Tillie Cole | Authors Behaving Badly
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ส.ค. 2024
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Btw if you can’t stand cowboys either I have good and bad news about tomorrows video……
Are you gonna review Nightbane 👀
@@theaawalker Yes!
I know that this isn't the focus and I'm only at the beginning of your video but I went through a dark romance phase and read quite a few of Tillie Cole's books, I think to books 5 or 6 not sure where I stopped. I just wanted to clarify, from what I remember the first couple of books focus on the religious cult that abuses young girls (probably what the author's note was addressing), the female MC of the first book being one of them. I think book two or three was another of the girls from that religious cult as well. I believe the white supremacist and cartel princess characters aren't really introduced until books 4 or 5 i think (if not later) and from the premise you know they will be the focus soon. That's around when I stopped reading the series. I think I wasn't liking where the series was going.
As a general statement, I’m just so tired of the “we can f*ck away racism” genre of entertainment
honestly that's part of why I hated six of crows.
I Never even know there was a ,,make-up-genre“ like that :/
Damn, that is uncomfortable.
@@user-vw9lj1yn1b wait what happened is six of crows? Is it because of that guy who comes from the place that teaches their men to hate greshas? Because it wasn't done too badly in my opinion. He was still racist even after getting with her and even as he helps the group. He is currently going through the redemption but I like how they didn't wash away all his asshole attributes
Do you remember that one movie where a Nazi and a person of color fall in love and her love changes him from his Nazi ways? That was a thing.
@@Kay-wp8xf omg I'm trying to forget
STORYTIME :D
I'm black. Back in February 2020, the KKK had planned a march near where I work. I took the day off because I didn't want to get killed. I warned a black customer to stay out of the area that day so he'd be safe. My work stayed open, and came up with a plan to help those who'd be targets of the Klan stay safe as well, such as having someone walk them to their bus or to get lunch, etc.
That someone could write a romance about someone who literally wants people like me dead is absolutely abhorrent.
Oh my god im so grateful your work did that but what an absolutely appalling thing to even have to make a plan around. I’m so sorry.
sorry you went through this - the whole concept just dehumanizes the communities continually victimized by the KKK it's disgusting
You ain’t never lied!! I write interracial romance and that is one line you will never see me cross! I’ll just be over here minding my own with my vampires, werewolves, and angels!
@@mrsiz218queen where can i look at your work?!? it’s always so hard to find interracial stories that don’t give off weird vibes
@@janiahwashington6958 awww bless you!! I write under A D Hunter and all my books are in KU on Amazon. Two series. The Last Daughters of Titus and The Lochwillow Chronicles. Thank you so much! Paranormal Romance. I love my angels, werewolves, and vampires! I just can’t get away from them!
As a Texan, seeing “yeehaw” spelled like ye-haw took 20 years off my life
You know what this reminds me I should text my Texas friends and ask if they feel the same
Ye-Olde-Haw 🤠
@@ReadswithRachel please do, they will probably start crying with sheer pain
I texted her and this is her verbatim response: “what in the blue fuck is ye-haw? Ye-haw?! YE-HAW? You yee your best haw or you don’t yee at all”
@@ReadswithRachel spoken like a true Texan lmao
My main takeaway from this whole debacle is that Tillie Cole's books are for the girlies with the racist boyfriends. Charming.
THIS 👀👀👀
Good point!
She looked at _Purple Hearts_ and was like, "Time to make these microaggressions into macroaggressions"
I was going to say Neo Ned but yes, this is absolutely some Purple Hearts shit @@TheNumnutRandomness
hear me out... inevitable overlap with colleen hoover.
just like that one tiktoker said, just because a racist white man falls in love with a BIPOC woman DOESNT MAKE HIM NOT RACIST!!! it doesn’t work that way
That's what I kept thinking! What happens when the romantic high goes away and they start fighting and he starts calling her slurs because he's angry ... Or if she leaves on bad terms, how he'll go right back to how he was before. Because the chance wasn't in his thoughts and feelings towards everyone, but just her.
My dad is quite racist. While he didn't marry a woman of color, he did marry a woman who didn't share all his views; he has black coworkers who he calls friends; he learned a lot of Spanish for his Mexican coworkers. And he has not changed his views. Racism doesn't disappear on its own--you have to make an active effort to fight it.
These types of parents will only end up being racist to their children in turn. I'm certain many biracial kids have stories to tell about that, and they're opening up conversations everywhere on social media
As a black woman who grew up in the South and lived in the Midwest, I can confirm that racist white folks can still be attracted to the black body and culture and even personality while still hating us as people. Speaking from a lifetime of lived experiences.
A man in my family specifically is attracted to women of colour but is simultaneously quite racist. The chase for what he finds exotic is just part of that -- and when they're fighting, that's when the slurs and stereotypes come out. He's also very firm that their biracial son is white and forbid his wife (who is Mexican) to teach their son Spanish. Race is a fetish for him, rather than a valid part of someone's personhood.
Wait, does the Mexican community specifically fall under the BIPOC banner? BIPOC are separated from the rest of American POC due to the fact that BIPOC don't have experiences colored by immigration, instead having a unique connection to the founding of the US and the subsequent cultural erasure they were subjected to for generations.
Since Mexico is a distinct country, wouldn't Mexican Americans fall under the POC banner?
Something about a british white author specifically writing something involving such a vicious subculture in the USA as the KKK just makes it a little more disgusting and ignorant.
As a white British reader, I agree 100%
I mean, England has been the OG for violent white supremacy and imperialism.... The author is just trying out a different flavor, one that involves sweet tea and misspelling yeehaw
as a white british reader and author, exactly this
I'm not even sure ignorant is the right word - I'm a Brit who grew up near Teeside so not far from where the author was born, and we are VERY aware of the KKK in the USA. We know the disgusting things they have done and continue to do. We've seen countless representations of the violence they perpetuate on screen. Ignorance would imply a lack of knowledge which Cole certainly has and that makes it 100 times worse to me.
Missed the author note huh?
Aside from the gross portrayal of the Clan, do we really need any more "women fixing men" stories in the world.
Unfortunately, those stories simply sell well with women (primarily). Especially with booktok, what people want is the same 5 tropes over and over with no deviation and enemies to lovers is one of them. So unfortunately it's not a supply issue, but a demand issue.
@@danielbroome5690That’s why I have long distanced myself from the romance genre not just dark romance (which was never much of my thing in the first place) but romance as a genre as a whole, the otome game community also has this issue and after that game romanticizing Italian mafia abuse and human trafficking I couldn’t be there anymore
I'm 52 and still hearing about this trope - why???
