Black Fiction

So what’s the deal with the current state of black fiction? Perhaps I’m ill-informed, but it seems to me that contemporary black fiction is lacking a certain… gravitas, and I can’t quite figure out why that is the case. To illustrate my point, I was in Borders a couple months ago. Being the dork that I am, I subscribe to their online newsletter. The cool thing about the newsletter, however, is that they usually include coupons. I had just finished reading a novel and was, therefore, in need of a new one when I received a coupon in my inbox. In search of fiction by an African-American author, I walked to Borders during my lunch hour. When I arrived, I saw that there was an entire section devoted to Black fiction. Initially, I didn’t quite know how I felt about that. I wondered why they felt the need to segregate African-American fiction from all other fiction. Then, I appreciated the separation when I realized that it meant that I didn’t need to sift through all of the other titles when it was only novels by African-American authors that I was interested in. And I assume that’s why Borders does it that way. There must be a great enough demand for African-American fiction that it warrants its own section... but I’ve really drifted from the point. Considering that they have a whole section devoted to Black fiction, I assumed that there would be a really good selection. I was sorely disappointed. About 75% of the books had titles such as "Bling Bling" or "Bitch, You Better Have my Money!" or "Don't Make me Cut You!" or something along those lines. There were, of course, many notable books, but the selection as a whole was nevertheless disheartening. After scanning through all of the titles, I did finally settle on a novel and was very pleased with my selection.

This experience makes me wonder about the state of the African-American community as a whole. What does it say about our community when the major themes pervading our literature center around sex, violence, gang membership and the like. Is that all that we care to read about? Are those the only themes that are “Black enough” to garner our support? Or is it that those are the only themes that major publishing houses care to bring to market? Is this a reflection of us, or is it a reflection of society’s image of us? I don’t know the answer to that question. Of course, I would love to put the blame squarely on dominant (i.e. White) society, but I don’t know if that’s actually the case. Perhaps African-Americans today just like reading frivolous literature. If there weren’t a market for it, it wouldn’t be on the shelves. Or maybe African-Americans only read these works because that is the only literature readily available. I really don’t know, but I guess just as long as people are reading something, I can’t be too mad.

Maybe this all just means that I need to stay away from places like Borders and Barnes & Noble when I’m in the mood for works by African-American authors. There are many very well stocked Black bookstores, including Marcus Books here in San Francisco, that have an excellent selection. It’s just so hard to pass up that 20% off coupon waiting in my inbox each week.

While we’re on the subject, here’s a few of my favorite novels by African-American authors (in no particular order):

Another Country, James Baldwin
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
The Darkest Child, Delores Phillips
The Color Purple, Alice Walker