Literature or Genocide

The current drama of African American literature has set teeth on edge in many quarters. Questions range from what can be legitimately described as literature to whether new genres referred to as Urban or Street Fiction are tantamount to genocide. This blogger's response is that it is all relevant and subjective. Relevant to the conditions under which the questions are being asked and subjective as to who is doing the asking.

Literature has been at the seminal core of civilization since the first etching was scratched on the first cave wall. Its objective then was to convey the stories, the experiences, the fears, the joys, the warnings and the expectations of the etcher. The recipient of the message, then and now, must interpert what is presented based on their knowledge and its relevance to them. Man's inalienable right of free will, and, if you are an American, the right of the First Amendment to free speech, puts the onus of responsibility squarely on the consumer, i.e., the reader, rather than the producer, i.e., the writer, in my humble opinion. An economic reality for any writer or publisher is without readers, with very, very few exceptions, the message intended is dormant.

With that acknowledged though, it is a valid issue of concern to any culture or society when the economic spinning wheel starts to spit out barbed-wire in its name and pretend it is silk. This is where relevance takes hold, and this is where the thought that the preponderance of books that hold no viable redeeming value to the majority of the African- American reading public must be recognized solely as it is. It has nothing to do with literature, nothing to do with entertainment, and absolutely nothing to do with you or your culture. It is merely a profit center designed wholly for the purpose of increasing someone elses' bottom line.

The argument that the stories being told are in the language of, and the experiences of, the street as it unfolds day in and day out is hallow. If this is true than what ought to be written by this new pletora of young writers are non-fiction accounts of the lives they are living, books that chronicle for all the world to know what real life is under the circumstances and conditions of their reality. True-crime sells hands over fist, so why not this market, rather than one that romanticises their daily hell and insults those compelled to live it for real.

So, you be the judge. Is it literature or genocide? What would it be if the wrapper was removed and it was marketed as non-fiction? Would the profit center hold up? You do the math.

Lights on!