The blame sits on Pride and Prejudice and THAT enemies to lovers dynamic. But instead of keeping it in a mostly light-hearted area of life, where the issue is that the guy is rude to strangers and arrogant and the girl is very headstrong, this has now moved into the "this psychopath m*rderer became horny for a woman and now he's ready to leave everything behind for a chance to get with her". There's so much wrong with it that I can't even start listing. oh, not to mention the apalling female characters in those stories as well.
plus the fact the "fixing" typically isnt helping them move past some kind of trauma or grow as a character through tough times with the FMC where they both help each other grow but instead is a woman teaching a man basic manners, respect and not to be racist, sexist or both. like that stuff should come included 😭😭😭
"I wrote a book about a Jewish woman falling in love with a nazi, why are people mad at me?"
No you joke but they do this all the time. There's this one Nazi/Jew romance that was nominated for respectable awards and shit. It's all exactly the same shtuss 😭
Girl are you made of stupid?
Rachel: What if I wrote a K*K romance?
Carlos: Divorce 🗣️📢
yes King
The way you censored it lmfao 🙄
@@maddieb.4282youtube gets pissy if you say stuff like that without censoring it they just making sure youtube doesn't delete the comment
I grew up in Texas and a dude who lived down the street from my family's house was in the KKK. Literally the entire neighborhood hated him and none of the other families in the neighborhood(including mine) allowed their kids to invite his kids to play. Trust me when I say there is nothing desirable or romantic lead like about hateful assholes like that.
I live in a town that is considered the underground capital of the Aryan Nation and KKK in this region of Texas, certainly as it applies to the criminal aspect. We routinely have bodies discovered in burnt cars in the woods, with no further investigation. Now we have rhetoric washing over everything about potential "immigrant colonies" taking over that disgusts me. I'm pretty sure should this place would frown at the kkk showing up openly here, but then welcome them with open arms. Actually, I'm pretty sure they have.
While I agree wholeheartedly about just about everything you said here, something pings wrong to me about not allowing their kids to come play. It punishes those kids for the hateful rhetoric - but it also reinforces that hateful rhetoric, in a really backwards sort of way. Showing them literally _anything else_ is a good thing, as most kids aren't going to wholly adopt their parents way of thinking, especially if they have something better (and what isn't better than the KKK?) to model?
It's no one else's job to parent those kids, so I don't blame anyone for it, nor would I say they were in the wrong because they didn't want harmful rhetoric to go to their kids. But inviting those children over would allow a responsible (and not racist) adult to both moderate, and intervene, and educate when able.
I know this is a month old, I just needed to write this out to see if I could figure out what the wrong pinging feeling was in my head.
@@Venjamin My older brother is black and those kids you're feeling sorry for were racist and hateful just like their dad(and judging by their facebook today are just as terrible as adults). My mom wasn't going to force us to play with racist children when one of her children would be in danger.
@@maggiewinnike7309 No one said anything about forcing children to play with them. I was specifically talking about the parents mandating that their kids couldn't invite those kids out to play.
They were kids. Kids do absorb bad shit, but they also absorb good shit, when they're allowed to experience something else. These kids weren't - not because of their own parents, but because of every other adult in the neighborhood.
I highly doubt that they were "hateful and racist like their dad" because hatred and racism isn't bred into someone. It's learned. That's why I very specifically said things the way I said, so as to not say those parents were WRONG for not wanting their children to be potentially exposed to that.
Growing up to be terrible adults could very well be a result of never having been given the chance to interact with anyone outside their family.
The whole reason I brought this up is that christians use that form of othering as a way to infect and control christians, and the literal ONLY way to break that sort of "mind control" (for lack of a better term - I'm not absolving them of their bigotry, only acknowledging that your environment informs it, and cults like christians endorse this sort of behavior) is to be exposed to the world at large.
Hardcore racists don't change when they're left to their own devices, and no child is ever going to be a hardcore racist. They're children.
@@Venjamin
dude, as someone who is mixed race and experienced racial bullying in elementary school as well as my friends who were native, hateful and racist children do exist. And racist children can do serious damage, it’s not the nonwhite children’s responsibility to be exposure therapy to fix the racist children’s belief even if it was forced on them by racist parents.
I understand your approach and I do agree it is important for children to get diverse experiences to broaden their understanding of the world as well as learn empathy for others, but it’s important to remember that nonwhite children’s safety was at risk in this situation. If anything often times children get away with more, such as physical acts of violence or aggression, because their kids so it isn’t taken seriously.
We don’t know what the racial makeup of the neighborhood was, maybe it was predominantly nonwhite and dealing with the parents would have been difficult or maybe not but considering how safe a child would be in this scenario you are aiming for is important as nonwhite children are not afforded that consideration and are expected to just deal with bigotry thrown their way because “they’re just kids, it’s not that serious”
“May she sit on a pineapple in hell,” is the most beautiful curse I’ve ever heard.
Dude that girl had me on the floor.
"You're so obtuse, 179.9°"
"Served up like a Chili's margarita that's been rotting in the line cook's car"
Shakespeare, I tell you
The arguments about the series being about "escaping cult mindsets" are wild to me. Writing a book romanticizing the KKK featuring a man who /kills/ people of color and ends up with a Mexican woman based off of the author's biases is VERY different from a book about a young man realizing he has horrible beliefs stemming from his family's beliefs and deciding to unlearn them. When Mexican readers overwhelmingly say that this book is offensive and dangerous--is it that hard to listen?
Yeah uhhh a POV book where a hate group member deconstructs, and we get to follow along with how they learn about the harms of not just their explicit, but also their implicit racism....THAT I'd read!
And you could throw a romance into a book/series like that. Maybe he deconstructs from his explicit racism, falls for a POC, and through his exposure to his partner's family and culture, and through conversations with them, and experiences he has with them....he continues to further deconstruct from implicit racism, and you can end the book or series with the main character acknowledging they still have more to learn....THAT'D be acceptable to me. Don't make the romance the goal of the story. But you can still include romance in it, and utilize it to further promote antiracist ideas and thinking by watching this white main character further deconstruct.
I think it'd actually be a 1. compelling story, and 2. an effective way to promote antiracist ideas through fiction. I think a POC author could probably pull something like that off. And I'd be interested in reading it.
I'm someone who escaped a cult (conservative Christian) and I can confirm that this book is a harmful, inaccurate portrayal of people who belong to hate groups like this. Being born into a cult and being an active member of a hate group are NOT the same, and this isn't how deconstruction happens irl.
This is probably one of the few things jk Rowling got right with Draco Malfoy. Was he a racist shit? Yes. He was also a kid who grew up with only that messaging. And through the series we see him realizing his screwed up upbringing. No female character “screws the fascism” out of him. It takes his own introspection and his own sense of Will to snap out of it.
@@Jabberwocky112except JK herself stated Draco could never be nothing but a villain and will never had a redemption despite the fact he can actually be redeemable but instead paint Snape as a misunderstood hero
@@-dark-paradise it’s kind of weird how her writing contradicts her statements.
Gonna be so so real with y'all - the "there's more of us than there are of them" is SUCH a dogwhistle. I'm Mexican and went to college in the deep south, and I can't tell you how many times I've heard that directed at me. I fully cannot give Bink the benefit of the doubt, because it is actually dangerous to do so - I do not think that is a coincidence.
