I recently received a letter from a reader regarding my novel, Milk Money. The reader made the following comment in her letter:
I would have enjoyed the story more if you hadn’t continually commented to the color of people’s skin as though it was an oddity. I don’t see that in books about Caucasians.
Here was my response to this reader:
If you read a lot of books written by African-American authors, I’ve noticed we do tend to mention skin color more. Why? I suppose skin color is more of an “issue” with us, a way of life. Our skin color comes into play more often than with Caucasian characters simply because we are Black, living in America, and there are things that may happen to us (Blacks) that might not necessarily happen to Caucasians, because of the color of our skin. I know skin color has been a HUGE factor in my life – I lived in an all-white area and I felt ostracized a lot of the time because of my skin color. So, I guess I’m saying that with most Blacks, we’re probably going to mention skin color more frequently when we’re writing about African-American characters. I hope my explanation helps!
Do any of you read novels written by African-Americans? If so, do you think we mention the color of people’s skin more than Caucasians? I know when I do it, it’s not intentional, that’s just the way that I write! I also notice we use food as adjectives to describe people’s skin: mocha-colored, chocolate, toffee, caramel-colored, etc.
Feel free to share your thoughts!
The mentioning of skin color in Afro-American books is more common than Caucasian books because we have so many different hues of skin tones. To accurately describe the physical aspects of a character in a book is to mention the skin color (light, medium and dark). Derogatory aspects of this depend on each person’s personal experience of lack there of..
Oh, I absolutely agree. When I read a novel by an African American author skin color is often used as a way to describe someone’s physical features. I think that white people in general don’t acknowledge the different shades among our own race and we don’t feel comfortable discussing the different shades in other races. I think the reason though is that we don’t wish to offend and are not used to being able to do so.
I think we all like to have a mental image of the person we’re reading about. Even when you read a book about a Caucasian, they describe what the person looks like. Since they don’t really have different shades it would seem strange to them. For us it’s just a way of life. We come in different shades and when we describe someone we say what shade they are. For years my son said he was light brown and I’m dark brown.
The skin tone of African Americans ranges from the lightest of light to the bluest black. In order to visual the character, skin tone becomes a necessary assistant.
Although Euro-Caucasians have variances in skin tone, they mainly bypass skin tone because they are – White. That is not a put-down but just a fact of life.
Linda!
http://www.lindabeed.com
I’m going to go a little bit out on a limb here.
I understand and agree with the reasons that African-American authors mention skintone. I also think African-American readers have come to expect that. In fact, after a while, knowing a book has AA characters, I start to wonder what they look like if I haven’t already been told.
However, I also think it’s a bit of a copout in our writing. I believe there are many ways to communicate that the characters are of a certain culture or ethnicity without stating their physical characteristics so explicitly. Or, at least not to include it in the first chapter of the book. That’s the easy way, and I think we have to challenge ourselves to go deeper in our writing.
I agree with everyone. Describing the skin color along with other physical attributes helps me to connect with the characters.
I read a novel by a Caucasian author who described the skin color as “milky white”. That was confusing to me, because the only people white enough too resemble milk probably have leprosy. Now I can relate to dark chocolate, mocha, and caramel because I see those shades every day.
Wanda B. Campbell
Question:
If the majority of AA authors are read by AA readers and those readers expect detailed physical descriptions; should AA authors accomodate the reading audience?
Wanda B. Campbell
Wanda asked:
If the majority of AA authors are read by AA readers and those readers expect detailed physical descriptions; should AA authors accomodate the reading audience?
>>>My response? Yes, if most of the readers are African-American, then I believe the writer should accomodate their audience.
>>>However, my situation is a bit different, most of my readers are White (at least I think they are) since I’m published with Steeple Hill Love Inspired (Harlequin’s Inspirational line) and Heartsong Presents (Barbour Publishing’s Christian romance line). Neither of these imprints are AA, and I’m one of the few Black authors published by these lines. So, when my books are released (both publishers usually release four or more each month), my novel comes out with three White books and both lines are distributed to large book clubs.
>>>This isn’t the first time I’ve heard the comment about my describing the characters’ skin color too much. I’ve had people to write to me about this before, but I just never blogged about it until today.
As one who reads and writes African-American fiction, I agree that it is necessary to mention skin color for the African-American reader. We come in different shades. You can’t just say your character is black and leave it there, because that’s not enough description.
When I see Caucasian characters described, I see more hair color and eye color than skin shade because there aren’t as many variations in tone.
We come in all shades, from the darkest brown to the lightest tan and all in between. It’s necessary, and I pray that Caucasian readers come to understand why this is necessary. It’s not a distraction- it’s part of doing your African-American characters justice.
This has been a very good discussion and I respect the views of all. Ms. Cecelia I have a comment based upon your statement: “…if most of the readers are African-American, then I believe the writer should accommodate their audience.” I believe the author should write, and then identify the audience for what they have written. When we allow ourselves to become slaves to a preferred style of writing in order to appease a certain segment, our authentic voice is lost.
Linda!
http://www.lindabeed.com
I am not Afro-American – I am Caucasian. I read this book and never once dwelt on the fact of the skin color. I knew it was about Afro-American’s when I was asked to review it. I grew up around Afro-Americans so I guess I just read it as a Christian writing it. If you read any of my reviews about it on Amazon, The Celebrity Cafe, Albrisis, goodreads, etc., not once did I review because of color or skin or mention the color of skin. We are all people. I suppose if it was about Indians, it would mention skin color -or Chinese, or Asia, etc.
That would be just a description of the people.
I saw nothing in this book to disturb me and have passed this book on to other Caucasians who have enjoyed it too.
Cecelia – I love description. I write in skin tone with white characters as well as black. I note ruddy complexions, peaches ‘n cream tones, red noses and broken blodd vessels on a drinker, etc.
I think Dorva has a point, there are many more shades in the AA community than in the caucasion community.
There are characteristics that denote ethnicity and racial identity and I try to describe them. I recently described a middle aged WASPy man as thin lipped with a receding hair line.
The most important thing to my mind is what the POV character see and feels. The author has to show it through the character’s eyes authentically.