Tayari's Blog: The Great Betrayal

Posted by TayariJones on May 31, 2006 11:26 AM
Filed under The Writing Life

This is a little complicated so pay attention: Millenia Black, an African American author, has written a novel called The Great Betrayal. All of the characters are white. According to her blog, her publisher won't publish it until she makes all the characters Black. Tireless blogger, Ed (the) Champion, has looked further into the story. (Be sure to check out the comments.)

And now, my take on things:
My big question is how in the world you can take a story and change the race of the characters?? This is not a search-and-replace sort of revision. You can't just go through and replace the word "blond" with "nappy." It would seem that with race being such a significant factor in American life, the author would have to rewrite the whole book.

UPDATE: The book is NOW being published by NAL with Caucasian characters. But keep checking Ed's site for more info.

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There are 2 comments on "The Great Betrayal". If you'd like to leave a comment, click here to jump down to the comments entry form.

Comment #1, by Ladylee [TypeKey Profile Page]

Man, I swear...

See Tayari, that's why I like your idea of having a full time gig instead of writing full time. That way one doesn't have to compromise one's work.

That'll be a cool assignment to give to your creative writing students, though... cool assignment and a cruel joke... LOL!

June 1, 2006 03:59 PM

Comment #2, by Michael Fischer [TypeKey Profile Page]

WTH is wrong with the publishing industry these days? Every day, NY gets more smarmy.

June 1, 2006 08:46 PM

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