Thread by @carlafredd

If you think people were mad about Ariel, lemme tell you a story Romancelandia. Back in the day, category romance had 3 main players Harlequin(HQ) the oldest, Silhouette (SL) scrappy upstart 1 and Bantam Loveswept (LS) scrappy upstart 2 1/

Oops 😬

In those days, most romances centered on Caucasians. Then Vivian Stephens an editor with Dell Candlelight published Entwined Destinies with gasp black people on the cover. Ms. Stephens left Dell and went to work at HQ 2/

Vivian Stephens was a big deal at HQ 3/

In March 1983 she published A Strong and Tender Thread by Jackie Weger. Back then, they did put author photos on the book. When I stole the book from my Mom to read, I thought Ms. Weger was black more on that later. Doesn’t the hero look familiar 😂4/

In January 1985, Sandra Kitt’s Adam and Eva was published 5/

In 1992, Silhouette published Unforgivable ❤️❤️❤️. By this time, I was actively trying to write romance and was a member of
@romancewriters
and Georgia Romance Writers. I went to my first RWA conference then and you could count the # of black women on 2 hands 6/

@romancewriters Let’s just say the people who didn’t look like us didn’t exactly make us feel welcome sometimes. And yet we persisted. Learning our craft and writing and getting rejected by publishers and low scores on contest if your characters were black 🤷🏾‍♀️ 7/

@romancewriters In 1993, Kensington announced they were starting a new line at the RWA conference in St Louis. The line would feature African American characters!!!! Francis Ray and Sandra Kitt would be published 1st. Francis Ray, Monica Harris editor and Sandra Kitt are pictures below. 8/

@romancewriters I was so happy, other black writers were happy. Finally there was a chance we could be published because in a Q&A session with one of the category romance publishers that black writers didn’t write well enough. 9/

@romancewriters The editor said that in a room full of close to 100 aspiring and published romance authors back then. She said with her whole chest. Anyhoo, new line featuring African American characters. 10/

@romancewriters hen the rumbling started when Monica Harris made it clear that she wanted black writers to write for the line. Some women were ready mad. 11/

@romancewriters I’m talking mad on a deep level mad. Saying that was reverse discrimination and a good writer can write about any characters. Funny how that reasoning hadn’t been presented to black authors 12/

@romancewriters Then 1994 happened 13/

@romancewriters The word was spread far and wide 14/

@romancewriters As the books were published, I can personally tell you this. One black author was asked by a big name white romance writer if the Arabesque books were any good 🙄. I was told by a local RWA chapter member that I only got published because I was black...15/

@romancewriters 1994 was a great year for African American romance but it pissed some people all the way off. They felt threatened and believed we would take THEIR publishing slots 16/

@romancewriters Fast forward to today, in the 25 years since Arabesque was launched you would think at least one black writer writing black characters would have won a Rita award. 17/

@romancewriters Now the RWA conference is at the end of the month, I’m cheering for everybody black y’all. The bias that was prevalent in the 80s amount RWA members is still here today. 18/

@romancewriters among not amount!

@romancewriters Some of y’all are mad that we’re still here. Welp! RWA is my organization and I’m not going anywhere 😀 END/