In the past couple of years many writers have come out the woodwork and written many books on the struggles of teen love, teenage adolescence, and the relationships that define us into our adult years. John Green, Stephanie Myers, and Rainbow Rowell are few of the authors I’ve come to notice have overpopulated the bookshelves at Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million, and many other bookstores across the nation. Their stories, as well as others, feature the same basic plot. An alternative girl who falls in love with an average boy, and him realizing some basic and vague life lesson. For instance, in John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines the main boy, named Colin, falls for a girl named Lindsey after all of his loves have been named Katherine. He finds out at the end of a book that his theories cannot predict a relationship's end or beginnings. Plots like this have been used and overused, but also lack the most important factor of a book: diversity. These books feature an all-white cast, and most characters in the book who are of a different ethnicity are usually seen as the butt of a joke, or made fun of for belonging to a different culture or religion. The lack of different plots or different races in books are the reason, along with others, why many people of color distance themselves from books or from reading in general. How are we supposed to teach young African Americans or young Asians that they are more than the sidekick, or the smart kid in class. When will there be books with people of color as princesses or as knights; as dragon slayers or wizards; or simply as the love interest? With a lack of books dealing with the love that can arise between other races or different races the insecurities can and do arise.
Not to say that books dealing with different races don’t exist. Authors like Toni Morrison, Zane, and Maya Angelou do exist, and they do write amazing books for African Americans; but their books do deal with the hardships of being African American in a racist society (Toni Morrison), or the physical aspect of black love (Zane), or the hardships that made them into who they are (Maya Angelou.) But there aren’t many books that deal with mythology, or fantasy in the black community, or any other race’s community. It would be nice to see diversity in book plots, and in characters. SL Huang says, “When you put something out into the world, when you write a book and you offer it for people to read, you are impacting the culture.” It’s true that a culture can be defined by what they read, and what the generations after them read. It’s important that we give children of color leading roles and important roles, so they’re a good representation for the next generation. It will also help children in diverse communities gain confidence in themselves.
Romance stories also deserve leading characters of different races. We should be able to feel desirable and wanted as well. We all go through the emotions of love, heartbreak, and betrayal and it would be nice to see characters portrayed in healthy ways, with a strong, and lasting love. Our love should be more than just single mothers, cheating husbands, or women having affairs. We deserve love that’s long and lasting. We deserve a love story that becomes “goals” or what we aspire our love to be like. It’s also important that as we develop romance plots or stories for people of color, we try to incorporate interracial love but not the same plot of interracial relationships being seen as taboo or forbidden. We should also think of interracial as more than just a white person with a different race. Romance can blossom between African Americans or Indians, Chinese and Latinx people, or those of any other race. Interracial relationships are modern, and not seen as much of a taboo as they were. With these new ideas, and progressive thoughts there’s a chance to write new and innovative plots, and to make the characters more than just their relationships and who they choose to date.
In the end, we want diversity in our books so that we can relate. We want people with our hair textures and our skin tones to go on amazing adventures, to be heroes, to be princesses, so that we can put our own experiences and own feelings into the characters. We want to love characters who go through the same experiences, trials, and struggles as we do. We want to feel connected to these people, as if these characters are not just characters but parts of us. We want to be seen as people, and we want our story to be told.
