So, I thought this was pretty interesting while I was in New
York for BEA and Book Con. I had all
eight of my books out on display, and most people were amazed by my covers,
especially The Color of God’s Eyes
and The Light Book: Awakening. Eventually, I had an African American woman
stop at my booth and she seemed puzzled, and then, a little indignant. She said, “I’m just curious. How come there aren’t more people of color on
your covers?”
Then, I was puzzled.
My featured poster is of Charlotte, a slave whose story is not only
compelling but very empowering. Out of
my eight books, this is the one I’ve been sending emails about and getting
interviews for. This is my main baby of
interest. Then I quickly pointed to Superkid, which features an obviously black
girl with naturally poofy hair, a Chinese boy, and a half Mexican boy. All three of these children are on the
cover. After pointing this out, I
received a, “Yeah, but…” response.
I then told her that The
Light Book: Awakening features a very diverse cast. It takes place on earth, but it’s an
alternate earth. The children aren’t
from our countries as we know them, but for the sake of relating them, I would
say there are two white European children, two South American children (one of
them is Albino), two white children that would be in the U.S. territory, a
Japanese girl, and a black girl that does have some European white roots as
well. And her chapter largely deals with
racism. This, you cannot tell by a
cover. That’s why there’s the saying: “You
can’t always judge a book by its cover”.
Sunrise Sunset has
a white girl on the cover. She got me on
that one. Her love interest is mixed. Almost
Alive has a white girl. Becoming Undone has a white man, but
actually, the model looks a little bit Middle Eastern. But when I pointed to that series, I said
teasingly, “These two are demon possessed.
You don’t want them to be black!” But the most powerful character in the series that everyone looks up to is an elderly black woman.
I even told her about my character, Briana, who was one of
the very first characters I created that is loosely based off of my sister,
Sabrina. She’s a part of my Superficial series, which isn’t ready to
be released yet only because it’s so incredibly close to my heart.
So after defending myself to her, I got bold and said,
“Since you wanted to criticize me for the lack of diversity, how about you
support me and purchase a book?” And
then, I pointed to the most obvious black character, Charlotte.
She said, “No. I was
just curious what goes through the authors’ minds...” She smiled and just kind of played it off
like it wasn’t a big deal to her, even though she tried to put me on blast. But she rubbed me the wrong way because I
didn’t see someone who came to support one of her own. She wanted to criticize. Now maybe she just didn’t have the money to
buy a book, and that’s fine. But her
attitude was combative, and all I’m trying to do is live my dream.
As a black author, I have had conversations with people
close to me about how if I don’t have black characters, I will be checked by
people of my race. Now, I have always
had black characters from the first book I wrote to the first one I actually
had published. But I think I’d face
another problem anyway, because I don’t always want to write stereotypical
black characters. And to some black
people, if you’re just some “Oreo”, then you don’t count anyway. The Cosby
Show was a fantastic sitcom, but I know blacks that believe it is a
terrible representation of black America because they say black families aren’t
like that. But while growing up, my household
was a lot more like the Huxtables or the Winslows rather than any of the
ratchetness that is displayed on BET. Growing
up, I was criticized because I spoke very proper in my urban school. Someone accused me of “trying to act white”. This sort of ignorance is sadly a common occurrence.
I have characters that are black and fit in some stereotypes,
some in the middle, and some that will only be identifiable as “black” because
of the pigmentation of their skin. That
doesn’t make any of them less or more black.
The problem with creating a niche of urban characters that would mostly appeal
to black readers is when someone like my criticizer comes by and does a lot of
talk but doesn’t want to support. I
hashtag #WENEEDDIVERSEBOOKS all of the time, but I’m not really getting any
retweets. Now, I don’t want people just
to support me just because I’m black. I
want people to love my stories because I’m a fantastic writer with an amazing
imagination. However, it does move me
when someone wants to show support whether it be because I’m black, young, a
woman, or an indie author doing this on my own.
I mean no disrespect to those who write primarily urban books. You do you.
I’ll be me. But I have observed
that if you’re a black author, it’s expected that those are the types of books
you should be writing. Sci-fi black
authors seems to be rare (unless you’re at a comic con).
I decided a long time ago that I was gonna write exactly
what I wanted to write. When I make a
story and create a character, I’m compelled to tell their story. I don’t have a race quota, and I’m not going
to hinder my characters like that either.
Just telling the stories I wanted to tell has already given me a very
diverse group of characters.
Honestly, I’m very proud of Charlotte because she is such a
strong heroine, and I think we’re sadly lacking in strong female characters,
but there’s especially a shortage when it comes to black women. I love Kiara from Superkid. Besides her
outrageous hair, the most striking characteristic is her unparalleled
intelligence. Briana from
Superficial is very moral. Nilliana
from The Light Book is extremely caring
and will put others before herself.
I’m comfortable in the stories that I tell and the
characters that I create. I want my
stories to transcend all barriers. I would
like to believe that all races can appreciate their struggles and their
triumphs. They are worth more to me than
a niche.
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