Should "black books" be shelved separately?

aruna · Dec 9, 2006

Browsing Galleycat this am I came across this titbit:

Check out the front page of today's Wall Street Journal, as Jeffrey Trachtenberg considers the question of where to shelve African-American fiction writers: "in African-American departments, a move that often helps nurture writers, [or] presented alongside other categories, such as general literature, allowing books written by black authors to take their place in publishing's mainstream?" It's a significant question because, at least for the first nine months of this year, black fiction appears to be performing at a better financial pace than the rest of the industry. Over at Bookspan, to take another perspective, the Black Expressions book club is more than 100,000 members ahead of the Book of the Month franchise and is "expected to generate double-digit growth in both its sales and membership through the next few years."

Still, there's the lingering question, as posed by Marva Allen of Harlem's Hue-Man Bookstore: "How many white readers will browse through a book when the front cover depicts black characters and the author is black?" Trachtenberg talks to plenty of writers who accept that initial premise, dealing with it either as ghettoization or the existence of a built-in audience—it's too bad there isn't any significant challenge to the assumption, though, because the success of Walter Mosley or, on a lesser commercial scale, the late Octavia Butler does present some other ways to think about the issue.

I am particularly interested because the MC of my novel - to be shopped to publshers in January - is black, but I don't consider it "black" literature (or worse yet, African-American, as she is NOT American!). Her race is just incidental to the story and really doesn't even come up - just mentioned in passing when she says that her (white) love interest's skin is tanned "almost as dark as hers", and in one other similar remark. Readers will however assume she is non-white.

What do you think of the last part of the above quote: do readers today care about race or skin colour, or - assuming that most readers in the US are white - do they want to read about characters that look like themselves? I don't know anything about the American book market so I am very curious. Obvisouly, my agent thinks it's a mainsteam book but do you think this is risky?

IrishScribbler · Dec 9, 2006

Like many things in literature, I think it depends on the book. In situations like yours, where the main character's race is not emphasized (and barely mentioned), it should be considered mainstream fiction. However, if the story deals with issues specific to an ethnic/racial group (or gender, for that matter), it could be useful to separate it from mainstream.

bsolah · Dec 9, 2006

I think it should be kept with all the other books. If I'm not mistaken, segregation was abolished decades ago. It doesn't matter if the book deals with questions of race. If we split books that dealt with issues of indifference (homosexuality, women, race etc) it'd be totally ridiculous.

I've heard this argument before - from a white supremacist - who considered black literature inferior.

PeeDee · Dec 9, 2006

My novel has black characters in it. You won't spot 'em unless you're looking for them. They're prominent characters (main character, and main supporting character) but the race is just there. It's not relevant.

I don't really care what your skin color is. Write a story that moves me, that I care about, it doesn't matter to me at all.

I don't like the idea of books being shelved seperately from the rest of the store simply because the author is black, or a character is black. It's still segregation, whether it's against African-Americans (what a clumsy phrase) or for them.

PeeDee · Dec 9, 2006

bsolah said:
I've heard this argument before - from a white supremacist - who considered black literature inferior.

Obviously this white supremacist (probably a fool) hasn't read any Octavia E. Butler.

Willowmound · Dec 9, 2006

I didn't realise white supremacists read at all.

Mein Kampf maybe?

zorasaura · Dec 10, 2006

.

African american studies is an academic discipline that has its own departments, so I suppose it merits a separate section, but I am not sure why african american fiction should be in a separate place. I leave it to the reading public. Maybe some readers want to read fiction with black characters and they want it to be easy to find in its own section. The industry will do what sells.

ChaosTitan · Dec 10, 2006

Honestly? I have never based my book-buying on the race of the author. That's silly and utter nonsense. The only time I read the "About the Author" blurb is to check and see if this is their first novel or not.

As for the race of the characters? If the book is in my favored genres and the blurb is interesting, I'll read it. I won't put the book back because the main characters are <insert race or ethnic group here>. I will, however, put a book back if the premise doesn't interest me or if the protags don't appeal to me in someway.

I can honestly say that a novel set in South Central LA about an African-American street gang in the middle of a drug war with the LAPD and a rival gang is not something that I will read. Is there a market for it? Absolutely. Just like there are markets for many other kinds of stories that I may not find appealing. Doesn't mean there should be individual sections in the bookstore for them.

If we're going that route, I want all novels dealing with characters and their paranormal abilities shelved together so I can find them more easily.

Birol · Dec 10, 2006

The thing is, as a reader, I don't really give an author a thought beyond his/her name. I don't care if they're male or female, or if they are white, black, or covered in purple polka dots. Just give me a decent story, brain candy of the flavor I'm craving at that moment. Even the author's name is something I only fully register if I want to find and read more of what I've just consumed.

Deleted member 42 · Dec 10, 2006

Birol said:
Just give me a decent story, brain candy of the flavor I'm craving at that moment. Even the author's name is something I only fully register if I want to find and read more of what I've just consumed.

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Birol · Dec 10, 2006

Yes. And?

Deleted member 42 · Dec 10, 2006

Takes one to know one?

lmaistros · Dec 10, 2006

interesting topic

This is an interesting topic for me because I've worked in the music retail business for many years. This type of segregation (and it is, I think, segregation) has been common in music shops since the dawn of time (or, at least, since the invention of music shops.) As in:

White: Rock/Pop
Black: Soul/R&B

This may seem harmless till you notice that Lenny Kravitz is turning up in Soul/R&B and G.Love and Beastie Boys are finding there way into Rock/Pop.

