As I was reading through my Tumblr, I came across an article
by the Huffington Post called “America Lacks Multicultural Literature.” Feel
free to read it yourself; it is an interesting read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tejas-desai/america-lacks-multicultur_b_5311322.html.
Though I agree that most of the protagonists and characters in American
literature are white, I can off the top of my head think of some multicultural
characters, especially in adult fiction which I will discuss in a later blog post.
When these high school protagonists are described, they are
usually long-haired brunettes that are awkwardly lanky, most of them with
notably “honey” eyes. Honey eyes are an extremely overused cliché that should
never, ever be used. However, none of these girls, the fixations of the
paranormal hottie who loves them beyond time and space, have any color.
I could never begin to tell you why this is, just that I
have noticed it. Black girls don’t date vampires, werewolves, angels, what-have-you. Neither do any other minorities, such as Native Americans or Asians. Some may be Latina, but only in looks. I am near begging for a good paranormal romance in which the protagonist is not
a white female from an upper-middle class family who usually has both of her
parents in the picture.
For a genre that allows for so much diversity in their
paranormal character: Vampire, werewolf, shifters, angels, ghosts, time
travelers, elves, mermaids, selkies, etc, I just wish they did the same for the
human character.
So, my question is, do you agree with me that there is a lack of racial diversity? Can you think of any true teenage paranormal romances with a Black/Native/Asian/Latina/Other race? Please feel free to post in the comments and I would love to read them!
Desai, T. (2014, May 12). America Lacks Multicultural Literature. The Huffington Post. Retrieved May 14, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tejas-desai/america-lacks-multicultur_b_5311322.html
Cabot, M. (2011). Abandon. New York: Point.
Great blog! I don't really read any paranormal romance novels to speak of, but as far as the paranormal and science-fiction genre in general, I can definitely agree that it's overall white protagonists. I think Noelle's thoughts on writers "writing what they know" to be overall pretty accurate. Even in my own writing, I have five total non-Caucasian main protagonists I can think of. One of them was hard for me, because I was afraid of what people may think of me putting him, as the race he was, in that role. I'm sure a lot of authors dabble with the idea of another race, and struggles like public opinion and such probably have a lot to do with why they end up white. Another thing, though, is a lot of writers don't specifically mention race. I usually don't, but it may come up as the "dark skinned man" or the "pale girl" or something. I think it's also just become a general norm, though. I have a black friend who writes as well, and I've noticed a lot of her main characters are white in this particular set as well. It's not just being white, as the blog states, there's also a certain "look" that most of the girls in those novels stick to. Really it's the same with a lot of character types, race aside. A lot of them fit a certain cookie cutter appearance with small deviations.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
ReplyDeleteSo do you think a white person writing a black character may be frightened of stereotyping or offending the POC community? I just found that, in the last book I read, the protagonist female had issues that normal white teens have (hair, nails, weight) mentioned. If I am a white writer, could I write my POC main character to have the same issues without offending anyone? My african descent girl friends that I have are very sensitive about their hair. Could my character be as well, or would it offend someone? I can see that people write what they know; maybe we need some more minority writers then.