Thread by @RdotSpoon

This guardian piece is very well done. Recommended reading today.
2 things stuck out to me here and they are connected to the centering of whiteness. 1/
theguardian.com/books/2019/apr…

First is this idea that the solution to all of this is courting white readers. This extends beyond this piece to centering cis het able bodied readers. The marketing strategy focuses so strongly on pockets of bigoted white people it literally ignores the rest of the planet. 2/

Saying we can’t sell to this specific subset of white people enforces the idea that other people, specifically non White people don’t read. If that’s not a narrow view idk what is 3/

If romance can succeed without centering male authors and readers why can’t it also thrive while giving AOC more room at the table. Which brings me to the next thing I noticed. The table. 4/

Im stuck on this idea that white women think AOC are too busy to find themselves in mostly white spaces. The narrative that Kianna Alexander’s family situation is why she stopped going to her local chapter meetings is familiar 5/

White authors have created hostile environments and then convince themselves that we’ve noped out because we’re too busy or have prior engagements. No. The emotional cost of PAYING to be in a room with you is too high. White authors can’t see that they are the problem 6/

I’m still processing the big elephant in the room re: the letter Shirley Hailstock received and how non black people struggle with the concept of Black people as humans who also find love. This is also a familiar narrative that needs to be addressed 7/

This is just part of a longer ongoing conversation. You cannot keep politics out of art especially when your escapism insists that certain people cannot be loved or simply shouldn’t exist. 8/8