I was in
the shower, thinking about how much I enjoyed KJ Charles’ Unfit to Print and its two POC leads, when I had a revelation about
books I don’t enjoy so much. Why do
half-Indian heroes in most historical romances continue to bother me so damn much? Not just because they don’t engage with biracial identity or transracial
adoption or anything of that nature in any meaningful way, but also because they reinforce the
relationship between white adjacency and white supremacy. When that hit me, I
practically skidded across the tub from the force of the “duh!” The whole point of
these sexy dukes and earls and generally wealthy hunks with tans is that they
can move in white worlds. They “belong” in ballrooms, in clubs, in the House of
Lords. It’s aspirational, inspirational. I mean, heavens, we wouldn’t want them
otherwise, would we?
Because
it’s everywhere in romantic fiction by white women. Because it’s everywhere in
our world. People of color, people from marginalized communities, are only
useful if they are tools to maintain the status quo. If they fit in with the
white cishet ideal without making waves. So, heroes like the ones in Eloisa
James’ Born to Be Wilde, Katharine
Ashe’s In the Arms of a Marquess, and
various books by Mary Jo Putney…they are basically the Regency Model Minority. The
“good” brown men who fit right in, who don’t flaunt their Otherness, who never
make white people question their whiteness. They don’t go to temple. They don’t
associate with any other brown folks. They only speak English. They don’t smell
like curry (but sandalwood is okay!), because they don’t eat it unless their
white friends have expressed interest in Indian cuisine. They think wealth and
social status are the great equalizer—and in most historical romances they
certainly are: The whole reason that these male characters can marry white women
and live happily ever after is because they are rich enough for their racial
identity to matter just a little less. Money and power allows them access, acceptability…to
assimilate, not integrate.
Applied to
our current political climate, that philosophy is even less romantic. All of these
dudes would be pro-45 Republicans in the US and pro-Brexit Conservatives in the
UK. That’s right. We’re talking Dinesh D’Souza, Ajit Pai, Shiva Ayyadurai.
(Albeit much lighter skinned, of course.) Really sexy right? Are your loins
afire yet? I’m sure this would horrify many white historical romance authors who
consider themselves progressive feminists. But that’s what happens when you don’t
engage intersectionally, when you only look at your decisions through a white
lens. When you assume that hanging out exclusively with white people, in a
white society, is what all POC must aspire to. You completely miss the damage of the model minority myth, of
assimilation, of how desperately trying to pander to white supremacy has led to
upheaval within communities of color.
“They may
be your people, but do you have to wallow with them, smell like them?”
Yeah.
Yeah, we do. And it’s better than smelling like racist bullshit.
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