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When I published my first novel, The Ebony Tree, I'll never forget how I found out later my then 23-year niece ran into the house and laughed out loud after reading the book. Now remember, my niece had always been a reader avid romance white since his teens, but reading my book was like landing on Mars to her. She reportedly asked her mother: "Mom, Aunt Maxine not do that? Have you guys actually "play white? "
My sister-in-law told him: "Not only did we play white, we dreamed in white. That's all we've ever seen in books or television characters were white. It seemed that they had all the fun. "
In general, most blacks grew up in the 50s with pictures of Jesus on the wall-plate, the white Santa Claus and even the white angels. There was nothing in the media or in books that reflect the beauty of blackness. Needless to say, if there were books beside the Bible at home, they are not black books. He sent a silent message that Black was ugly and white was beautiful. This was as negative an experience when playing was forbidden to slaves.
Fastforward almost half a century. I know my child rearing, which are now all adults, who have had books at home was dark, and remains, a good influence on their self-esteem and confidence. When a person is in the literature, he or she reads it indirectly contributes to building a better self image. For literature, we find our models, archetypes from which we can learn life lessons. More specifically, the African-American literature, the stories are relevant to the experience Blacks in this country. These experiences range of people from different socio-economic classes, from different cities of the country, of different professions. We often receive Horatio Alger rags to riches story, to overthrow the rich to-rags story. Most these stories make social commentary on how we all play a role in the symphony of the American Dream.
Black Writers on the rise, " screamed the headlines. I believed them. After all, seeing the different kinds of books in the local African-Americans, especially Black bookstores that do not that? Had it not getting better for us than the black writers since the late 1980s? However, after attending the Show Book of America (formerly the American Book Association) held in Los Angeles, California in late April 1999, I had a rude awakening. Because of seeing all the books in bookstores predominantly black dispersed throughout Los Angeles, I was lulled into a false sense of complacency that we as African American writers, were published at the same speed as traditional books. To say the least, I was disappointed.
Yes, the Book Fair of 1999 was a big eye-opening. The bad news is: Our problems (such as African American writers) are far from over. When I compared the books represented by major publishers, I saw that the percentage of Black books is infinitely small compared to other breeds. Not one to be a soothsayer, but I feel the number of African American books may disappear as they did after the Harlem Renaissance, after the late '40s, and after the revolution 60s, if we do not control our own written words.
However, the good news is this. The increase is known in the number of African American books can be attributed, in general, not only to more publishers Black, Black Publishers, but self-published books. Given the advent of desktop publishing, Internet, and the black book clubs, many writers take control of our destiny and we empowerment by publishing our own stories.
So consider these questions. What are other ways having more black books have helped? Is it easier to get published by major as a black writer in a tight publishing market? Why self-publishing so important, especially for black writers, if you can not get your books published by major? To encourage other writers to write their stories, here are some good things black literature has brought to this country.
1. Hello. To paraphrase Toni Cade Bambara, fiction you hard back from the edge as a black person in America.
2. Continuity with your ancestors. To paraphrase Toni Morrison, "If you are not written about the village that you just do not write about something. "
3. A reading public that is eager to see stories that reflect their reality.
4. One way to restore the history that was not allowed to be written in the past.
5. One way to raise up the next generation through the printed word, in addition to our oral tradition, reflected in rap, Hip Hop, and Poetry.
6. One way to promote understanding between races and ethnic groups. I learned a lot about other parts of the Diaspora, when I read books by Haitian Americans, or when I read Chinese American literature, literature or any other crop.
Recently a teacher told me during an autograph session, a study was conducted at his school. It was found that all the little black girls said their image of beauty was still a blond, blue-eyed child. Imagine! It was December 1999! It reminds me of the tragic story in the book by Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eyes, where the child flogged Black, Pecola, went crazy, all because she wanted blue eyes. creation of this book was around 1940.
My point is this. If we continue to write our stories down, we as African American writers, can never be parity in the world of books. But at the same time, we will not have another generation little black girls playing white, like my friends and I, with scarves and towels draped over her hair, which seemed nice enough. Or perhaps, we will not have the girls going crazy as fiction Pecola did.
Copyright 2006 Black Butterfly Press
Dr. Maxine Thompson is an author, literary agent, literary coach, ghostwriter and Internet Radio Show Host. You can email her at maxtho@sbcglobal.net. You can sign up for a free newsletter at http://www.maxinethompson.com
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