This is an article I wrote for my local RWA chapter's newsletter (which I edit, so I am assured of getting my work into it, right? I've only published my own stuff about 3 times in the 5 years I've put it together). I had already planned this topic before RWA made its statement on diversity.
I originally wrote an article, trying to give my credentials as a white woman who has friends and family who are diverse in various ways. But then decided to instead send everyone to read what other people have to say. I didn't want to be "that liberal lady, armchair pundit, Social Justice Warrior." I mean, it's about signal boosting and leveling the playing field, opening channels, etc.
“White Privilege is your history being part of
the core curriculum and mine being taught as an elective.”
As a straight, white woman, raised
in middle-class, Midwestern America as a Protestant Christian, I’m not the best
person to talk about diversity, no matter who my family and friends are. I’m
also extremely socially awkward, so if I don’t remember your name, it’s not
because of racism, it’s because I know only that I met “a nice woman with
glasses,” but today you’re wearing contacts.
What I want to talk about is “Signal Boosting.”
It’s seeking out authors whose
works I haven’t read before and reading romance that is outside the straight,
white paradigm and appreciating it and reviewing it, just as I do other books.
It’s following non-straight,
non-white authors on social media and not telling them that they are wrong when
they get angry at mistreatment.
It’s listening to how I might not
have been as open-minded as I thought I was. If I’ve had struggles as a woman,
imagine the struggles non-straight, non-white people have had.
It’s not “Political Correctness” to
talk to and about other people in the way they wish to be addressed.
It’s respect.
It’s compassion.
It’s not about feeling like you are
appreciating something exotic. It’s appreciating that these other human beings
have a story to tell.
It’s about leveling the playing
field. It’s about giving the same opportunities to all authors and rewarding
talent.
It’s listening to the reaction of
people of conscience to an inspirational romance set in a Nazi death camp.
Between a Jewish woman and a Nazi officer. That ends by her converting to
Christianity. I’m still horrified. But I’d rather you to go see
what Rose Lerner had
to say about it and tell you to read True Pretenses, a
Regency-England-set romance novel with a Jewish con artist hero.
It’s reading Nalini Singh and
Barbara Ferrer and Beverly Jenkins and Sonali Dev and Courtney Milan and
Jeannie Lin—because they are great authors.
It’s asking your library and
bookstores to stock them.
And asking your publisher why they
only publish romance novels by a few Persons of Color. Or they only publish African
American books in a separate imprint that gets shelved separately. Where is the
rest of humanity?
It’s visiting Women of Color in Romance and finding new books
and new authors.
It’s gaining a new perspective.
And yes, please add diverse
characters to your books. BUT if you have a POC or LGBTQ or other diverse
character, please make them NOT:
a) The only diverse character, like
some non-white guy who happens to hang around with white people,
b) The only diverse character and the
villain,
c) A stereotype.
There are a lot of people who say
it all much better than I do. Here are a few more of them:
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