Personally, I think it's a dangerous thing for people to just accept. Truth is, there's a lot of gray area in music AND literature, as far as race. For music, there's a lot of rock in most soul, and there's a lot of soul in most rock. Same goes for literature. Ultimately, all art is (or should be) about the human experience. The idea of seperation, even polite seperation, cannot serve art well.

I wrote a novel about New Orleans and the early days of jazz. Most of the characters are black. I'm white. So far, no one has mentioned this as a problem. My agent certainly hasn't. But I suspect it will come up sooner or later. I hope I'm wrong. Mostly, I hope it won't matter.

Louie

J.S Greer · Dec 10, 2006

I dont see why "Black books" should have any seperate distinction from others.

One of the best goalies in the nhl played in the 80's in Edmonton. He was black. Ive never heard him referred to as "A hell of a black goalie" just "A hell of a goalie."

As an avid NHL fan ive never really cared either, though it is hard not to notice a black player in the NHL, which is predominately white.

Black or white, I'd just love to be known as a good writer.

aruna · Dec 10, 2006

lmaistros said:
Ultimately, all art is (or should be) about the human experience. The idea of seperation, even polite seperation, cannot serve art well.

Louie

Exactly, And I was suprised to find out that there IS such a separation in the US. You don't have that here in the UK. A shelf for African-British authors? Doesn't exist. Not even the term exists. And I believe such a separation according to race is more contributing to racism than helping to eliminate it.

Inkdaub · Dec 10, 2006

I don't think it's a good idea and agree with many of the reasons mentioned in this thread. My first thought upon opening this thread and reading the blurb was why 'why would we do that?'

J.S Greer · Dec 10, 2006

aruna said:
Exactly, And I was suprised to find out that there IS such a separation in the US. You don't have that here in the UK. A shelf for African-British authors? Doesn't exist. Not even the term exists. And I believe such a separation according to race is more contributing to racism than helping to eliminate it.

Thats really the best point to make.

aruna · Dec 10, 2006

Meanwhile, here's the start of the Wall Street Journal article mentioned in the first post. Unfortunately, to read the rest you have to be a subscriber.

Brandon Massey's readers tell him they know just where to find his horror novels -- in the African-American section of bookstores. He's torn about whether or not this is a good thing.

"You face a double-edged sword," says Mr. Massey, 33 years old. "I'm black and I'm published by a black imprint, so I'm automatically slotted in African-American fiction." That helps black readers to find his books easily and has underpinned his career. At the same time, he says, the placement "limits my sales."

Should fiction written by black authors be shelved in African-American departments, a move that often helps ...
• THE FULL WSJ.com ARTICLE IS ONLY AVAILABLE T

Deleted member 42 · Dec 10, 2006

You don't have it everywhere, but yes, it is common. It's so common that there are special subject headings in the LOC index. I think that makes sense; I'm less happy about, well, shelving segregtion.

Atlantis · Dec 10, 2006

I think its a very stupid idea and racist. I'm a white Aussie girl. I'm planning to write a story about a black Brazilian girl who is blinded when her abusive boyfriend throws acid into her face during an argument. She becomes horribly scarred, both emotionally and phsyically, during the time her body heals she develops a power to "guide" people to their true love with a touch of the hand so they will never have to go through the experience of a failed relationship like she did. She becomes the Virtue of Chasity. I love including black characters in my book. As a fantasy writer, I love to experiment with their features and give them dark chocolate skin with blonde hair and peircing green eyes to make them stand out (most of my characters have powers or unique family lines which explains their strange colouring) I think black skin is very beautiful and exotic. I think its stupid and unnesscary for authors to be split into seperate groups, white and black, or to think that some readers will not want to read a book with a black character on the front. Who the hell cares? As long as the book has a good story, I don't care if the main character is a crippled monkey man with purple hair. It shouldn't matter.

aadams73 · Dec 10, 2006

I don't care what color the author/characters are; I just care about a good story. Shelve by genre, not by color.

scarletpeaches · Dec 10, 2006

I wonder what sort of outcry there would be if some authors said they wanted their books shelved under 'white men's literature'? If it's racist for white people, it's racist for black people.

Neither do I think harping back to the civil rights movement is a valid argument. Surely that was all about getting rid of the belief things should be divided according to colour?

"How many white readers will browse through a book when the front cover depicts black characters and the author is black?"

Sounds like you've got more of a chip on your shoulder about colour than any of them white folks do, dear.

Celia Cyanide · Dec 10, 2006

Then why is there a separate category for "women's fiction"?

aadams73 · Dec 10, 2006

Celia Cyanide said:
Then why is there a separate category for "women's fiction"?

Is there? This is a serious question, definitely not a snarky one. My local B&N and Borders have "women's fiction" shelved with "fiction and literature" (or some similar wording which escapes me right now.)

Writing Jedi · Dec 10, 2006

J.S Greer said:
One of the best goalies in the nhl played in the 80's in Edmonton.

Grant Fuhr! Right on! :Thumbs:

Anyway, I'm another one that is stumped by the seperation by race in literature. I have a friend that is black (actually I am half-black myself but I look white so I would probably never fly in black literature) and she is adamant that the segregation is necessary so that her black readers can find her. Oh well, I just disagree.

Should "black books" be shelved separately?

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