Also Candace Owens being labeled "well-spoken" makes me want to break things with my teeth. The dogwhistles!!!!!!
THIS!
It's not true anyway. At least not if you count globally. There are less of them, and they know it. That's why they're always going on about globalization.
I don’t even see it as a dog whistle. Dog whistles are supposed to be subtle while that’s an octave below screaming.
This is why I stick to monsters lol. My current book has a demon who *built cat shelters* behind his mates apartment complex for the stray cats and kittens.
Hes also a painter.
You know what you don't see in these books?! THE KKK.
Edit: Title is "Mated to the Monster" by Sarah Spade
A DEMON WHO BUILDS CAT SHELTERS YOU SAY???
title pls this sounds PERFECT
But does he tnr??????
Go ooon… I’m listening 👂🏽👂🏽
Is this published or are you writing it? Either way I need a title lol
it's me, I'm the Latina hearing that story. call me crazy but if I see a white man with a swastika tattoo I'm not thinking "wait I can fix him"
You ever read a synopsis and just “WOW this person’s therapist must be going insane”
Bold of you to assume that she has the self awareness to acknowledge that she needs therapy.
@@hannahbrennan2131why did i think this exact same thing
@@scream_kinh614 I started verbally saying the sentence until I paused mid "assume" when I saw someone beat me to it lmao, great minds think alike
how can TC’s defenders say “it’s doesn’t romanticize anything!!” when the MMC in their head is most likely a conventionally attractive, muscular man WITH A VERY RECOGNIZABLE HATE SYMBOL TATTOOED ON HIM??
the amount of people i've seen say 'it's fictional so it's fine!' is flabbergasting like the kkk is NOT FICTIONAL??????
"Is being a Cowboy in Alberta a thing?"
As an Albertan, I laughed waaay too hard at that. Here in good ol' Canada, Alberta is widely (and rightly, mostly) regarded as the Texas of the Great White North. Calgary's even called "Cowtown."
Medicine Hat born and raised and SAME
Not to mention the Calgary Stampede, lmao
Was just about the comment that Calgary is basically the cowboy capital of Canada lmao
Yep. I find it funny how little some Americans know about Canada, since we are in fact neighbours. And culturally we’re practically the same.
Living in Alberta means you know that like half the population is some form cow folk.
Wether they do anything farm related or just identify as such doesn’t really matter in that regard tho.
The other thing I always want to mention when discussing Alberta is the rat patrol. Cause we’re only place in the world that doesn’t have any breeding rats on our soil.
For those who don’t mind the cold and hate rats, Alberta is definitely a good option for you. Lol.
@@ysodora8030To be fair, plenty of Americans don't even know much about the states we haven't lived in, a whole other country is a bit much for us. 😅
...and in the meantime, books by and about the people this sort of literature hurts are getting banned left and right. it's freaking gross.
Ridiculous and so frustrating
Thissssss
I’m a dark romance reader and that sh!t isn’t dark romance. I hate that people are throwing that around as an excuse for this blatant, gross ignorance. There is a clear line and if any defenders of TC are unable to see that, I recommend they take a step back from dark romance because they have clearly become desensitized.
I'm not a reader of dark romance, I think I read only one, and it felt uncomfortable but I'm also a person who only reads fluff , could you explain where the line is?
@@bluester7177as far as I'm aware, dark romance is about dark/toxic relationship dynamics rather than having one or both mc commit hatecrimes or even crimes in general. Except to eachother, that is.
@bluester7177 I always felt like it uses darker themes, trauma and violence and etc.
@@bluester7177 I've read some dark romances, and the one I really liked is the mindfuck series, and there was other one it was ok, a guy was pretending to be in the mafia to collect evidence to a fbi case, but fell in love with the female main character (this one still has some protective BS, but good bdsm representation)
Dark romance and Extreme Horror have always felt like two genres that can so often be used to excuse away the author being just a terrible person, at least, that's how it feels at this point tbh...
"Don't call out the racism of my favorite book. I'm not racists, you're racists. This is cancel culture."
I wrote this to be an exageration, but I've been thinking and remembered there really is no bar that you can set low enough that someone can't limbo under.
I mean yeah, this is basically what the TC simps are saying with no exaggeration.
@@TheQuietTyper The annoying part is that this is true of EVERYONE. Everyone will always excuse something they like to an extent. Really depends on how harmful it is, because most things have SOME issue we overlook because we like it. But we can only recognize this behaviour in other people, not in ourselves.
As a southern, black woman I am so tired of this specific genre. Dark romance is completely fine. I tend to read a lot of it myself. However, writing a book that just licks the boots of a racist movement isn't something that needs to be done! It's the same with some authors writing about fictional n**i members falling for Jewish or minority people. Just stop.
These aren't fictional groups, nor fictional ideals. Plus even when it is, like you said, it's open to criticism. There's so much more ideas that can be used in darker settings. So can we please leave the "romantic racist" in the past?
I don't believe she had sensitivity readers.
The fans are on a whole other level! There was this one person ranting and raving in someone's comment section about how nobody who criticizes the book has actually read it. I linked Mari's video and said "hey here's somebody who has actually read it and explains very well why it's harmful!" And she replied that Mari's opinion should be taken with a grain of salt because she hasn't gotten the context from the full series! Wonder what she'd have to say about someone who HAS read the whole series and still agrees it's a harmful book lol
Goal post shifting is their favorite tactic
Woof, some people get hit hard with their own cognitive dissonance
Well, I did read the whole series (and liked most of it) and just finished Darkness Embraced. And guess what? YES, it is as harmful as it has been criticized for being. I'll go toe to toe with any one of her fans now.
Really tired of the “oh he was abused so it’s okay,” thing. So many people who were uncomfortable with Christian Grey in the first 50 Shades book changed their minds in the second book because they found out he was abused. They were so excited to woobify him that they excused everything he did wrong.
Also I have never in my life seen a hot young fit triple K member just saying.
People literally do this with characters where the entire POINT is that their backstory doesn't excuse or even necessarily explain their actions. Take Killgrave in Jessica Jones and how many people loved Killgrave, despite the show being careful to refute any and all suggestions that his actions were excusable or forgivable or even understandable pretty much as soon as they came up. The show stopped just short of putting a neon sign reading "I am manipulating you and I fully intend to continue hurting people" on his head every time he tried to be sympathetic or win people over or imply he'd changed, and people STILL woobified him.
It just goes to prove that there is no way to portray a hot or even average looking white man in a bad enough light that people won't give him a pass if he looks sad about something for a couple of seconds
@@katharineeavan9705 i get what you mean but i kinda feel like it really fits his manipulive nature. Like hes gas lit the fans. But ya uncomfortable how far they go.
