Something I knew I would have to say about #ByHerOwnDesign.
Let me, a Black artist, explain the difference between a white savior and a patron.
A white savior believes you are inferior, believes they can save you from your inferiority and that they are better than you. 1/? A patron believes in your talent, sees your artistry as having value and wants to support that talent with their money, (which they know they have too much of anyway) so the patron wants to help the Black artist do their art so they don't have to worry about day to day life. 2/?

I see that #PassingNetflix is trending and that people are sharing their family stories of passing and there are some really interesting tweets there. As an author, I wrote one passing story, my Christmas novella, #TheSwan and I wanted to share some things I learned. Some Black folks are talking about #PassingNetflix and the casting and I believe that those actresses were cast, purposefully, first capitalism but also because passing is a dangerous game that white folks are completely unaware of. 2/?

THREAD: On this weekend of #fathersday and #JUNETEENTH2020 I have thoughts about George Floyd's horrific lynching and #blackromance (something that people have also been discussing, that is a romance between 2 Black people) 1/? Many of you know that I have been engaged in research regarding the African American hero in romance in these past few years. One of the things that doesn't get discussed enough how much economics has to do with romance and that I believe that the decline of the AA hero 2/?

I think it might be a good idea to have a conversation about realism and romance and how the inclusion of a certain amount of realism in a romance novel acts as a gatekeeper that can prevents certain stories from being told/heard. 1/? At the heart of the fear of Black romance, I believe, is the thought of certain readers that a story featuring a Black h/h can NEVER be happy. That everyone KNOWS that the worst thing EVER must be to be Black and that there is no HEA for people with Black skin. 😣

I just saw this foolishness for myself and I am appalled @JenniferBeckst1 at your implication that I don't work on my craft and that must be I haven't finaled in the RITA yet. Your statement about there being no racism in RWA is flat out wrong. Have you read nothing of what 1/?

https://twitter.com/RhondaMerwarth/status/1109905983176884224

Have been saying for the time that you have followed me on Twitter? Have my experiences of being shut out of the CBA world in publishing meant so little to you that you could say such horrible things about Black women writers? When you know what I have gone through? 2/?

I was much younger when I recall learning, from my mother, that her beloved grandparents were big fans of Al Jolson of "Mammy" fame. She loved them very much and told me many stories of what they taught her and how they loved her. So one day, I asked her why were 1/? these grandparents fans of someone who performed in blackface? Didn't they see that he was someone who got rich off of parodying black folks? She shook her head and said no. "They were so happy to have some type of representation, to see what they thought of as a blackface in 2/?