It's six-thirty in the morning, seven days into a new year, a new decade and already the world is imploding. Politics in the USA aside, you have to be living under a rock if you have not seen the turmoil and division that is Romancelandia.
If you have been under a rock, maybe that's where you should stay. See having a point of view right now is downright dangerous. If you don't happen to be a minority and speak out on how you feel over the way the RWA (Romance Writer's of America) has handled themselves, you will most likely see your career called into question. Be accused of being a bigot, racist or privileged.
A little about me, particularly things I don't really talk about. Why because it has no merit on my ability to spin a novel. I am a thirty-seven, (soon to be thirty-eight) white, Bi-sexual woman, living with Bipolar and severe Anxiety. Oh, I'm also 5-4 and over 300lbs. I come from a blended family, not only by way of marriage (Two brothers from my mom, and a brother and sister from my dad) but also by way of racial background. My mother's sons are half Purto Rician on their dad's side, and my mother's siblings are half African American. I did not grow up with money, my parents busted ass to try to make life comfortable, but there were those not so comfortable times. Roach infested apartment complexes, not having a car for several years at a time. Always living hand to mouth while I was little.
Even now I live under what most call the poverty level. I collect my SSI because my mental and other co-morbid issues make it impossible for me to hold a regular job. I live on less than 800.00 a month. Yeah, you read that right. Do the math, the average of what I make comes out to about 4.50 an hour if I worked 40 hours a week. I couldn't tell you how I make it work but I do.
What's my point in telling you all this? My point is that I have a bit of experience in sideways glances, gossip and being made to feel like I don't matter. That what I've tried to accomplish doesn't matter.
So that brings me to the RWA shitstorm. Now I saw the complaint that was initially sent to the RWA about Courtney Milan. It explained in detail that Ms. Milan had publically and rather viciously called out an author for supposed "Racist content." Citing that, with screenshots, the evidence of this wrongdoing was in the descriptions of an Asian-mixed character, by a white female writer. The description mentions the shape of the character's eyes (Slanted and almond, if memory serves) and refers to her as "an exotic and mysterious beauty." The character was also referred to as "demure" and the fact that she had "Blue Eyes." Well, people lost their everloving minds. Saying it was an antiquated and racially inappropriate depiction of the character.
Okay, so the character in question has been explained as mixed Asian and white, so eye color could be anything. Yes, there are "typical traits" but natural mutations occur. How many people of African descent have blue, green or hazel eyes? So why not an Asian mixed character?
Let me ask, for those in the cheap seats, how would you describe a person of (insert racial background different from yours) descent to someone who may have not met or perhaps could not even see them? Would you leave out something as important as how their faces or features are shaped? Including their lips, hairline, and gasp! Their eyes? I wouldn't. It would be bad storytelling. If one does not explain what characters look like then we all go to our defaults, but for a writer the who, what, when, where, why and how should and does apply to our characters. Is it racist to describe an African, Islamic, Greek, LatinX, etc, descended character by the nuances of their melanin level? Probably a little bit, but it is a deciding factor when differentiating one character from another. I mean if we all just wrote he was dark and handsome or he was a black man, it would get very boring very fast for readers. But to say skin was sun-kissed or eyes were the color of molten chocolate paints a vivid picture. We as writers are and or should always be painting with our words.
We should also be careful with them. In that I mean this whole debacle was because the airing of these "issues" was done in a public forum, Twitter. The initial complaint is that Ms. Milan bashed this author for her words and cited the work as racist. Publically calling it "garbage" The complaint claimed that these allegations caused harm to the author's business and reputation. That this was an act of bullying and that Ms. Milan needed to be held accountable for her actions.
The RWA's response was to remove Ms. Milan from her seat on the ethics committee and suspend her. Again people lost their minds. Saying she was being censored, that she was right and that the RWA was very, very wrong. Now, it has come to light that not was all it seemed. Separate groups were established to make the decision, the reasons for this is speculation. The RWA has lost its footing because it chose to handle things in the public forum. Leaving them open to even more scrutiny. Is the RWA made up of mostly white, hetero women? Yeah, probably, but that is because those are the people joining the RWA. It is true that their membership fees are "ahem" lofty, but until this incident, they were the supposed elite in Romancelandia. They were the cream of the crop. Those who joined were part of a gated community. If people want more inclusion then they need to include themselves. If POC and men (who are 50% of the population and shit on the most by Romance Writers BTW want to bee seen they need to step up. Write the stories, publish them, market them. Join the community.
It wasn't long ago women had to write as men just to be seen. Hell, try to write anything other than romance as a woman and be taken seriously. Before the RWA romance was a niche, a dirty word, something to be kept under the mattress. It was this organization that helped to level the playing field and take romance to the mainstream. This is a community that is so divided within itself that we snub subgenres, like erotica. We are often left afraid of each other. Afraid of having an opposing view of a situation. Afraid of coming out on the wrong side of history.
If an author can be called out and bashed for antiquated writing from the 90s then I guess it's time we for lack of a better term "whitewash" and sterilize all of the classics. From Mark Twain to Shakespeare. Pull to Kill a Mocking bird, Tom Sawyer, Hamlet. Gone with the Wind. Mien Kamph. They all depict a time and a world view that is now considered wrong. Let's build a fire and just set it all ablaze, shall we?
Does that seem a little extream to you? Maybe we should just ban anything written before the year 2020 since this seems to be the year of enlightenment. I don't stand with the RWA, but I also don't stand with Ms. Milan. I think this whole thing should have been handled differently. I believe that as writers we have a voice, individual and chaotic. There will always be opposing views, there will always be those that are underrepresented because they aren't raising their hands to be counted. When people spend all of their time hatemongering and calling out, the wrong and none of their time setting the record straight the view gets skewed. Women now dominate the Romance industry because we produced quality work, en masse. We flooded the market and like everything else, we fought tooth and nail to be seen. All women, not just rich white- hetero ones. We need to stop seeing race, gender, and orientation. We should be held accountable for the messages we share, but we should also not be bullied or bashed for showing a part of the world that is still very much here. Or attacked for assumed sins of the past. As writers, the goal should be to tell the tales, share the stories, teach the lessons, it doesn't always come easy, or as politically correct as everyone wants, we are but human, and therefore we have the limitations set by the rest of the populace.
Maybe instead of kneejerk anger and hostility, we should try to open a dialogue. Find the root of something, the why. The deeper meaning. Instead of calling out the problems what are we not offering up solutions? Why are we not trying to counter the hate and ignorance with love and education?
I don't have the answers to these questions. For me, I will continue to write as I always have. From my heart, I drop a little piece of my soul into everything I write. I write all walks of life. About all genders, orientations, and ethnic backgrounds. If I do no thave experience with a cultural background, I do my research if it is flawed in any way it is because the information on that subject was flawed. Perhaps more people need to add to the research pool so that it is as deep and rich as the people and cultures of this world. We need to stop pointing fingers and try to remember when we point one, three are facing back at us. It is up to us as writers to change the face of the industry, to stand and be counted for our own work, and not how loudly we can call out our colleagues. It makes us look petty and divided. We need to rise above it. We need to be united. Support each other, educate others while remembering that our experiences have an effect on how we each see the world.
How our readers see our world is directly and proportionately affected by how we paint and repaint it. Stay true to yourselves, don't be afraid to show the world who and what you are. Fill the pages with great stories and talk about the hard topics, talk about the world a sit is, as it was and as it could be.
Above all, be a representative, not just of your niche in the world but of humankind.
