I was gonna reply to this tweet but it was getting long and didn’t want to highjack OP’s thread.

These are my opinions, okay? Gross generalizations ahead.

Because of all the open submission calls, I decided to be a professional and research a publisher’s latest books. Yea, Me! https://twitter.com/jackharbon/status/1279002298455412739

The books were by white authors with white characters. No surprise there. That’s publishing. But I noticed a lack of characterization. It was almost like the writer was taking shortcuts so the reader would automatically build empathy with the reader.

Like having the husband of the character dump her for the secretary and then boom there’s instant empathy. As a reader, that’s not enough for me.

But I wasn’t the target reader.

I suspect the writer, agent, editor, and target reader are all from the same demographic.

If that’s the case, it’s easy to see how there would be blind spots.

A couple of things happened while I was doing this deep dive - I took a course on email communication and I listened to an episode of NPR’s Codeswitch podcast.

From the course - you must have empathy before

trust and empathy is built face to face.

Codeswitch- 75% of white people in America don’t have Black friends.

Do you see the problem here? There’s a good chance a Black character is already starting from a place of not having empathy so authors have to work harder to build it.

We’re no longer pretending Black authors and characters are treated like others, right? Because that empathy gap is real when it comes to white readers. It’s the reason for centering whiteness either through Black pain caused by racism, the magical Negro or the white savior trope

All feature whiteness or a white person to appeal to white readers.

The “I couldn’t get into the character” rejection? Could be craft. Could be a lack of empathy for Black characters.

Can we raise a glass to the hard working Black historical romance writers?

Because I can usually tell when the story has to stop so they can give a history lesson because they know they’ll get push back on - that didn’t happen. As an example- how many non-Black people just found out about Tulsa?

White writers don’t do that. They don’t have to. They’re believed even if is Regency Dukes having all their teeth.

And that is why IMHO a non-white author can ghostwrite white characters and get great reviews-no empathy gap for white readers to jump over.

The same author can write in the same style, change the color and sexuality of the characters and it won’t land the same way to white readers. No empathy. No trust.

To be successful, non-white writers writing non-white characters for a general audience don’t get to use those.

shortcuts. So their craft level is has to be higher.

Shout out to Black writers writing for Black readers! Y’all are a soft place to land.

Just my opinions. Gotta get some things done before I can watch Hamilton as a reward.