I've always hated when people do that. Abused people don't always go and abuse others; when they do, they need help, not be praised just for being abused. My "father" was abused and abused me. Me and one of my other siblings broke the generational abuse and refuse to act like that to others
The birth of a nation (1915) is a key piece of media in how fiction can affect reality. Until that movie came out the KKK were done, that movie led to a ressurgence. Fiction has a massive impact on reality.
Mmmmmmmassive oversimplification but okay.
@@maddieb.4282okay know it all why don’t you explain it then
@@maddieb.4282 It's a youtube comment, not a peer reviewed paper. What exactly were you expecting here? A full summary of the rise, decline and resurgence of the KKK with a detailed timeline and full citations? It is a widely established fact that the movie was instrumental to the resurgence and popularisation of the KKK. Just because there were also other factors at play doesn't make that any less true. They literally still use elements of the movie in their branding.
Alberta is pretty much the deep south of Canada. Very country, very conservative, and right in the Canadian bible belt. At least in the south. It's so conservative the provincial government is trying to get as close as they can get to American healthcare and would also do so with gun laws if they could. It is also extremely cowboy. Mostly rural and a big long past of ranching, farming, rodeos, etc. Extremely Christian, in the south it's mostly Mormon though.
I flew into Calgary once and there were cowboy hats EVERYWHERE. Like slot machines in Nevada, if you could also wear slot machines.
and also a zero rats allowed policy 😌
Yeah my company is based out of Alberta, and while most of the people I work with are chill, some of them were excited to hear I was from Florida because they thought I would love Trump and DeSantis, my reaction: “no 😐”
So like Queenslanders here in Australia? In our recent referendum that voted on whether indigenous people should have a voice in parliament, 80% of Queenslanders voted no. Ken Ham is a Queenslander.
I mean we literally call it "The Texas of Canada"
'It's just dark romance' truely is the new 'It's just dark humor'
Omg ur so right
"This book is just dark romance" gives me the same vibes as when "50 shades of grey" was being defended while the bdsm community was trying to bring attention to how it does not represent the bdsm community AT ALL. Why do people who are not the victims, keep on trying to tell the victims how to feel?
I thought that the world of erotica romance could sink no lower after the disgusting Nazi/Jewish victim of the Holocaust book I was unfortunate enough to come across some years back. Tillie Cole is a British author that has lived in both Canada and the United States where she would know about the KKK and everything they represent.
I know of Tillie Cole but never read any of her books, especially the book that is specifically being criticised now that more people know about it. I am very happy that she's being discussed, especially since she has been long problematic. Thank you for posting your video!
This book is literally Nazi x Jew in the holocaust from what Rachel is describing-- just switch the groups, but still the same horrifying message.
Oh god I thought I had imagined the holocaust romance novel
Unfortunately there were some in real life, but it didn't mean a change of heart, but thatthat woman was their "good jew". If I remember correctly, it was Hummler who stated that no jew will be the excemption because everyone has their good jew (kind of loke the black friend).
Having said that, what is going on those author's head???? You don't romantize that, you can use it to show how they can like or even love someone from the group they oppress, but are still monstruous to others.
omg im editing my video about this right now too! even tho i know what happened im gonna leave your video playing in the background for the whole hour so you get that adsense money queen
Oh! How wonderful, Cindy!
Can’t wait to watch it. I love seeing discussions about very problematic books and authors here on TH-cam, and not just in blogs and Twitter threads. I’d give my least favourite toe for you to start a series similar to what Rachel is doing here. 🥺💜 But I get why someone might not want to wade into this topic for an extended period of time, since it must be emotionally draining.
There’s so many horrible writers, that romanticise, excuse and fetishise the worst of humanity (Jamie McGuire, here’s looking at you) and then encourage bullying of any dissenting voices. And they continue being popular and beloved despite their very serious issues. Gah.
I’ve always believed that depiction isn’t (necessarily) endorsement. You need to be able to depict certain things in media in order to discuss, dissect, and have a conversation about them. That said… HOW you depict something is absolutely vital. To that one commenter, the problem isn’t that there are kkk characters. Not even necessarily a problem that one is a protagonist. Depicting them as heroic in any capacity is the problem
Exactly
American History X did a wonderful job depicting the horrors of a hate group *and* the redemption
I was thinking about this too, it's the same with nazis (though there was a lot more nuance with those). Writing about someone isn't inherently wrong. I wouldn't even say that a romance is bad, but if you write it in a way that doesn't make clear that harmful behaviour is harmful you're causing actual harm to people. It's like the Colleen Hoover books, there is nothing wrong with writing toxic or abusive relationships, it's the not showing that these behaviours are dangerous and wrong and romanticizing it that makes it not ok.
Writing about a kkk member that learns that they're wrong, because they get introduced to Mexican culture (or any in their case anyways) by someone who later on becomes their partner doesn't sound to bad. But stereotyping Mexican women and having him stay in that hate group and just having him change or something because he's into her is weird and harmful and honestly a bit disgusting
Yeah there's absolutely a line to walk in that regard. There's a lot of mis-understanding of some stories because of this even when they ARE critiquing something negatively, but filtered through the lens of a character that supports it. The way that this book would be fixed (even keeping the basic romance tropes the audience was looking for) would be to make it an ironic romance where it begins the same way as other romance schlock, but make it clear in the end that nothing has actually changed with the bad guy. He's still the same person and the FMC might not fully accept that by the end of the book, but it needs to at least show him slipping back into his old actions or once she's into his world she sees how terrible it is, or his platitudes are unveiled, or he stops treating her well once they're in a relationship. Just something.
Side note on what Sylvia said, but dang the gender-neutral Latine just sounds SO much better than the English-created Frankenstein Latinx.
Fr. Latinx is so clunky to say even in English, let alone in Spanish.
I've never seen that, is it pronounced how it looks?
From what I've heard, that's because Latinx wasn't originally really meant to be said or sounded out, it's purely visual. The 'x' isn't so much the letter X as it is crossing out the o/a.
I put this one while getting ready in the morning, and let me tell you. "Romanticising the KKK" is NOT something I expected to hear when I turned off my hair dryer 💀
Love when the argument against a video they don't watch is "you didn't read the book"
As a Southerner....I don't know where to begin. I think putting "Hangman" in the series name might be a start to the absolute horror of this sh!tshow.
It startles me that the book community has to have these conversations in the first place (then again, the book community keeps startling me in this vein). This book fuels the fire of the already seething pit of misinformation that plagues Southern understandings of race and racism. On the topic of "it's just fiction": Louisiana ranks usually somewhere at second-worst educated states in the country - and is also one of the most racist. A lot of literature coming out of the state (especially romance and vampire novels...for some reason) play a "romantic" image of slavery, as if it were a golden age of the past. There is no room permitted to be critical of this past - or present for the matter - and Cole's writing does NOTHING for the much-needed breakdown of these beliefs. It's not just fiction when the people who read it believe it.
