The blatant black face on the author's website is what startled me in the beginning. I heard about this particular book on Tumblr where a few African American bloggers had made several posts about it, making claims that the author was a racist.
I jumped on the issue, did some research, and found out that she has made some serious gaffes in the media. I had to see for myself what all the hoopla was about.
Sure enough, many of the negative reviews were posted within days of each other. It is safe to say that many of them didn't read the book. As I said in an earlier post, if you aren't familiar with the book, then reviewing it really isn't fair: even if the content is disgusting and abhorrent.
In this post-apocalyptic world, Pearls are White, Coals are Black, Asians are Ambers, and Latinos are Tiger-eyes. Okay.....I was leery about the descriptive terms used for different races. I couldn't understand under any circumstances why those particular terms were used and how the author failed to foresee that many would take offense?
As a writer, I tried to push my personal feelings aside and just read past those descriptions. I admit that I did NOT purchase the book, but took the liberty of borrowing a copy.
The content was fair but downright confusing at times. This mysterious world, where reverse racism is king, didn't have a lot of description. There were many things in the novel that were not properly explained. I really wanted to know if the Coals were one hundred percent immune to The Heat, as it is aptly described in the book.
We all know that Black people do have more melanin in our skin, but it doesn't necessarily mean that we're immune from skin cancer or other disorders relating to sun exposure and a warming climate. What happened to Black people with lighter complexions? We do run the gamut from passing for white to deep ebony. Did they suffer like Whites?
The main character Eden, seemed downright selfish and silly at some points.When she wasn't acting whiny, she was downright childish. Then again, this is a young adult novel and it isn't unheard of for teenagers to act in such a manner.
Since the book hit Tumblr, Twitter, and a few other social media websites, the book has tumbled in the ratings on Amazon. When I checked Friday, there were about 103 negative votes. As of today, the official count of one star votes sits at 151. More one star reviews are pouring in as we speak.
The biggest problem that I have with the book is that this world is supposed to show the readers what would happen if everything were reversed. What if Blacks held the power and our features suddenly became more desirable than features attributed to Whites?
You'd have to assume that since the world is reversed, then Black features are NOT desirable while white features ARE. You would also have to assume that if the world was reversed, that Blacks and other minority groups would be more than willing to oppress Whites if given that opportunity.
Conceivably, if the book had not reached the African-American community of readers, if such a category still exists, perhaps there might be some backlash. The first young African American reader who responded to me loved the book. But then, she’s the kind of free spirit who would eschew limiting herself to a single category. Ms.Foyt--the huffington post
This quote was taken from an article that she wrote in the Huffington Post. When I read it, it was hard for me to keep my composure. Is she saying that black people don't read enough to be labeled in a category? Is she trying to state that only a certain group of Black people are the ones that will "get" her book? Does that free spirited Black woman speak for all Black people?
Not too many years ago, I can imagine that this story might have generated heated comments about the sexualized fantasies about black men. And yeah, there was one. And having checked out that blogger, I strongly suspect that he belongs to a much older generation than young adults. Otherwise, I’m happily surprised to say there has been not a blip of protest.--Ms.Foyt--the huffington post
Crystal ball...crystal ball....
And there is reason to support my belief when you consider that the novel has won five literary awards, including the Eric Hoffer Best Young Adult Novel 2012 (Eric Hoffer was a great humanitarian), or that Marianne Williamson called it on her Facebook page, “A fascinating story…for lovers of all ages!” or that dozens of reviewers from the San Francisco Book Review to Fresh Fiction to many book bloggers have embraced it with glowing reviews.
And if you ask if all these reviewers are white then consider that you have a racist point of view.--Ms. Foyt-savethepeasrls.com--the website for the book....
Ms. Foyt continues to defend her book, understandably so against the racist accusations. She cites the glowing reviews of her book as a reason why she feels that she is not racist, because if she were, then those reviews wouldn't exist. This is where her logic fails.
I don't think Ms. Foyt is racist, but she is terribly misguided. She really didn't think this book through, instead of just relying on that one African American that told her the book was all kinds of awesomeness. Race is still a very touchy subject and we should continue this dialogue for many years to come. We owe that much to our future generations. If I give Ms. Foyt credit for anything, she has brought the idea of white privilege to the forefront.
What Ms. Foyt doesn't understand is that turning the tables and reversing the roles does not help end racism. It encourages it. It simply shows that regardless of whichever group holds the reins to society, they will abuse their positions and eagerly become the oppressors. It contributes to this never ending cycle of racism that will be hard pressed to die out.
Should Amazon do the responsible thing and stop selling this book? Absolutely not. The Turner Diaries is blatantly racist and yet, it still sells. We can learn a lot from books like The Turner Diaries and even from Revealing Eden.
The lesson is that we've still got a long way to go.
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