Are romance novels unrealistic for the Black community?
We hear it all the time: Black men aren't looking for Black women and vice versa. People have their views on this and many of them are skewed based on their own personal experiences. I've had my own issues in a relationship with a Black man, but I have to say that one small...very small--interpret that as you will-- incident didn't diminish my love for all Black men, at all. Though we are a beautiful nation of people, we are also individuals and must be treated as such. Furthermore, there are spiritual texts that share we are all mirrors of each other; I have to say that I absolutely love and adore me, so it goes without saying that I have love for the world, too.
I find that there is a pretty big difference when it comes to male versus famale authors and I haven't been reading as many novels by men as I should. It seems that as far as romance goes, they are in the minority, but boy are they talented! Eric Jerome Dickey is definitely one of my favorites.
These are just a few of the novels on my list that are all about Black love.
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Here's what I'd like to know: are these romance novels too fantastical to be true? Is there love in the Black community or are we just suffering, sad little people who need to face reality and stop with the fairy tales?
I think you already know my answer: I love romance and I think the stories are absolutely realistic. They are written, afterall, by real people who have experienced all of the ups and downs associated with romance and I just drink all of that up. When it comes to writers like Zane, we are given a platform to appear as the sexual and sensual beings that we are. We are portrayed as being therapists and going to therapy.
In books like, The Hookup Plan, we are doctors and hedge fund managers. We are funny and stylish and do what we can to celebrate our friends in their happiest moments and comfort them in their lowest.
In books like Seven Days in June, we may have a rough childhood, but we still become authors that pave the way for others. We still learn to love again.
These books are mirrors of reality, just as we are mirrors of each other. We may think we're reading these books to escape reality, but these authors are provided another view of it. You think this is wild? Check out what I had to say about the quirky Black girl trope?