The way this book seems to have been written makes it sound that the issue is between the klan and cartels. The triple K don't care about whether or not someone is in a cartel to base their hate, it's a casual disregard for another's right to live. The reviews and sales pitch place this as a Romeo-and-Juliette tale, a story of two waring groups. This places a dangerous narrative that the "other side" of the hate group is also dangerous - not to mention, places this to be something where an "other side" is to be considered.
Also, there should be more discourse on how, of all things, Cole decided to write the Mexican female MC to be part of a cartel. This pits the entire issue as cartel-vs-klan....and sticks to the commonly-held stereotype held by many racists that Latine individuals are often involved in gangs/cartels/etc. So not only does it make a romance out of a hate group, it builds upon this racist stereotype to craft its entire plot...this is only just scratching the surface of the problems with this book...
Apologies if this turned into a rant...I never comment on videos, but seeing this only NOW get addressed by the book community is just alarming. The book was published in 2019. Book community, do better.
A big part of the issue is that places like booktok, largely, don't care about the contents of the book, they're just looking for strict adherence to the tropes they like, in exactly the same way each time which is why something like THIS does just as well as some formulaic, rote, but not nearly as problematic 4th Wing novel. They're both romance schlock in the same way and that's all they care about.
As a black woman, I have so much to say about this. But I’m too annoyed to put any of it into proper words.
You know just when I thought we were leaving Confederacy romances behind... I should've guessed that the girlies would just latch onto the next white supremacist "bad boy" 😭
Just to quickly share my thoughts - As someone who has lived in a town will of AB and Kkk the idea of them in the military actually makes more sense to me. From what ive seen, most of them when their fresh out of highschool and young, are usually a little more timid to show their racism and you'd never realize their like that. I had a friend - who i didn't realize was a kkk nember- bc their best friend was mexican... but they tokened them as the "ok brown person" (not my wording dont come for me) but eventually it became apparent-after years of friendship- that they were more looked at as a well behaved animal rather than a person. The outwardly aggressive racism comes only when they feel empowered. Groups like that are full of cowards that want to feel like the hold power, and the military is a perfect place for them to go to feel that way. I wish there was a way for us to accurately see how many military members have ab and kkk views on the world. Im willing to bet it would shock everyone.
I know very little of American or Canadian military, but on the surface it tracks for me that a member of a viciously hateful group would be drawn to an organisation, that not only teaches you how to fight and kill, but also provides a sense of power and a hierarchy, which we know these men seek out.
It’s the same reason so many white supremacists, racists and neo-Nazis love flocking to police forces all over the world. They see working as a police officer as a convenient way of taking out their rage, fear and resentment on people, who can’t defend themselves. They love the power trip. It’s that way in the USA, in Germany, France, here in Poland and probably in every country in the world to some extent.
I would imagine the ratios are very similar to that of police departments.
“Believe it or not, jail” from hubby was GOLD. I needed that today😅
Since I learned the name of the fmc is Adelita (the name of an activist and a soldier during the Mexican Revolution and a symbol of movement) I knew something would be off. Using that name to give a character that is the daughter of the leader of a Cartel? The ones responsible for such violence and death? That’s bullshit, and tbh seems steryotypical.
Hi. A Canadian here from BC. Alberta, which is the province directly east of me, is often called the "Texas of Canada." There are a lot of similarities between Texas and Alberta, which I first heard from an Albertan friend of mine who's also lived in Texas. Both are big into the cattle industry and the oil and gas industries. There are a lot of cowboys in Alberta, as well as in parts of northern BC.
I truly had no idea and this goes to show that the US really just doesn’t teach jack shit about canada
it's the opposite for Canadians, American influence is strong on the internet and in general (including the slip and slide to the right unfortunatly) @@ReadswithRachel
@@ReadswithRachel that's what a lot of my American friends say.
Alberta and Texas are probably similar in some surface level ways but I haven't heard that Alberta is quite as...intense as Texas is. Like Texas acts as if it is its own country. And you are not allowed to forget you are in Texas while in Texas. Even the roads are marked with the silhouette of the state. Kids in school pledge allegiance to the Texas flag which is even more wild than the pledge to the American flag kids in other states do.
I've mostly heard that Alberta and Manitoba are the Midwest of Canada like Missouri, Iowa, and Kansas.
@@mathematicalcabbage I'd never before heard of there being a Midwest of Canada, although I can see how Manitoba and Alberta, and Saskatchewan as well, would be seen as that.
You are right that Alberta's not quite as intense as Texas. While it definitely has an independent spirit, it doesn't act as if it is its own country or the like.
Less than two minutes in and oh my god what how can anyone justify using horrific groups to make their love stories? I though it was obvious that terror groups shouldn’t be the subject of romances?? Just saying something is dark romance does not excuse using difficult and horrific topics in a romantic light????????
Totally agree with you
I knew this video was going to be bad based on the quote in the thumbnail but the mention of the KKK guy falling for a "cartel princess" (less than five minutes into this video)...
that's... choices sure were made, and they sure were terrible.
Edit: I'm really glad that you included those clips about just how quiet racism can be, because I feel like that's something many people don't think about. As a half-Ecuadorian kid, my paternal grandmother would always point out how much I looked like my white dad, and it was only years later that my mom told me she was glad that was the case because otherwise my grandmother would've made a fuss and claimed I wasn't my father's daughter. Yet if I shared parts of my heritage while visiting her, my paternal grandmother would basically showpony me to her friend circle "like look at my Ecuadorian granddaughter" to the point that even 7-year old me noticed something was off.
"candice! AS IN OWENS." the scream i scrumpt. these people......... god.
Takes me back to reading a blogpost by the wonderful Jenny Trout (author and rewiever) about Jamie McGuire, that showed screenshots of her Facebook profile, where she was talking about BLM and a black man getting killed, and someone mentioned how great Candace Owens was in the comments. Those MAGA dickweeds are rarely subtle.
As a white passing latine afab person, the very idea of the fmc icks me out so much. Ive been on the receiving end of both hatred and fetishization of white supremacists. I feel like it puts the burden of "fixing" those assholes onto those on the recieveing end of their hatred.
I also totally agree with sam. As a white passing person, my experience with rasism is different than people like my mom and stepdad. Sure, when people realize or clock ghat im not entirely white, ive been on the recieving end of racism but for the most part, it passes me and goes to my loved ones. Most of the time, im fetishized for being a light skinned latino. Its one of those weird "good ones" moments and to hear someone romanticize it is gross as all hell.
I'm not gonna lie, after listening to a big chunk of your Authors Behaving Badly series, I can definitely say that some people's actions are more stunning to me than others... This was SO WILD I had to stop the video several times to just sit there in contemplative silence for a few. Appalling.
Also I was always under the impression that "dark romance" referred to toxic relationships and dynamics, maybe some more detailed violence, questionable spicy acts and the like... not romancing??? Men from actual hate groups??? Holy hell.
