flip side, the implication is that those who aren’t black need not bother looking in that section since those book clearly aren’t meant for them. Their intended audience was made clear. Somebody who’s not black wouldn’t want to read genre fiction about a black character.
Wrong.
At least that’s my opinion. We share this town, this state, this country, this world. We experience the same love, pain, joy, triumph, sadness, fear. Books are about the human condition, and we should share shelf space in the bookstores.
In my local store, this pigeon-holing of books isn’t as apparent, thankfully, but I wonder how it is in other parts of the country. I recently moved from California to Texas, and prejudice exists in so many ways here where it didn’t in California (not to say there isn’t prejudice there–there is). Reading the afterward in The Help enlightened me to how prevalent the class structure and prejudice still is in the deep south. Blatantly so. Disturbingly so. It’s such a foreign concept to me that I have a hard time understanding how and why it still exists.
Is it fair to assume that all people aren’t interested in the human condition, regardless of the color of the characters in a particular book? I don’t think so. I married into a Mexican family. My husband is Mexican American, born here, but with a strong sense of his family’s culture. This is a culture that I love and want to make real for my children. I want them to fully embrace their heritage, and to figure out what that means in their lives. That’s the very reason why the main character in my mystery series is a Latina. She is my children. Her family is our family. She represents one of the many manifestations of a Latina in America today, and her family is just one representation of a Latino family, just as my own family is.
I’ve tried to write books with no multicultural characters (and this took concerted effort), but ultimately I couldn’t do it. We live in such a diverse country, and there are so many unique perspectives on the different cultures represented here, that layered individuals who have a sense of culture different from the typical view of America draw me in as both a reader and a writer.
Your Herculean Task:
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Do you think the publishing landscape is becoming more colorful? What do you think about books with or without diversity between the pages?
Do you like a multicultural romance ala Jack Callaghan and Lola Cruz?
About Misa
Interesting! Our local bookstores don’t have sections specifically ‘back of the bus’ because the color or ethnicity of the writer. I find this very interesting and sort of sad. I don’t think I would be able to take my kids in a bookstore where they segregate authors this way.
My book club is reading The Help this month and I can’t wait to dive into it (AFTER THIS WEEK). I’ve recently noticed a lot more authors writing other than typical white Americans and I think it’s great. The whole Latino community is exploding with new authors and publishers are launching lines to specifically target some of these communities in order to reach the entire melting pot of this country.
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Misa Reply:
March 15th, 2010 at 8:21 am
I LOVE The Help. I think it’s interesting that it was written by a white woman, and wonder how it would have been received if it had been written by a black woman. Just a thought.
I love the relationship between Lola Cruz and Jack Callaghan and the cultural situations that come with it. We are such a melting pot and I love being part of that (and miss being around diversity!).
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I think multicultural/multiethnic/multiracial books are becoming more prominent in bookstores, at least in general romance section. Suzanne Brockmann discussed this very topic at her workshop during Nationals in DC last summer. She spoke of the first time she came up with a romance featuring one of her black Seals. And since then, she’s had more African American characters, as well as characters of other ethnicities.
I’ve noticed that there are publishers asking for more multicultural characters, especially e-pubs, so maybe the reading public’s views are changing. Some people have a tendency to like to read about characters that they relate to in looks and culture. I find it far more fascinating to read about other cultures, as well as places that I’ve never been.
I hope that the separation of books due to culture or race will soon be a thing of the past.
Great post! Got me thinking this morning.
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I was raised in a multicultral home. My father is half Irish and half native-american. As children we were more then just aware of prejudice, we saw the fear in our Chippewa grandmother’s eyes. My father was born on his peoples reservation, because the local doctor refused to enter the house of where a dirty Indian lived. My grandmother never went anywhere alone. She had seen the horrors of ingnorance first hand. But my mom and dad brought home her proud hertiage, and taught us to respect not only our hertiage, but other ethnic groups. To this day I’m so proud of my mother’s strick rule of never allowing us to use any desparaging names against ANYONE.
In my first marriage my father-in-law, didn’t want my children to know there native heritage, because as he put it, “they’d know there were natrually stupid.” He’s words, not mine. It was a shocking opinion. My ex-husband, refused to follow his father’s belief, and for that I admire him. He insisted my children know all their proud hertiages, from the shores of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, to the Chippewa of Northern Minnesota.
