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Kola_boof
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 3740
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 4 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 13, 2006 - 05:51 pm: | 
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This is quite "intricate"--taken
from Millenia Black's blog
and worthy of its own discussion:
Not surprisingly, these racist expectations aren't exclusively black and white (no pun intended). Author Tess Gerritsen wrote about the intense criticism and anger she's gotten from within the Asian-American community. In one account, she'd been invited to speak at a gathering of Asian-American journalists and wound up fielding "Uncle Tom" insults in response to her presentation! Here's some of what she shared:
"I told them, during the presentation, that I had made a conscious decision as a novelist to feature mainstream characters and mainstream themes in my books, and not limit myself to Asian American plots. While I do use Asian characters, they are more likely to be secondary characters. As I explained it to the audience, I'm a working writer, and I want to sell to the largest audience possible. I have a mortgage to pay and kids to send to college and the bottom line for me is ... where's the money?
.......Audience members were visibly angry as they rose and said, essentially, that I was an Asian Uncle Tom. That I had a responsibility to my race to write about Asians. And why the hell was I writing under the name "Gerritsen" (my legal, married name) and not under my Chinese name? Clearly, I must be ashamed of my race.
They didn't accept my choices, which were purely practical. My goal was to reach the widest audience and become a bestselling author, which indeed I was -- and the reason I got invited to the convention in the first place. The very fact of my success, you would think, would make them listen and take notes. All it did was get them angry.
Even after I got home, the criticism didn't end. I continued to read online grousing about my status as an Uncle Tom. "Asian Americans should strive for success without resorting to the disgusting strategies that Tess Gerritsen used." And of course, they were never, ever going to buy any of my books.
No wonder so few Asian Americans make it onto the bestseller lists. We're too busy shooting each other down.
The lesson here? You can't count on your own race to applaud your success."
____________
Is that really the lesson?
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 6659
Registered: 04-2004
Rating:
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 13, 2006 - 05:55 pm: |
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Why not write about Black, Whites AND Asian, if you talents permits such?
It seems to me that it will be very difficult to write convincing and interesting stories via solely contrived, money-driven, mercenary thoughts and means. |
Kola_boof
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 3743
Registered: 02-2005
Rating:
Votes: 4 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 13, 2006 - 06:05 pm: |
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But don't you see ABM
(and I know
you do  ).
This "Chinese" woman married "Gerritsen"---then acknowledges that she is a Chinese woman who writes for MONEY (for the larger mainstream society) and that she only uses characters of her own race as "secondary" characters.
NOW...because I'm an avowed Capitalist myself, I can understand WHY she would want to make money at her craft...AND...make the most money possible.
But she can't possibly get upset when her own race feels DISAPPOINTED, rejected and "reminded" by their own kind---that they are supposedly inferior.
When they say that she is an Uncle Tom---they're 100% right.
This bitch just described exactly what a Tom is. She's willing to SELL OUT her own flavor, her own people---so that she can be in "comfort" and "veiled acceptance" among the people who OPPRESS her people. She also helps to BUILD and PROTECT White Supremacy by suppressing her Chinese status and advancing a White One.
Taken a step further....
Millenia Black sees nothing wrong this. And posted it as some sort of "anti-Jim Crow" point.
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Kola_boof
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 3745
Registered: 02-2005
Rating:
Votes: 6 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 13, 2006 - 07:18 pm: |
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MORE comments from Millenia Black
on why she doesn't want to appeal to
Black Book buyers:
As everyone knows, black book-buyers make up a very miniscule portion of the overall book-buying market. Yes, there are authors who do very well in the AA market, which is great. If that's the audience they write for, they don't have a problem. But what about when it isn't? Is it fair to tell that author that her work will only be marketed to a black audience?
I have never written African-American fiction. Never. I am not an African-American. I am an American. So why, in its present release, does my debut novel bear the faces of women who appear to be of color? Why has TGP been classified within a specific ethnic group when the content itself doesn't self-impose such a restriction?
Was I born with the wrong skin color, or what? Being treated this way can surely make one feel as if they were - as if your skin is a liability. I can't even begin to express what an awful feeling that is. Not being able to go out into the world, buy a fishing rod and fish in the ocean like everyone else. Based on your skin color, someone will come along and impose upon you the type of rod you're expected to have, the pond you're expected to fish in, and the path you're expected to take to get there. It's like they're saying, "Just who do you think you are? You don't get to throw your line into the ocean! Look at your skin. There's the pond over there."
I , Kola, just find her comments to be SO MUCH BULLSHIT. The woman has this delusion that
many Black Americans have that "color" shouldn't
be noticed or adjudged.
They have this delusion because they were
persecuted FOR and suffered FROM "color".
The delusion that there's some "moral" protection that should attend one's coloring---and that black skin itself should be an "in spite of" rather than something to celebrate, procreate and protect...
YES
just as other races (the races that this woman wants so badly to publish and buy her books) do their own skin, which is why her colorblind self is being erased in the first place.
WHITE PEOPLE don't want her because she's "inferior", which is proven by her campaign to represent JUST HUMANS and not...BLACK ONES. Not that she doesn't want to be erased, mind you.
What she fails to see is that the WHITE HUMAN is representing "Whiteness"---not humanity.