Love that Carlos knows his worth enough to know he'd leave in that horrible hypothetical, lol. Also that he's healthy enough to have his second thought be "okay initial conversation about WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK," and then continuing to know his worth when the behavior persisted. King behavior!
45:10 As someone who's active in the fanfic community and writes darker themes as well, I am a staunch defender of "don't like, don't read" BUT this principle simply isn't applicable to fiction that does tangible real life harm. There's a difference between people getting a little too upset about the wrong pixels on a screen kissing and the perpetuation of harmful narratives that threaten and hurt real existing people.
I also like dark fanfiction themes and agree with the "don't like, don't read" mentality, and I entirely agree. Most of the ff I read has entirely fictional situations and groups. It's also very important to understand what is fictional and what can be actually harmful.
My most "realistic" favorite genre is the cop genre. Why? Because I know that the current system is screwed up so badly that I like to imagine how it would actually work in an environment where there are more good cops than bad. It's entirely fantasy, which is so sad. Why do I need to go to fiction for this?
16:13 I feel like this sort of logic can apply to every other group in general. We use POC, we use queer, we use disabled for big groups of people, and the problem is sometimes, they make us lose sight of WHICH groups are actually being harmed. Sometimes only black people are being harmed. Sometimes only lesbians are being harmed. Sometimes people with schizophrenia are being harmed. It's okay to be specific. Assigning harm to groups that aren't necessarily being harmed actually adds more hurt to the situation.
Oooh, a brand new hour-long Authors Behaving Badly, and me with this fresh bowl of popcorn, too!
Idk if it has been mentioned, but as a Mexican American seeing the comments defend this series is actually very telling about the work we have to do to unlearn a lot of colonized mentality (specifically if they ID as 'brown' which is a little weird, if you're xy or z then say that). At least, if I understood the summary correctly. But that's usually a hint of why some people were defending it.
I try to be sympathetic because I've read some dark romances, and only one series has ever made me feel positive. And it's packed with actual dark themes that truly make me uncomfortable, but it didn't make me feel uncomfortable because the main ship (although I can understand why that story wasn't for everyone). It made me feel uncomfortable because of the villain/antagonistic... and the two leads backstories. That's why I liked. It's called the Scarlet Scars by J.M. Darhower. And yet even as I recommend this series, the series that came before this one is awful and unreadable.
Dark romance truly not for everyone, but it does not give you a pass to write racist romance regarding other cultures. Tbh it made me gag to see that a Mexican be placed in a story to fix a racist. And then she's part of the cartel? This honestly sounds like the author had was just throwing things at the wall and seeing what stuck... it sounds like a mess.
Anyways, this was such a good breakdown, I also appreciate that pause to explain why it's important to say who's story this hurting/impacting.
I’m still on the part about her bio, but isn’t “English rose” kind of a loaded term? I did a quick Google, and found stuff about how British people were using the term against Prince Harry marrying Meghan…yikes!
I had no idea I just assumed it meant like a pretty English girl? Damn I’m out of touch
@@ReadswithRachelI don’t think it always is, but I think in certain contexts, like how the press was using it against Meghan, it absolutely can be.
That’s good info to know!
When I was reading a lot of Harlequin historical romance, I saw authors use the term 'English rose' to get readers to picture what the stereotypical beauty of English society would look like. Truth be told, I think a lot of people attacking Meghan with this term are using it because 1. Meghan's an American married into the royal family and 2. She doesn't represent what an 'English rose' would look like, specifically because of her nationality and possibly because she's biracial.
If I remember some of my British cousins right, a lot of people hate Meghan largely because she's an American and she represents everything that British society isn't. Though, there's definitely a lot of people out there that hate Meghan because she's happens to have a black mum- and is therefore of mixed race ancestry. Which I think is just disgusting (the mindset, that is).
There's actually a British channel on TH-cam- not sure if it's hosted anywhere else, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was that talks really badly about Meghan. Nothing they say about her is nice at all. It's just a lot of cruel conjecture about who she is as opposed to having solid evidence to back their arguments up.
I'm English and associate it mostly with like Jane Seymour. Quiet, submissive, delicate, rosy cheeked.
Then to also kinda add to the weirdness. The KKK also like actively have a weird relationship with latinos, a lot of far right white passing latinos tend to join up with white supremacists? Like the leader of the proud boys for some time was a Cuban guy (Nick Fuentes). I remember this story in Cali in the 80s where my Dad after immigrating, his first neighbor was a card carrying member of the KKK and was really weirdly cordial with him and used a lot of the 'you're one of the good ones' rhetoric because he was latino but passed a little. His English wasn't the best but he viewed it his mission to have him assimilate more and also tried to take my brother under his wing and tried to teach him stuff like mechanic word (my Mom is an accountant and very small and not a very physical labor person and my Dad is a super academic and like not very handy with a wrench as much either). Like whenever I hear about things like this it just kind of reminds me of that and how bizarre it sounds like when my Dad ever recounts it. Like these people saw it as their duty to assimilate and de-latinize my parents/brother. Hell, the guys wife even taught my Mom how to make a peach cobbler.
A lot of confederates moved to Brazil and Mexico after the Civil War because they thought that their ideals were more tolerated south of the border.
Brazil has a lot of these too, there is a Brazilian movie called bacurau which has a famous scene of white supremacists telling white brazilians feom the south that they are not actually white.
Yep. The main confederate towns in Brazil are about 20, 30 minutes from the city I live in. For a long time the best blues bar here had a huge confederate flag behind the stage. A few owner changes later, the flag was finally gone, but that's as recent as 10 or even less years ago. I do think the flag was there more for ignorance and romanticizing the US South than anything, I knew the original owners and they were not racist, but the fact that the flag was seen as no big deal and as something to "celebrate a culture" was a big indication of how confederate culture felt comfortable here.
My hometown library had space you could rent for parties and events and the KKK wanted to host events there, arguing that the library couldn't discriminate against them and somehow--I'm not sure of the details I was so young when it happened--the library could not reject hosting the KKK in their rental space so the library stopped offering the rental space all together. Which I mean, sounds like it sucks because that space is no longer available but I respect my library for fighting off the KKK and refusing to compromise its integrity because they couldn't reject them for the event space
I'm a white woman living very far from the US, so I won't be talking about r*cism, yet I can talk abot h*m*phobia in the same context to point out how much labor DOES go into combating internalized -isms. So here it is: my parents are truly lovely people, very kind, compassionate, generous, willing to help anyone who asks, and this is all very genuine. However, they've been living in a very conservative society all their lives and continue living in it to this day. They cannot stand queer people... And I'm queer, and my stepmom knows this, and loves me very very much...And she still cannot stand queer people, no matter how many times I've tried to reason with her. If anything, it's gotten worse, since anti-queer propaganda in the media ramped up in my country lately. So no, love is not enough, it's not that easy, and also people are very good at turning a blind eye and just ignoring stuff.
