Well, At Least We're Reading....

A couple of days ago, my wife, a friend, and I wandered into a Borders Books, looking for some literary entertainment. My wife and her friend wandered into the Japanese Manga section, while I browsed the SF/Fantasy shelves. My wife picked up a title and let me know that she was sitting in a corner to read what she grabbed.

After a bit, I went to where she was just to see how she was doing and lavish a random ODA (Open Display of Affection) upon her person. BTW, guys you should try that sometime with the woman you are with...it does make a difference in your relationship.

To continue, I sat down and after talking a bit, I looked around at the shelves in the area where we sat. It was labeled "African American Literature."
While I saw the occasional "Toni Morrison," "Maya Angelou," or "Eric Michael Dyson" title on the shelves, and sprinklings of what I call "Oprah titles," the vast majority of them were examples of the category that I am going to label "female-oriented urban erotica."

There are many authors that typically publish in this genre including Zane (she's the leading author in this particular genre), and even rapper 50 Cent. I mentioned this to my wife and she commented that she saw a lot of her girls (she's a teacher) reading those books.

I decided to do a bit of research on this to see what was happening. I checked The African American Literature Book Club's website (http://books.aalbc.com) and checked their lists for the best sellers. Zane had eight out of twenty of the top twenty African American fiction titles sold in 2007. Nearly all the other remaining novels on the "top twenty" fiction of last year were "female-oriented urban erotica" novels that mirrored her work (other authors included Nikki Turner, Tanika Lynch, and the number ten slot was held by Maya Angelou).

Now with that being said, while some of Zane's heroines are either African American women with healthy, if somewhat outgoing sexual appetites, or women overcoming tragic dramatic situations, the other women portrayed in a lot of the books I have seen from other authors have these women in some very questionable situations. The titles out there say it all; "A Hustler's Wife," "Sheisty (and Sheisty II)," "Bitch" and "Whore," just to name a few. Furthermore, all of these books are pretty steamy fare and the women who write these books always have their women involved with thugs, hustlers, and gangsters.

I am genuinely concerned about the state of African American fiction because of these trends demonstrated by these titles. According to the AALBC's website, the only African American literature that African Americans are reading are non-fiction, or "urban erotica."

Strangely enough, I personally have no qualms with erotica in of itself. If I ever had the chance to meet Zane, I would congratulate and encourage her for working to teach African American women not to be afraid of their sexuality and to acknowledge their desires and feelings in that light.

My concern for the vast popularity of the "female-oriented urban erotica" genre can be summed up in this simple question:

Is this all that we as African Americans can write or read?

The women are eating these books up like candy and "thug fantasies" aside, while I am pleased to see our people reading as a pastime, and in of itself, I am doubly pleased to see them reading erotica in vast amounts, I have to ask myself where this is going to lead our collective literary identity?
I'm not saying that "female-oriented urban erotica" should not be published; nor am I saying that we should not read it. All that I am saying is that we should not limit ourselves to it as nearly the sole fictional genre consumed by our demographic. The book associations that cater to African Americans should do something to encourage the publication and promotion other forms of literature in conjunction with "urban erotica." Let this genre be a gateway to allow other forms of African American fiction to gain the popularity that this genre has enjoyed in the last few years.