Writing From the Heart!
DAY 2: Welcome to Day 2 of the Blog Tour for My Colorblind Rainbow!
This is a repeat of my previous review posting for My Colorblind Rainbow. Since then, author Chanel Hardy has published two additional titles: a mystery-horror Was It Her? (print and ebook format), and the retelling of Mahogany Tales: Modern Urban Retellings of Classic Fairy Tales.
A historical fiction that reads contemporary.
Hardy, Chanel. My Colorblind Rainbow. 132pp. Self Published. $8.99. ISBN978-0692973875. Ages 13 and Up. The feedback given by young girls who have read copies of this title have been spell-bounding positive and the feedback by adults more in the negative, of which based on the conservative state I live in, comes as no surprise, yet I am angry at our still slow catharsis move to open-mindedness (sic: don’t know if it’s a word or not) and acceptance.
Touching on the taboo subjects of colorism, race separatism, religious didacticism of the black church (simply from a personal) and acceptable societal appearances this book provides much food for thought and dialogue by its readers. Although I have mentioned the black church, this is prevalent at extreme measures throughout a plethora of religious practices. It’s just my experience in the black church amongst a people that are suffering…to be taught that God’s love is for all people and to go against what is natural to them and ostracize that child from the family circle as was done in this book, due to pride and societal backlash, is insanity to me. I as a mom that carried a child in my womb for nine months and pushed it out to this mean old world would never send that child into the world unprotected from my love, shelter, and support. But these things have always been done and still are, which is why the book reads so contemporary-like.
There is a serious need to address colorism within cultures of color. As long as there is melanin production and skin tone hues, this will exist and as long as we try to act as if this is an insult to our sensitivities, there will be no healing. Colorblind Rainbow, in its compactness, has managed to address this issue from the historical pretense of Durham, NC in the 1940s. This was not the primary purpose, however. That purpose was recognition of the issues faced by one black and one white American adolescent female who identified as lesbian and yet stood up against the pressures of their world to embrace their love and attraction and suffer the consequences.
What makes this book an easy stand-out is that it is historical but reads contemporary due to the gender identity issues. I have personally not read anything addressed to the teen reader that is so direct in the issues of segregation, racism, and gender bias all rolled into 132 pages. It’s short and punching and controversial. In dialogue with some of my white peers, it has been received as text filled with stereotypes. In dialogue with black peers, its an attack on the inside issues of colorism that CONSTANTLY gets pushed to the side and the lacking of social justness from church and society on LGBT issues and the extensive acts of rejection that is dumped on these youth, which is yet another play on the “blind” in colorblind. When you don’t mention it, it doesn’t get addressed. In this book, the blindness was of race, religion, and gender binary, and it certainly is mentioned in what I might say as an eloquent and clean write. There are stereotypes, but I found that more in the black character’s move to Asheville and the white character’s move to the Village (NYC). There’s also the biases that all white people are racist, of which we know is not and never has been true. As Dr. King said in his B-ham letter addressing the issues of whites and racism: the problems will continue to fester due to “the appalling silence of the good people”. So the issue is not the racism of all white people but the silence of those in the majority in reference to the injustice.
We are still not a kumbaya society, as some people think and I personally don’t believe in placing a silencer on issues, but at some point in our development, we need to start teaching truth in our educational system. Why did it take Trump referencing a Caribbean nation as a pigsty for the news to bring to our attention that nation’s contribution to our own nations fight for freedom to the point of memorial statues placed in public squares in commemoration of members of this nation’s valor? At this point in our country’s development, I am also tired of explaining to someone in the majority why something done to a member of a minority is not fair. Obviously, if it needs explaining…something is wrong.
Many blacks do not like to talk about their intra-group prejudices and are more comfortable speaking on how society treats them on the whole, when in fact, society has also caused them to develop mannerisms against their own kind, due to historical preferential treatment modeled in slavery. This colorism is not just a black American thing. Just look at the pushback experienced by Amara la Negra, the Dominican singer who prefers to wear an afro than a more accepted long and straight hair weave. This stuff is a metastasized wart. Many whites are uncomfortable in having these discussions. Many people of color try to not bring this issue up in fear of hurting someone’s feeling, and some black and whites even accuse those that approach the conversation as over-reacting, preferring to overlook the bumps. This leaves the typography of race, social, and gender biases with a lot of festering sores.
In terms of this independently published title, I say “Bravo, Chanel Hardy! Keep writing from the heart!”
Follow Us to Day 3 of our Tour and the Long Awaited Review on In the Margin’s Website!
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