Canadian here. Canadian cowboys is a thing. The Calgary Stampede is one of the largest rodeo events. Also author Elsie Silver writes Canadian cowboy romances.
This is shocking to me I thought everyone in Canada was watching American cowboys and laughing not MIRRORING
@@ReadswithRachel when talking to my American friends, we have determined we are very similar but some things are just slightly different. Kind of like a parallel universe.
It’s like living in an episode of Doctor Who
@@ReadswithRachel not to take away from the important message of the ABB which I am enjoying, if you ever need a fun parallel universe difference: what you call Smarties, Canadians call Rockets. Their is a fun history there.
@@ReadswithRachel It really is Doctor-who-esque. Crossing into the USA from Canada is literally surrreal, and I've heard that from many people up here. It's like you move from normal life into a place run by a cult and there are flags and "support the troops" signs everywhere to a point that would be insane in Canada. And that's Washington, a LIBERAL (ostensibly, outside of the rural areas) state.
Hi, rachel! love your channel! idk if u ever gonna read this, but I'd like to add, being a black Brazilian, that if the mfc was Mexican-born and raised the thing gets even more complex bc the racial situation is very different between countries from latam and even more different if u compare w/ the racial dynamics in US. speaking about Brazil, we have white supremacists groups acting here too, we have a LOT of racism, especially against black and indigenous people bc we too had colonization and slavery being implemented here by the Europeans (the portuguese, in Brazil's case). in conclusion, it makes a big difference if the main character is a white, black or indigenous Mexican woman and I bet the author ignored it. to give an example: actress yalitza aparicio suffered a lot of racism from her white counterparts in Mexico when she was nominated for an Oscar bc she's an indigenous person.
hope I made myself clear :)) if u ever read this: hugs from Brazil!!
This absolutely makes sense! I appreciate you bringing it up. Obrigada miga 💕
@@ReadswithRachel aaa ❤❤
i'm so glad someone else pointed out how fucking obnoxious it is how people will co-opt anti-censorship language in order to defend their own bigotry. i find the dark romance community is really bad about this, it really bothers me whenever (a certain loud minority i'm sure) of people will act like the only reason people will critique books with dark content is because of that content itself. but dark content is not a shield for being racist, or bigoted in any other manner, nor is it a shield for general criticism. i really think the trend of taking all criticism to be harassment is fucking awful for the book community as a whole on several levels, so i appreciate someone else talking about how it needs to fucking stop.
Where Hands Touch is a film that is right there in that same genre. Mixed race woman falls for a German soldier in 1903's Germany... while there may have been relationships like that which have happened in the real world, romanticizing and creating a fictional version feels like a way to excuse and soften the person who contributed to genocide.
Side note: the response from Carlos was spot on.
i remember seeing ads for that as a teenager and going “what the fuck? is anyone else seeing this?” 😭😭😭
3:24 Alberta is big on the whole cowboy persona thing. Calgary (a city in Alberta) has had a massive rodeo dating back 1912.
can confirm we don't have real cowboys but also we don't spell it like th
Oh my god this is blowing my mind
@@ReadswithRachelit’s HUGE. aside from visiting Banff, the Calgary Stampede is one of the biggest tourism draws.
Taking psychic damage as the kid of a newcastle-on-tyne mom, and I am now married into an Albertan family. 🤦♀️ Disappointed but not surprised.
I have never heard of Banff or the Calgary Stampede before this and honestly it’s depressing how little I seem to kniw
57:18 “Believe it or not… jail.” Lmaooooo Carlos is so fing funny 😂
it's always facebook because it's where awful jokers can create echo chambers and say whatever they want without getting checked by a diverse audience. also carlos coming in to reprimand your hypothetical racist self was great. love his cameos 😊
This is a very serious topic and I genuinely hate booktok saying something is “dark romance” as a catch all for letting people write and publish gross stuff like it’s okay. But also, Carlos coming in and being like “believe it or not, jail” had me dead 😂
Also it feels like she's using the 'imma kill brown people' racist military psycho trope from FMJ and other war movies. As well as probably reading old stories from pre-integration where the KKK and other groups were able to go into the military itself and caused situations like the various MP riots in the UK and Australia during WWII
There’s an evanescence song that goes “if we can’t talk about it, we’ll just keep drowning in it” that I think fits
Just when I thought *For Such a Time* , the *Christian* romance about an SS soldier falling in love with a "blond haired blue eyed Jewess" had a corner on the "WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?!?!" Market... This book comes along.
It's extremely important to emphasize that members of the k k k have always included powerful members of government and law enforcement. They are insidious and the true definition of institutionalized evil. But then again, the same could be said for much of England's history and politics. This is akin to a white American romanticizing England's violent practices of white supremacy, which is honestly so common. Can't say I'm surprised to see a white English author doing the same glorifying towards American racism.
I'm white-passing Mexican and that "you're one of the good ones" phrase pisses me off to no end! 🤬
44:10 it really irks me when people describe these kinds of books as 'Romeo & Juliet' and 'star-crossed lovers' romances because it requires a complete misunderstanding and ignorance of Romeo and Juliet to the point of totally blanking on literally the very first line: "Two households, BOTH ALIKE IN DIGNITY/" The fued in Romeo and Juliet was a petty and needless rivalry between two households that were too similar and ended up clashing because of it. What started the fued doesn't matter. The thing that matters is that both of them are too proud to be the one that backs away and ends the fued, which is what causes the tragedy of Romeo and Juliets death. The families were both so desperate to maintain their dignity and their pride that it took the deaths of these basically children to finally knock some sense into them. It's not a dramatic opressor x opressee story in which one of them learns that subjugating and/or discriminating against and/or performing acts of extreme violence against a group of people for no real reason is Bad, Actually when one(1) person from that group is hot and fuckable. It misses the entire point of Romeo and Juliet, arguably willfully, in order to portay a constructed narrative of these extreme racism-redemption fantasies as no different from simple 'worlds apart' romances. Also, can dark interracial romances where the 'dark' and the 'interracial' parts aren't the same part become more popular than the current ones we're getting? Pretty please?
Thank you for continuing this conversation. I have not read this book or series and now I have no plans to read this author either. The particular book in question was published back in 2019 and I read some of the one star reviews from that time. Tillie Cole was made well aware of the issues of using a MMC in the klan as a hero and whitewashing the FMC so much that she looked like his previous love interests. Tillie Cole did nothing about the series until social media caught up with her again and she couldn't ignore it anymore. Also, in a video by Happy For Now, I saw a screenshot of the MMC speaking and he uses slurs to describe Latine and Asian people but not other groups, indicating to me that Tillie Cole at least had some awareness of what she could and couldn't possibly get away with saying. Her words were chosen carefully. And her apology left a lot to be desired.
I have gotten to the point that I just can't with any form of "because I now have sexual and romantic feelings for this woman, she can exist as a real complex person." In any context, you can miss me with that, every time.
