A thread in the "Politics and Religion" subforum took a turn into this topic. I'll answer a couple of questions from that thread here. I'm paraphrasing the other poster instead of quoting them, to be sure I don't accidentally cross the limits of what can be posted where.
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Paraphrased: I haven't seen any evidence that Davis' book was racist.
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Milan has explained her view at length in her response to Davis' complaint,
starting at the bottom of page 2.
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Paraphrased: I don't believe RWA didn't give awards to black authors. If it had happened, it would have been reported in the press.
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April (?) 2018: Statement from RWA:
Board Commitment to RITAs and Inclusivity
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We’ve only recently started collecting demographic information on our members, and that is on a voluntary basis. But from what we could determine, the statistics for black author RITA finalists from 2000 to 2017 are:- The number of finalist books by black authors is less than half of 1% of the total number of finalist books
- No black romance author has ever won a RITA
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See also comments to this statement on Smart Bitches Trashy Books:
RWA Board Addresses Inclusivity in RITA Awards and Finalists
April 2019: The Guardian:
Fifty shades of white: the long fight against racism in romance novels
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In response to the outcry over the Ritas, the RWA went back over the past 18 years of Rita award finalists and winners. During that time, the RWA acknowledged in a statement posted on its website, books by black authors had accounted for less than 0.5% of the total number of Rita finalists. “It is impossible to deny that this is a serious issue and that it needs to be addressed,” the statement from the RWA board noted. According to the current president of the Romance Writers of America, a black woman has never actually won a Rita.
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