Comments on: The color of writing

By: Hybrid ambassadors

Hybrid ambassadors — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:14:55 +0000

[...] Praag ~ We Write History Today Anastasia Ashman ~ Great White People Book Club Elmira Bayrasl? ~ The Color of Writing Jocelyn Eikenburg ~ The Problem with ‘Chinese [...]

By: Tara

Tara — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:15:16 +0000

I hope that in all things I am judged on merit, not who I know or what I look like, but how well I use my gifts. I wonder, if her book sells successfully, will Lori Tharps credit that to her writing or her black/white friends? It would make me feel really bad if I knew people only supported my work because of my skin color and not because I did a good job. There’s very little to celebrate there.

By: Thandelike

Thandelike — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 08:13:39 +0000

Fabulous response Lina…and Elmira’s post about the unattainable Americanness of the Brady Bunch is a good example of a story with universal appeal. We’ve all felt like impostors or pretenders to some distinction. It’s when we’re most honest about our struggles to understand ourselves in the larger scheme of things we find we’re not alone at all.

Elmira, I’m also of the Brady Bunch age (viewing them in daily syndication, so they had this retro Day-Glo feel). Also having an architect father made the comparison of my own 80yr old funky Northern Californian bungalow household and that new split-level, Southern Californian one even more bizarre, but what was fake about them was also real. Didn’t they have AstroTurf in the backyard? People did that (still do). No one I knew personally and doubtful it was a choice in my area, but it expanded my world to see it. (BTW in the movie SALT the Brady Bunch is used as an “American culture” teaching tool in 1970s Russia.)

By: Judith van Praag

Judith van Praag — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 14:55:04 +0000

Right on Parris! Grodin says it all! Exactly what Anastacia Ashman was pointing at with her response to Tharp’s call.

By: Judith van Praag

Judith van Praag — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 14:52:33 +0000

My goodness Elmira you nailed the issue. And by quoting James Baldwin and Martin Luther King you run home the whole idea about American Values and how “off” Tharp’s request was. Not funny, not humorous, not insightful nor deep, but self-demeaning. Worse though was to see how blindly many responders said yes to her request.
Promising to promote a book they hadn’t judged —couldn’t have judged— for it’s content, solely for the fact that the black author had scratched at the scab of their guilty conscious is —how awful is this notion— a shame. Calling that same author on her “off” plea for help is a most civil act because that critique is given from a notion of equality, not differences.

By: Lina

Lina — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 18:16:01 +0000

Elmira, this is such a good response to what appears a fairly cynical appeal from Lori Tharp. This line alone– “There is nothing in blacks that is not in whites and in whites that is in not in blacks”– sums up a solution for how you might think of your work moving beyond a race-based categorization.

The possibilities for building and reaching audiences has never been greater in this country than they are now, when we have so many online channels for publishing, distributing, and marketing. At the same time, we are such a polarized society. To state the obvious, while we still have so far to go in terms of true equality in this country, we are certainly better off than we were before the movements for civil rights and gender equality. But your response to Ms. Tharp is yet another great example of how our perceptions of each other haven’t necessarily caught up. Our politics and our cultural trends today increasingly push us apart by race, color, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, region…etc. etc. etc. And the Internet, while democratizing in terms of access to media channels, may not actually be a remedy because it so easily compartmentalizes us into niches and interest groups– if we even have access to the technology at all.

So how do we cut through this, and shift Lori Tharp’s perception of her audience? By thinking about your line again: “There is nothing in blacks that is not in whites and in whites that is in not in blacks.” There are universal themes that appeal to all of us, regardless of race or ethnicity. This is one of the powers of narrative– to draw connections among people who may not on the surface look alike. If Ms. Tharp can herself stop segmenting her audience and harness instead the universal appeal of her writing, she might move into the general section of the bookstore.

By: Kyra Gaunt

Kyra Gaunt — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:42:05 +0000

Enjoyed this post and moreso the dialogue of the comments. I love the Substitute This writer’s courageous plea even if a bit politically incorrect. I’m typing from my iPhone so I can’t see the name of the previous commented but I think her point sheds light on the position that particularly a black author or maybe more accurately a young, desperately seeking a way out of a color barrier, author finds themself in. Esp AFTER writing a book about ‘blk’ life. Her marketing strategy might be considered colored pun intended but she’s trying and there is no right remedy to resolving this. I like that she’s trying something probably new for her. Social media is a great platform for that exploration. Also loved Parros’s link from Seth Godin’s blog. Hope the author we are discussing reads it.

By: Nina Shelton

Nina Shelton — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:25:38 +0000

But the color of one’s skin is used in measuring appeal. Ask any Hollywood executive with a great script regardless of whether it’s film or TV, reality or narrative. If you cast a black actor as the lead, it’s not going have as great of a chance to succeed as a white performer. It doesn’t matter how excellent his skills are as an actor. Only a few have broken through that colored ceiling.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:21:37 +0000

I think I agree with your sister! The Brady Bunch was watched with equal fascination in Ireland, but this fascination had a higher degree of skepticism I think. We couldn’t quite believe in a life or rather an attitude like that shown in it.
Being true to ourselves, allowing our work to shine on it’s own merits, it all requires a lot of courage and energy. Energy that shouldn’t be wasted on skin-deep issues.

By: Parris Whittingham

Parris Whittingham — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:46:27 +0000

This article is very fascinating to me. Although you can write endless essays/books about race, money, affluence, influence and American values, thankfully we all get to Choose Our Customers – http://bit.ly/bn47Ih