Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

About Whitewashing

Tags: ethnic studies, networking, reading, writing
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  • 22 comments
technoshaman

technoshaman

March 27 2012, 05:08:09 UTC 9 years ago

Remember that flap where ... I think it was Cat Valente? ... had two characters of colour and the publisher tried to whitewash them on the cover?

Flip side of that was my good friend annathepiper, whose book's main character is definitely of a dusky persuasion... and the wee micropress had zero problems producing an appropriate cover... Anna is plowing into Book Two of the series even as she works to get Book One back into print after the micropress went T/U... and, yeah, she's saying the characters are pretty much insisting on being themselves...
ysabetwordsmith

Yes...

ysabetwordsmith

March 27 2012, 06:02:17 UTC 9 years ago

>>Remember that flap where ... I think it was Cat Valente? ... had two characters of colour and the publisher tried to whitewash them on the cover?<<

And S.M. Stirling has said that there was an attempt to turn his black lesbian captain into a straight white man, for Island in the Sea of Time. Which would have really sucked.

>> Flip side of that was my good friend annathepiper, whose book's main character is definitely of a dusky persuasion... and the wee micropress had zero problems producing an appropriate cover... Anna is plowing into Book Two of the series even as she works to get Book One back into print after the micropress went T/U... and, yeah, she's saying the characters are pretty much insisting on being themselves... <<

Stories like this make me happy.

My audience makes me happy too. They throw me all kinds of exciting characters for my Poetry Fishbowls. So I've got some series that are based in specific cultures or ethnic groups, and some with various sexual orientations, and so forth. I'm particularly fond of Maryam Smith who is a black, female, British steampunk engineer.