I may catch a lot of flack for this one but it needs to be said.
I love my Kindle and not a day goes by where I'm not on the Amazon website trying to find new and awesome books to read.
As a Black woman, there is a certain genre that I stay away from, but only because I don't find it very interesting. I grew up very sheltered in a middle class family so I can't relate to many of the stories. It just wasn't my life experience.
I don't consider myself to be some great scholar of the English language and have made quite a few grammatical gaffes myself. It's all in the process of learning and trying to do better as a person and perfecting my craft which is the goal of all writers.
With that being said, I have downloaded a few of these Urban fiction novels out of curiosity and I have not been pleased with what I've found.
I don't mind the violence as much or the liberal use of the dreaded "N" word. But what I do find challenging is to even figure out what the book is about because the sentence structure is terrible with many of the books that I come across. I can overlook typos but when they take up most of the book, it becomes a huge distraction.
Please keep in mind that I'm not speaking of EVERY black author out there that writes in the genre. I'm sure there are many books out there that are well written and edited for clarity. It's just I haven't had much luck finding any.
I reviewed a book yesterday that seemed to have a lot of promise, but I couldn't get past the writing style of the author. Quotes were not used properly so I had a hard time trying to figure out who was speaking.
His book is not alone. It is very easy to identify an Urban book. There is usually some scantily clad dressed woman on the front along with some tough looking men with guns or other weapons in their hands.
I had another "discussion" with an author over her book (which shall remain nameless). She marketed as a true story about a mother who loses control over her children to the streets. But from the very beginning, you could easily see why the mother lost control. She was violent, often had physical confrontations with people in the neighborhood, and yelled and screamed at her own children. Then she was "flabbergasted" that her children turned out to be killers. When I pointed this out to her, her answer was simply that black women have to raise their children differently, a myth that I've heard from many other black people.
Really? Children should never watch their mother go "upside someone's head" with a baseball bat, constantly use profane language, and scream at them on a daily basis. Children will act out the things that they see at home.
If an alien from outer space touched down and wanted to know what Black people were like, downloaded a few of these books on his kindle, he would have a very low opinion of us. It is just downright disheartening. Yes, I find it wonderful that black people, young and old, are finding ways to creatively express themselves. Not only are they using their talents, they are also creating material for other Black people to read and enjoy. Many young people are actually READING more!
But if they have THIS to look up to, then we have a long way to go. One can read Zora Neale Hurston and see the type of slang that Blacks use to communicate with each other, but there is a clear message in her writing that can be enjoyed by everyone.
A lot of the Urban fiction have gangbanging, prostitution, drug dealing, and just over the top violence. Is that all there is to Black people? I understand that it is apart of the genre "urban fiction" but some of the stories aren't even put together that well and the point of the story is just lost.
Most women in these stories are gold digging hussies that strip for a living. The men are pimps, gangbangers, and drug dealers. It's like a thousand black writers wrote the same story over and over again just under a different name and cover.
So I stay away from this genre. Hopefully I'll find a gem out there that I can write about and give a glowing review to. Hopefully we can do better and put out material that people from other cultures can enjoy as they learn about us as a people.
And it is not gangs, drugs, sex, violence, and money. We have a rich history and that needs to be center stage.
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