MLK, #OscarSoWhite & Writers of Color
MLK day falls during an interesting time in the United States. With the resurgent voice of White, Conservative Republicanism ala #Trump2016, and the release of the Oscar nominees, it feels increasingly poignant to remember that 60 years ago people died so that we can get to where we are. It is difficult to admit to myself that, although we are nowhere near where we used to be, life as a Person of Color in America is still fraught with hidden dangers, institutional traps, and erasure.
As a writer, the thing I deal with the most is erasure. The lack of representation of women, indigenous people, LGBTQ people, and people of darker skin tones (regardless of race) is a struggle that I hope my children will not have to take up in the same way that we have. Erasure is a nasty foe. It doesn’t attack and cripple the way that most forms of bigotry do. There are no soap boxes or problematic speeches. We are simply, quietly, ignored. You are free to be as creative and excellent as you please but you will never be acknowledged outside of your immediate community. And if you should so happen to crack that barrier, you must show up and express your thanks for being acknowledged, at last.
Erasure is a nasty foe. It doesn’t attack and cripple the way that most forms of bigotry do. There are no soap boxes or problematic speeches. We are simply, quietly, ignored. You are free to be as creative, commercially viable, and excellent as you please but you will never be acknowledged outside of your immediate community. No matter what you do, your otherness makes others uncomfortable and so people pretend like they can’t see you, the way they can’t see a bum on the street.
Missing from movie screens, writing rooms, bookstores, and even history books are authentic and nuanced representation of what it means to be ____. How many talented and hard working POC have been defeated by erasure? How many models and singers and poets and actors did we lose to erasure? Does anybody know?
Erasure teaches you and those around you that your narratives don’t matter. Your physical being is expendable, you are unattractive, your history and culture are not worthy of exploration. Yes, you exist, but you are just not good enough. What comes out of such an experience is a nasty aping of a culture and adoption of a narrative that is not your own. To be successful, beautiful, talented is to achieve the proper proximity to something that is not your own.
To this day, Asian and African beauty supply stores are packed with “whitening” creams. (Although, thankfully, many black people have seen those things for what they are.) There are POC who think Indigenous peoples were “saved” or even “civilized” by the boats full of syphilitic invaders that showed up on their shores. How many times have I heard mothers say to children “stop acting like a ____ (insert derogatory term here).
For this reason, Joy Reid noted that no black people were nominated for Oscars in the two “black” movies that managed to get a nod from the Academy. It is in recognition of that reality that Jada Pinkett Smith suggested on her twitter feed that not attending the Oscars might be the best way from POC to show their displeasure with the Academy. It is for this reason that Taraji P. Henson refused to rush through her acceptance speech, instead telling the crowd “I have waited 20 years for this”. It is with an eye on this reality that Ice Cube said of Straight Outta Compton “we didn’t make this movie for the Oscars, we made it for the people”.
It is with this reality in mind that I decided the only two genres I wanted to write in were M/M romance and “multi-cultural” romance. (That’s code for protagonists that aren’t white.) Romance novels hardly seem like the place to make revolutionary advances, but as independent authors gain more traction in the industry, the gatekeepers who told us that black vampire slayers and Asian casanovas were not going to sell have become increasingly irrelevant. It is getting easier and easier to find stories featuring plus sized, lesbian, space ninjas or incarnated Nubian goddesses with a thing for chili cheese fries.
Finding ourselves in the ever growing number of independently produced music, films, and web series and having the ability to write our own stories and share them with the world, literally makes the difference(cause I don’t know who is reading my stuff in Germany but thanks you guys). In honor of MLK Day, I am going to do a service project with my family. Then I am going to sit down and write for all of those in the world who look for love stories like mine and for all of those whose love stories look like mine.
I am going to help make the world messy with our brilliance and loud with our words. I am going to remember that keeping your head down is a good way to be shot in the back. I am going to try and represent in the face of the silence that once was my place in the market.
And oh yeah, FUCK the Oscars!
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