Dear Mark,
I believe someone mentioned a few months ago, when this thread was discussed,
that a novel was written by Octavia Butler featuring a black character, but
the publishers put a white woman on the cover. I may be mistaken about the
author, but the change of the cover is typical and not surprising. It simply
reinforces what I have always thought. African-Americans or minorities in
general are not considered as part of the market. Madison Avenue thinks Black
folks are only interested in alchohol, cigarettes, expensive sneakers, rap
music, basketball and McDonald's. That's why they NEVER hesitate to use
African-Americans in advertisements for those products. However, when was the
last time you saw a black person in an ad for Infiniti cars, Merrill-Lynch,
diamond jewlery or anything involving expensive upper-income type products.
Likewise, African-Americans have been mostly excluded from science fiction.
There are millions of us into SF you just wouldn't know it based on what you
see on tv and in magazines and book covers.
I am hoping to start a movement to create a market for African-American SF.
This would introduce new writers and artists into the genre. In the end it
would expand the entire SF community.
Yes we could work together on this. I am also in contact with a fellow at
Obelesk Books and another fellow in Chicago who is also working on a similar
project. Please e-mail my girlfriend Cheryl at [log in to unmask] who is
coordinating and doing research on this.
Bob Hobbs
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