The Importance of Image and Ownership in African American Literature
By Dr. Maxine E. Thompson
It is no secret that the economy has affected the sales of African American books. The business side of publishing is becoming a hot topic of late.(See Publisher’s Weekly:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA... Even so, there are those of us who hunger for good Black literature.
A while back, I read a report stating that, as African Americans, we are the only people in the world that other countries and nationalities like to imitate—from our fashion, to our speech, to our music, to our sports, and now, even to our literature.
My question is this. Why shouldn’t we own where we dominate? Why shouldn’t we own our own sport teams? Our own Black films, to name a few?
Which brings me to this point. Why is it that we don’t own the black book industry now that we’re making inroads? Is it because we don’t have enough publishers? Literary agents? And why are we allowing other cultures to determine the image of what we send out to the world in our literature?
In the same manner that the Big 5 publishers in New York gained wealth over the past 100 years, I believe African American publishers can gain economic empowerment and wealth as well.
I recently interviewed an author who left a major New York publishing house to return to self-publishing because she refused to fill her books with s*x and drama. I read a lot of books, including white literature, and I do not see other ethnic books filled with sensationalism. Why should our craft be lessened?
In the past our image has been set by what we read in the white text books, the white newspapers, or saw on TV. In the main, Blacks were not the decision makers.
Sadly, our image is out of shape because we are not the ones who shaped it. But, in this day and age, where we finally have a role in shaping our image, we often project only the most abject parts of our culture. We see this played out in the insidious influences found in the videos, songs and books, denigrating women, glorifying crime, and pushing genocide.
In order for us to set the record straight for the world, it is important that we write and tell our story. It’s going to take African American writers to reshape our image. Why?
We do not own Black Television, and most of our black radios have died out in recent history. Besides the Internet, the only avenue we have to raise our voices is what we write and what our black newspapers write about us.
What is our black media is going to do to counteract the forces which have misshaped our history?
It is important that we hold writers, newspapers, and any form of media that project the image of black people accountable for what they project.
In order for us to save our people, we must change our image. If we won’t, then who will? If not now, then when?
For it’s not too late to pick up the pen. To rephrase the late Renaissance writer, composer/photographer/film director, Gordon Parks, let’s use our pen as our weapon of choice, and turn this image around.
© Copyright Dr. Maxine E. Thompson
Meet the Author:
Dr. Maxine E. Thompson is a novelist, poet, columnist, short story writer, book reviewer, an editor, ghostwriter, Internet Radio Show Host, and a Literary Agent. She is the author of The Ebony Tree, No Pockets in a Shroud, A Place Called Home (A Short Story Collection), The Hush Hush Secrets of Writing Fiction That Sell, a contributor to bestselling anthologies Secret Lovers, All in The Family, and Never Knew Love Like This Before, (Also a Kindle Bestseller), Proverbs for the People.
Hostage of Lies is her latest fiction novel, was voted a Best Book of 2009 by EDC Creations:
http://edcmagazine.blogspot.com/2009/12/be... Contact Maxine Online
http://www.maxinethompsonbooks.com http://www.facebook.com/maxine-thompson http://www.twitter.com/safari61751 You can sign up for her free newsletter at
http://www.maxinethompson.com FREE REPORT: How you can write your book faster than you ever thought possible:
http://www.WriteABookNow.com/cmd.php?af=67...
Posted By: EDC Creations
Thursday, March 11th 2010 at 1:23PM
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