Recently I received a small yellow booklet in the mail, a collection of essays on race and white privilege in the United States. The essays are written and self-published by Barbara Beckwith, a friend, journalist and activist in the area of race relations, with titles such as “Did you Hear the One About the….?” And “The Joy of Stereotyping”.  The writing is strong, pithy, with good humor and pointed anecdotes.  What sets the essays apart is the point of view: Barbara is a white person who wants to address the knotty issues of race, not just as social injustice, but as weaknesses in the whole system; not from guilt, but from self-discovery.  As important and hard-hitting as her message is, there’s a problem – no one's looking to publish this stuff for a wider audience. 

 I know the dilemma – well.  My two longer works, as well as some short stories and novellas, revolve around race and culture.  After ardent rounds of queries to publishers and editors, I’ve had no takers. This is based on the short cover letter and brief synopsis, the description of the works, not the writing itself.  Mainly, I assume it’s rejection based on topic and handling of topic. The situation seems to be, people of color are welcome to share their experience - and that’s a good thing. Otherwise, the assumption is whites writing about race is white liberal guilt -1. already done. 2. no use talking about it 3. problems are intractable 4. not really a problem for most white people on a day to day basis.

 My poor husband watches me work at this enterprise: “Write to the market,” he says. So sensible!  I see what is selling: suspense blockbusters; fantasy; and romance.  Vampires!  Witches and Werewolves!  I loved the vampire soap opera, Dark Shadows, from the 1970’s, but don’t have it in me to conjure up those worlds.  And yet, strangely, the paranormal, fantasy, and sci-fi books are so much about different “types” of peoples and races, and the star-crossed lovers from these worlds: there’s your dramatic tension.  So, why not the homegrown stuff: red, black, white, yellow and brown? In truth, interracial romances are doing quite well. But, in romance, the love relationship is the primary thing, and it must end somewhat happily. There is interracial romance in my novel “Blue Eyes in Black Wonderland”, but it’s incidental to the story of being a white minority within a primarily African American world.  Without the romance, it’s not much of a sell.

 Ah, what about Secret Life of Bees? – a contemporary book on race, not a romance, which has done well. It’s a beautifully written book, and the idea of “reconstituted family” is powerful. But in the end, judging from my own experience, I find it more of a fairy tale – how kind and good the black people are who take in the fourteen year old white girl. To me, the situation is more complex and dangerous; I can’t seem to ignore the lingering anger and distrust that finds its way into most black/ white relationships on some level, and must be dealt with in order to move on.  There has to be a whole range of types, for any race.  In “Blue Eyes in Black Wonderland”, white Tara endures sexual harassment from the white restaurant manager because she needs the waitress job. But there is also Morris, a black kid from Baltimore, who seeks to terrorize and intimidate her.  Yes, now it gets harder. Then the risk is that the negative portrayal becomes offensive and racist, even if the perception of a fictional character.

 Maybe I’m jealous. Those southern writers seem to have all the passionate characters and dramatic scenes: no mothers are accidentally shot to death in my more temperate world.Maybe my writing is not strong enough to support the subject; it’s possible.  More likely, I’m cowardly about fixing the writing, putting out the inquiries, keeping at the job of trying to get published a work whose subject does not immediately draw readers; and if read, may spark controversy or worse.  Barbara Beckwith is not afraid; she keeps at it, getting out the message. Maybe her booklet is a kick in the pants; maybe it’s time to get back out there.  In the time of Obama, much has changed; perhaps a more receptive audience.  On the other hand, after Emancipation came Recontruction and Jim Crow; two steps forward; another one back. We’re not finished with race yet.