Love Is Dead
How a racism controversy blew up the romance genre
As we kick off the 2020s, there’s romance in the air — not in a fun way, but more in the sense of a great cloud of ash, dirt, and other detritus swirling around in the wake of a massive building collapse. The Romance Writers of America, a 9,000-member trade organization representing published and aspiring authors in the genre, all but completely imploded in the wake of a racism-related controversy that came to a head just before Christmas.
But this debacle wasn’t a sudden and unpredictable eruption of petty internet drama. Rather, it was a long-simmering stew of resentments that finally, catastrophically boiled over: a potent mix of longstanding discrimination issues within the romance genre, early-aughts changes to the publishing landscape that created a frantic (and sometimes misguided) scramble to serve authors and readers of color, and an organization struggling to make a genuine commitment to inclusive principles without tearing itself apart in the process — and failing spectacularly at the latter.
Most coverage of this story, which has ranged from shallow to openly snide, has centered on one official complaint…
