Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
And regardless--segregating stories, based on some characteristic of a group of people, whether a racial or sexual minority or whatever, is either GOOD or BAD. You're arguing that it's okay to have both, in this or that "special" circumstance. It's either bigotry or it's not, and this "oh, well, it's okay over here, because party A did this or that and they said this or that or they have this kind of store..." that's just diverting the discussion from the real question of LOGIC.
Or, is the answer that there isn't any logic; it's what some people FEEL on any given day, depending on their mood?
Hitch
|
OK, I was trying to assume good faith and not take on a confrontational tone, but with all your shouting that's now rapidly running out.
I don't know how to say this differently to how I've already said it over and over: segregating stories is bad. "Romance is romance is romance so long as it's white, but if there's a black character it's AA only, AND NOT romance" - is bad. It's not about 30 steps being an Impossible Journey, it's about romance readers not knowing the book is there. It's about the book not being discoverable by a huge chunk of its potential target audience. Because someone else decided for them that romance readers don't read AA romance - or that AA romance isn't "real" romance? - or something of the sort, and that therefore the book must be segregated.
And so, we end up with a situation where not a single AA author has ever won a Rita. It's not the only factor, but this attitude, and all of its ugly little cousins, is part of the problem.
Now: segregating is bad, but listing/shelving books in multiple categories is not bad. Not in B&M stores, not online. Because that's about enhancing discoverability and opportunity, not limiting it. If you haven't been in the position of being a person in a marginalised group desperately searching for some sort of representation in story, I don't expect you to have a visceral understanding of what that's like. But maybe you could try to imagine it, or listen to others who have been, and are, in that position.