[FizzyWater]

I spent some time going down the rabbit warrens of the interwebs on this and ended up...conflicted...in how I felt about it.

Courtney Milan, as a person of Asian descent, has every right to be disgusted when she comes across yet another nameless, faceless Asian character in a romance novel (historical or otherwise) whose only purpose is to be the "oh-so-wise teacher" or the "oh-so-exotic purveyor of erotic arts". Usually in about a page of prose, as well.

As a white woman, I'll admit those scenes just "go past" my radar - yes another stereotype, "how lazy", but not objectionable (to me). So I can only try to really understand by finding another situation or stereotype that I do see and experience and remember how annoyed and/or hurt those make me feel.

In my web search, I found a few similar reviews over at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books - given "F" or "D" grade for the same thing. For authors much better known than this one (Mary Balogh, Lisa Kleypas are the two I remember - Kleypas even posted an apology and worked with the publisher to have the offending material removed).

And I know that site is a collaboration of reviewers posting their honest opinions. But it's also one of the more influential sites. So I wish they could give a split kind of grade (B for the story, F for including yet another racial stereotype). And I wish they'd be a bit more aware of unintentional stereotyping rather than just calling a book "racist".

And that doesn't even start on how stupidly the RWA handled the issue!

Where I work, we have a strongly enforced "code of conduct" that includes prohibitions about talking pretty much about anything at work, other than where we work and our job title. RWA didn't have that policy when it came to discussing books. It'll be interesting to see if that changes.

Romance authors, a majority of which are women, seem to have that "be-nice-or-don't-say-anything" mentality that many women were raised with. So this kind of issue ("she's-a-big-meany-and-hurt-authorXZY's-feelings") comes up a lot in romanceland, sadly.