So lots of people have mentioned how conservative Alberta is, but it's also notable that there are some pretty large kkk groups here. They used to have published phone lists of their members. They might still, but I haven't checked.
Obviously living in Alberta doesn't make someone a member or affiliated, but with everything else, it's certainly a look.
I kept going "It can't get worse, right?" and then as you explained more about the story, and the entire situation going on, the worse it got. Books like these give me the *extra ick*
I find it wierd that they use GOT as a way to justify it when in the books Dany trauma bonded to Drogo and you can how it affects her later on as she gets older like suffering from hypersexuality. Let alone that it's more complex due to the character having some power that she never had before and the fact that Drogo killed her brother and abuser. Not saying that the books don't have problematic scenes or not, they just have actual impact to their characters.
And folks have the nerve to say it’s feminism when the thought process of Dany is so shallow when it comes to Drogo
Carlos's response is amazing... Rachel has a great hubby. I cackled. 😂
I feel like there's something interesting to unpack about the difference between romanticizing hate groups versus romanticizing, say, the darker romantic and sexual themes that help define the dark romance genre. Like, even milder dark romances can delve into coercion, "dubious consent," physical abuse, etc., and real victims of these suffer real consequences every day. But broadly speaking, it's MUCH more acceptable to romanticize about these things in fiction than, y'know, romanticizing the KKK.
I'm not trying to say people who like these dark romance themes should be considered bad people, nor am I trying to say we should be okay with things like Tillie romanticizing the KKK or stereotyping Mexican women. I just think there's an interesting discussion about why some problematic themes are less problematic to romanticize than others.
Love this video series btw -- it is always wild to see the mental gymnastics some of these people attempt.
"coercion, "dubious consent," physical abuse" are things you could be sexually into (or curious about) as a fantasy while not liking/wanting those things in real life, but stuff like racism i just dont think you could be "into" without just being racist. fiction and sexual fantasy about sexual abuse is something some victims of that abuse engage in as a means of regaining a sense of control over the thing that happened to them. stuff like this thats badly written does cause harm to victims yes esp when it doesnt have enough of that "this is just a fantasy" detachment, like how 50 shades gives you the impression that thats just how real life bdsm is like
@@asteridshydrangea-jt2hfweird that you assume everyone writing about transgressive sexual themes are just “exploring their own experiences” rather than exploiting abuse for their own benefit. Many of those dark themes that you’re just brushing away have concrete impacts on victims and are often not handled well. I think it’s perfectly valid to have a conversation about dark themes in literature while including problematic themes of all kinds, from sexual abuse to racism.
Yes, Alberta definitely has cowboys. But I've never heard even the girliest barrel racer describe themselves like that 😂
Thank you so much for the links to all the reviewers you used excerpts from.
💕 I hope everyone checks them out!
Not an example from a Mexican perspective but I have a friend who has to deal with her white mom being so incredibly racist to her black father and of course herself and her brother for being half black. It’s insane how a racist person will both make excuses for the unfortunate person they deem the “exception” while continuing to be racist with their full chests towards them.
This video brought to my attention something I didn’t realize was a thing, British folks being aware of and fundamentally misunderstanding the “we pretend to be spooky ghosts” hate group.
Honorable mention for “I myself write very dark books” which just SCREAMS “I spent my adolescence writing green text on 4chan and think I’m mature and dark, when really I’m just a cringey edgelord”
This definitely seems like a book Colleen Hoover could have written lmao
I think her work is too bland and palatable to a mass audience for her to have written anything like this. I don’t even think the woman could write a stereotypical Mexican character.
holy crap you know it’s gonna be good when the thumbnail makes you do a double take-
i seriously had to look twice to make sure i got it right O.O
Same I saw how long it was so I was gonna wait to watch until I got into bed but then I read the thumbnail and clicked *instantly*
I love when Rachel uploads a certified Long Boi on days when I make dinner for the house ❤️
Thank you for addressing this. I saw the buzz on TikTok and I am appalled that anyone would think that the subject matter was romantic in any way.
The Carlos interlude made me happy. The more voices in opposition to this kind of book the better.
“I dont know if you can be a cowboy in Canada” wow was Kurtis Conner’s country boy transformation for nothing
Now I do want to make that bingo card. Free space would 100% be “don’t like it, don’t read it” 🙄
This woman obviously doesn’t know about people like Strom Thurmond. He was for decades actively and without shame a racist and US congressman. But he had a daughter with a Black woman. People need to know the difference between having a physical attraction to a person or group of people, and having the belief that said group is seen as less than human with the same rights.
As an avid dark romance reader, it is infuriating that people defending this are using the dark romance genre as justification for this POS book. I also will never support a fictional book that is harmful to real life people.
You hit the nail on the head. I love dark romance - this is NOT dark romance. I'd like to also like to mention that there's an element of "im so edgy and better than those OTHER SJW WOMEN" to the "go back to chicklit" variety of comments.
I write historical fiction and alt history so I tend to read and write about these groups a lot, but I always stress how important it is to do research and write the story in a way it’s not romanticizing these groups. I’ve had to rework characters and plot lines to make sure they’re not too romanticizing or putting out a false ideal, and my work is far from being complete. The idea that someone could write and publish this, and how a vast majority didn’t catch on until 4 YEARS LATER disturbs me.
the way they go "don't like don't read" and "the book isn't ACTUALLY that bad if, you read it you would know" in the SAME breath
On a lighter note, "Life's hard, get a helmet" is a terrible misquote of the iconic Boy Meets World sern where Eric flicks Cory in the head and says, "Life's tough, get a helmet." As someone who thinks of this scene at least once a week, I will not stand for racists co-opting this phrase. 😅
That is all.
my jaw literally DROPPED at that initial “actual nazi falls in love with a walking mexican stereotype” plot summary and i wasn’t able to pick it up off the floor for like a minute. what. WHAT????? whO thinks like that? who sits down like “ah yes, I know what I’m going to write today” and produces THAT??
She should have just written a mafia romance lmaooooo
I swear the people that make those comments are some of the same people who don’t understand the nuanced conversations about racism that appear in books. They’re a deeply unserious group of people.
To chose GoT of all things as an example of things people didn't go after is untouched-grass-y to say the least. I've put the series in the corner for years because I was mad at it too much, and that was at the start of season 3... There's whole ass memes about how the series fucked itself over. What. Do. You. Mean?
omg i remember picking up a random book in that series cuz i found out that one of the characters is autistic. i went in completely blind and it was such shit show LMAO. It was like reading a wattpad fanfiction in which the love intrest is a violent brooding alpha male, and the lady character is a prop to cup his cheek and go 'this isn't you pookie!' whenever the other has a tantrum
I am all for dark themes and combining horror and romance motifs together (let's be honest love is fun in theory but people and relationship navigating is a NIGHTMARE) and I am so sick of abuse fetishization being seen as anything in a "dark genre"