It's HER who sees them as having some advantage that she's too stupid to see is fully hers as well.
TAKE NOTE:
Whenever White People (or any people) find themselves engrossed tearfully in an Aretha Franklin album...it is because that BLACK woman is representing all humanity in that moment. Not "black people"---but the pain, anguish and SOUL of ALL HUMANITY. And this is why Aretha Franklin is so beloved, because she is an excellent representative of the humanity....and this is why WHITE PEOPLE can love/appreciate works by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison or even by Marcus Garvey and Kola Boof.
Because to represent "ALL HUMANS"....you merely must represent YOURSELF.
This woman, Millenia Black, is an idiot and a disgrace.
Her books don't represent "HUMANITY" anymore
than those of the K.K.K., who are ALSO humans
representing HUMANITY.
Though it must rankle her---to be "BLACK" is to be fully human. The stories of Black people are the stories of ALL HUMANS.
Zora Neale Hurston wrote a novel with ALL WHITE CHARACTERS back in the late 1930's and it was published by a major publisher in the United States.
Zora had no problem, however, having the readers know that the writer interpreting was a BLACK woman.
And why should she? Whites who've written about blacks don't ever hide the fact that they're white.
And as for "race" and "color"....
Those things are the BEAUTY and FLAVOR of life--as well as the catalysts for war and hatred.
As long as people have "eye sight" there will
always be HUMAN NATURE....and human nature dictates that people have a myriad reaction to
that which is different from them. Like so many weak black people, her reaction to that human nature is to erase herself and attempt to blend
into that which hates and detests her. FOR MONEY and so that she can feel better about the fact that she sees herself and her people as ABSOLUTELY NOTHINGNESS.
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Renata
Veteran Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 1515
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 13, 2006 - 09:59 pm: |
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Whites write about white characters. Not asian characters, not black characters, not hispanic characters......
So, if Black and Asian writers write about white characters as well.....who's going to write about us?
Anyways.....something big's come up....out for a few days at least, maybe longer. |
Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 3400
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: 
Votes: 5 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 13, 2006 - 11:33 pm: |
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The thing that I don't understand about these 'colorblind' black people is why they always run to us when they find themselves in trouble. Why does she (Millenia) want "AA"'s to band together to support her and this "Gerritsen" sister for "taking a stand?" Why don't they look to their own (colorblind) people for support? Reminds me of Kobe Bryant.… As soon as his ass got in trouble he had the nerve to quote MLK and wanted black people to feel sorry for him; knowing good-n-well he could care less about his or anybody else’s blackness, puleeze.
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Nolanfane
Regular Poster
Username: Nolanfane
Post Number: 338
Registered: 09-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, October 14, 2006 - 12:41 am: |
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Yeahhhhhhhhh
But Kobe my boy doh.
CTFU!!!!!
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Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 971
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, October 14, 2006 - 02:20 am: |
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"Reminds me of Kobe Bryant.… As soon as his ass got in trouble he had the nerve to quote MLK and wanted black people to feel sorry for him; knowing good-n-well he could care less about his or anybody else’s blackness, puleeze."
And? It worked. Negroes like you rallied around him to demonize the gold digging freaky nasty white girl. Kobe knew exactly what he was doing. He was hittin' the extra curricular side poonany and never realized the piece of ass he had to hit that particular night, would cost him "millions of dollars" in I'm sorry honey atonement, legal fees and loss endorsement revenue as a result of the scandal. I’m not judging him, but bro Kobe put himself at risk by doing something celebrity athletes or high profile men should be more careful and selective about.
It's just like OJ. A black man who had absolutely nothing to do with black people -period! But when white people kicked him out of the their world, he pulled the race card! Claiming he was a victim of racism even though he lived in a total white world of young blonds and private white country clubs for golfers. Yet black people hysterically rushed to his defense. The man is a pathetic self serving opportunist who played the race card when it was convenient for him to do so. But it didn't matter as I said. Negroes still eagerly lined up to confess their unwavering support for him and railed at the evils of the white racism for trying to hurt the brothers! Yeah -right!
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Emanuel
Regular Poster
Username: Emanuel
Post Number: 251
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, October 14, 2006 - 01:18 pm: |
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Since this is the author's 2nd complaint being classified by race, it brings to mind 2 things:
1. She despises being classified as an African-American author because we are only a small percentage of Americans and have less buying power than the mainstream. Of course, this can also mean she has self-hatred and may not be proud to be a black person, much like Kola said, she sees it as some sort of deficiency.
2. She knows how to stir up attention and cause controversy. And we all know, controversy sells. Before her 2 claims about being mistreated because of her race, I had never heard of her. Now because of these claims, I know (and everyone who is posting or reading these posts) knows too. I might not run out and buy her book to see what the controversy is all about but I'll bet a lot of people will. On this subject, I will have to admit the girl is working the media to her advantage. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 6693
Registered: 04-2004
Rating:
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, October 15, 2006 - 07:44 am: |
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Well. Since I'm NOT a published novelist, I probably don't know what I'm talking about. Still. I think over the long run one will NOT be able to maintain a productive, lucrative and satisfying writing career writing PRIMARILY from a profit, market perspective. I think the lack of artistic sincerity will inevitably taint one's work to such a degree that NO one - Black, White or Blue - will have much use for it. |
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