Unshockingly Shocking Lack of Racial Diversity in Novels

The title of this post is about an oxymoron of a situation. This situation is the 'Unshockingly Shocking Lack of Racial Diversity in Novels'. 

The reason why this is shocking but at the same time not, is because I was aware that many novels(particularly those with tremendous popularity) were lacking in the diversity sector, however I wasn't aware that this many were.

The other day whilst sorting my book shelf into a rainbow pattern, I started playing a game with myself - as the sorting can become very tedious, which involved naming the race of each main character as I stacked. 

Results:

1st Shelf - All white apart from one who is Greek. (The Song of Achilles - Patroclus)

2nd Shelf - All white apart from one who is half Asian half Demon. (The Bane Chronicles - Magnus Bane)

3rd Shelf - All white apart from 2 who are both black women. (Noughts and Crosses - Sephy and The Color Purple - Celie)

4th Shelf - All white apart from 2, one being Mexican and the other being Pakistani. (The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Changez and Aristotle and Dante Discover the secrets of the Universe - Aristotle)

 

I want to make it clear that I do not see anything wrong with white main characters, but there is obviously something wrong here when most are and we grow up with a warped way of viewing the world due to the media. We can be that change needed to make diversity change in books. All we need to do is pick up a pen and write.

***

So those are my main shelves, and the diversity within my main shelves. I was so shocked at this realisation, it makes me more motivated to write fiction with main characters that contain all sorts of people. 

And hopefully the world will get to see more diversity in the fututre. Please do check out the books mentioned above, they are awesome and I think a lot of you guys will like them.

(Disclaimer: The images used in this post are not mine.)

Yours Faithfully, 

~ She Who Writes