Since I'm always amused when I get negative comments, here's one that was made on my It Don't Matter If You're Black or White post:
"Edi made this comment,| So, why is it you never review books by or about African Americans? Don't try to be color blind. This is American and that pretense doesn't work here." |
Wow, Edi, that chip on your shoulder must be really heavy. You should try setting it down. Here are a few things to ponder:
1) What do my reading tastes have to do with how I dealt with a man who was disobeying a library policy? People of all ages, races, and shapes disobey library policy all day, every day and I have to deal with them all. Do I have to read and review books by wheelchair-bound Chinese people, Scottish people with glasses or underweight Spaniards to prove that I don't hate them all?
2) I assume by "This is American" you mean this is America. To that I say: a) no, "this" is the world wide web and b) I live in Canada.
3) As you live in America, though, perhaps you're familiar with the first amendment to your Constitution? You know, the concept of freedom of speech? I am free to say whatever I like and you are free to not read it if you don't agree. Given that right, I could, in fact, spout nothing but horrifying, hateful, evil racist crap all day, every day, if I wanted to. You'll notice that I don't.
4) I am not a professional book reviewer and do not claim to be. I am not required to represent all cultures equally. And again, as this is my own blog, I'm free to discuss whatever books I like. I read what I enjoy, no matter who the author is. I also only "review" (to use the term loosely, again, I'm not a professional) a fraction of the books I read in a year because I don't consider myself terribly good at it and I don't have time.
5) In Canada in general and especially in my part of Canada, we have a very small black population (or African Canadian, if you prefer). As far as I've seen, it's much more common for people in my city to read books by authors from all over Asia, since many of our minority groups have their origins there. Not that we don't read African American literature here at all, but we have many other cultural groups here (as you do in America, of course) that have much larger populations.
6) Here's a thought - why don't you start up your own blog and exclusively review books by and about African Americans? Maybe I'll stop by and see if you have any good recommendations, as I'm always happy to broaden my horizons.