…whenever someone prefaces a statement with, “This might sound racist…” you know to brace yourself for a racist statement. But I look at a LOT or books over the course of my day. Naturally, one notices trends and patterns, real and imagined, as one examines large numbers of books over time.
One trend I've noticed, for example, is a surge in interest in Children's books. This is a great trend because there has been so much discussion on the lack of diversity in children's literature, that it actually crowded out discussion about the great literature that exists.
Another trend I noticed is that corporate publishing seems to be veering even further way from publishing novels of interest to garden variety African American males. The classic refrain is that Black men don't read, but Black men would read if they were, at least initially, exposed to literature that spoke to their experiences.
Mainstream publishers seem to be fixated on novleist that are written by formerly incarcerated, gay, biracial, non-American Black (British, Caribbean, African) writers. Name a popular novelist, with a book that was published in the last year, that does not fit into one or more of these categories.
I could name some writers myself, but as you think of the make authors that win awards, that are covered by corporate media or pushed by mainstream publishers, I think you find the categories I listed are disproportionately represented.
Most Black American men fall outside the categories mentioned. This is a large demographic that is largely ignored.
This does not mane that a writer in these categories can not write for a broad audience. They can and they do, but if straight, American born, Black male writers are not getting published or actively promoted there are subjects, which appear to male readers that will more likely to be overlooked and marginalized.
Now is that bigoted or just a valid observation?