Whatever happened to young female black characters

I read widely. I enjoy all kinds of books whether they happen to be by black or white or Asian authors.

However this week I was faced with the truth that I loved books with characters that looked liked me.  As a teenager I read books by Tsi, Degerambe - Nervous Conditions and felt kinship with the character, her confusion mirrored my own.  I read Knoughts and Crosses and I could vision myself as Sephy. In Purple Hibiscus, I was back in my native country navigating the pitfalls of growing up.

Recently though I've struggled to find authors who write about women for black women my age i.e. in their twenties who aren't affected by Third World poverty or war, women who are navigating the job market, men and such. It is as if our stories have no value. 

I read a book recently, a romance, it wasn't particularly interesting by a white author, I found myself very angry at her description of a passerby as simple “a black woman”.  If a white man had walked past, would she have described him as “a white man”. Also her constant use of porcelain skin annoyed me. Her main characters had beautiful porcelain skin, like a tea cups. She found so many ways of describing white characters, but could only find one word to describe a black character. 

Anyway where are all the black female characters? 

The Newlyweds

Amina met George online. Within months she has left her home in Bangladesh and is living in George's house in the American suburbs. Theirs is a very twenty-first century union, forged from afar yet echoing the traditions of the arranged marriage.

But as Amina struggles to find her place in America, it becomes clear that neither she nor George have been entirely honest with each other. Both have brought to the marriage a secret - a vital, hidden part of themselves, which will reveal who they are and whether their future is together or an ocean apart.

Amazon

Marlon James wins the Man Booker Prize

Marlon James has won this year's Man Booker prize for A Brief History of Seven Killings. He is the first Jamaican writer to ever win the prize. Congratulations Mr. James!

Synopsis from The Man Booker Prize


On 3 December 1976, just weeks before the general election and two days before Bob Marley was to play the Smile Jamaica concert to ease political tensions, seven men from West Kingston stormed his house with machine guns. Marley survived and went on to perform at the free concert. But the next day he left the country and didn’t return for two years.

Inspired by this near-mythic event, A Brief History of Seven Killings takes the form of an imagined oral biography, told by ghosts, witnesses, killers, members of parliament, drug dealers, conmen, beauty queens, FBI and CIA agents, reporters, journalists, and even Keith Richards' drug dealer. The story traverses strange landscapes and shady characters, as motivations are examined – and questions asked. 

(http://themanbookerprize.com/books/brief-history-seven-killings) 

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/13/marlon-james-wins-the-man-booker-prize-2015