In my second marriage, I married a man who is half native-american, and Mexican. Poppy due to his parents divorce early in his life, spent his childhood on a reservation in Nebraska, with his mother’s people and family. One of his earliest memories was going into town. His grandmother always carried a large glass jar in the car, because in town, there was restrooms for the whites, and rest rooms for the African-Americans, but none for the redman. The reason for the jar, because both groups looked down on his color, which was in the middle. And neither allowed the redman in their restrooms.
Living in California we are very deverse. In my family, I have grandchildren who half, Phillipino, half Mexican, and half Cambodian. Christmas we ask everyone to bring a holiday to dish from their culture to the table. It is so coloful and fun, and blends my family completely.
I love multicultural books, and write my storis in that genre. It brings so much color to every age, and fun, of the quirks of every culture.
A great post, Misa…Thank You!!
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I noticed a couple of years ago at my local bookstore, that there was a new section called “African American”. I remember stopping and looking at it in surprise. Was that really necessary? Shouldn’t books be put together by genre instead of who might be reading them? It seemed wrong then and it still does. I do understand the idea that if you’re looking to read multicultural books you’d want to be able to go right to them, but on the other hand, it seems sad that they have to put them in their own place as though they aren’t part of the genre they write in. Maybe I’m just rambling though.
My family is very multicultural. My uncle married a woman from South Korea, a cousin married an Aboriginal woman, another aunt married a man from Inida. Skin comes in different colors, just like hair and eyes and personalities. For the most part, my characters are all caucasians, but that doesn’t mean I won’t write about Asians or Latinos or African Americans. In the end, it shouldn’t matter what you look like on the outside because we all bleed red anyway. Meh.
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I come from a very white bread family which has only recently added some color to our family tree. My grandson is part Salvadorean and my new SIL is half-Japanese and half-Irish/Scots. My BIl is Mexican and so is my daughter’s fiancee. So reading multi-cultural books don’t always come to me naturally. I will read any book on a recommedation so maybe I will start broadening my horizons.
It upsets me to see the AA section in our bookstore. So wrong, on so many levels.
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Preacher…meet choir LOL
Matter of fact we were talking about it a few weeks ago over at SFC–because of the new blog feature some twitter folks are doing regarding cover uh-ohs (for lack of a better word. forgive me i have a headache and I’m too tired to go look for the link–cover whitewashing).
Anyway, grew up the only biracial person in a white household so, yes, a lot of my characters tend to be diverse (as needs be. it’s not deliberate. but I’ll admit it’s also not something I usually give a ton of conscious thought to).
As much as the lack of culturally diverse characters in romance kinda sucks, the marginalization in bookstores seems to be worse on the suck-o-meter scale and for as long as I’ve been writing (abt 5 years), doesn’t seem to have gotten any better. It seems to be an ugly catch-22 with the average reader unaware that they can make waves and cause change as far as where and how books are shelved.
Suzanne Brockmann (and I mean no disrespect, but she’s white, okay?) can talk all day long about her black characters but her books aren’t shelved in the “black” section of the book store and the sad true fact seems to be (for the most part) that if you write “black fiction”, you either write category romance for Harlquein’s Kimini line or you write serious fiction (ala Oprah). There is no in between. There are also (as far as I know) no NYT bestselling suspense and/or thriller authors, so obviously, this problem is not exclusive to the romance genre.
And while I love love LOVED The Help (god no words for how much I loved that book), the sad fact remains that white authors who write black characters (hello, Alex Cross) tend to get more play than black authors (for some odd reason, the words, “I have black friends,” is running through my head)…I’m not sure this is true with white authors who write characters of other races….but thinking of the few Latina authors(or authors like yourself, Misa, who married in…:D ) who I know write Latina and/or diverse characters, there does *seem* to be more leeway as far as what they/you can write and NOT get marginalized (shoved into category romance etc).
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And to specifically answer your questions LOL
Do you think the publishing landscape is becoming more colorful? What do you think about books with or without diversity between the pages?
NY publishing moves at a dinosaurs pace so there might be change, but it’s slow. Very slow. I see a LOT more diversity in epublishing and have heard from more than one erotic romance author — for example that sexy romances featuring romances featuring white men and black women — or vice versa– are a hot seller.
I honestly, probably don’t think about diversity in and of itself as much as I should–when I’m book shopping. I’m always interested in reading, well, damn near anything really, and encourage my kids to also, but good books are good books and sucky books are sucky books and that’s a bigger influence than a character’s race (if that make’s sense)
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I LOVE LOVE LOVE all the thoughtful comments about this topic! Thank you all for stopping by and giving your perspectives. The publishing world is ever changing, and I hope will continue to change in this area, as well.
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