Representation of Black women in books

It has always been difficult to find books featuring black women. In recent years, Black authors have taken action to address the lack of diversity by writing more books about black women.

In 2015, an 11-year-old Marley Dias started her own book drive called #1000BlackGirlBooks as she was “tired of reading books about white boys and dogs”. The campaign was to collect 1000 books with black female protagonists to increase their access and recognition. The Activist would later donate these books to schools and libraries.

An article published by Cosmopolitan called ‘Why aren't there more black women in fiction’ includes opinions from Author Tia Williams on why she thinks black women are so underrepresented in novels. The author starts by saying that growing up, she used to picture her favorite characters as black whilst reading because she never saw herself reflected in the heroines she read about. This is the case for most young black girls when reading books that don’t have any black female protagonists.

Author of ‘Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry’ Joya Goffney said in an exclusive interview “I absolutely love romance books, always have, but I didn’t love them as much until I was able to read a romance featuring a relatable Black protagonist.

“If only I had this kind of representation while I was still in school”. The bestseller expressed how this gave her the motivation to write and “give that representation to teens and adults who crave it”.

The lack of representation also comes from the fact that there aren't many black female authors books being published. According to a survey released by Lee&Low Books in January 2020 shows that nearly 80% of publishing and book- review staff are white whilst less than 4% are black.

If people who work in publishing are not a diverse group, how can diverse voices truly be represented in its books?

The result from the survey is one of the reasons why many black female writers are driven into self-publishing. “It all comes down to the industry’s belief that black books don’t sell.

“When publishing houses don’t believe a book will sell, they don’t put as much of their resources behind it meaning less marketing, and smaller advances for the authors,” said Joya Goffney.

Books have the power to make meaningful changes and great influence on the lives of the readers. “A good black representation humanises those whom society tends to villainise.”