Times have changed or so people keep professing. You would think with these changing times acceptance of differences would have grown as a norm. Instead the opposite is true.

Okay, I'm still blogging from A-Z and "T" has caused me to think hard. Over the airwaves, I saw three things yesterday that really bugged me.

1. Racism in publishing and writing. The hardest thing in the world is to have a book published. To make it even harder, throw in skin color. I can speak of other nationalities having the same problems, but think about it....if race is brought up, it's always a Black/White thing. The truth is (and I don't want to venture into why) African Americans are still getting flogged. Sure many things have changed, but discrimination is slapping us in the face in the bookstores and the publishing arena. Why the big separation? No matter what 'we' write it ends up under the label of a color.  The characters on the covers are more often than not white-washed because the belief is no one would want to read books published by one of us. And our beauty does not sale books.

How many people of different races venture down the African American rows? It puts a block on whether or not a writer become a successful author. Truth be said, Americans (Black) authors writing about Black characters whether they are American or not do not get front placement as Americans (White)authors writing about Black characters. One of the best sites I have run across is White Readers Meet Black Authors. Carleen Brice does a wonderful job of highlighting awesome books by Americans of different nationalities and this particular highlighted author hits right on the point.  Desegregation has not made an impact on the publishing world. I write and I read in color. I am not a label.

2. Traditional & Self-Publication. I don't know a writer worth their weight who wouldn't want to have their words traditionally published. The process is hard, nerve wrecking, and totally frustrating. Not to mention the querying process for a coveted agent. You have to have the self-esteem of a brick and the skin of leather. To make it worse, when one gets tired of the routine and decides to self-publish they (and their works) are treated as if they are a preschooler without the ability to string together words and put together a professional package. I think its sad when this ability is rated as the lowest form of writing and disregarded as trash. We may miss out on some great literary works because of another labeling stigma.

3.Homeschooling & Unschooling.This topic can also tie in with the others because its worthiness is garnered from it's label. As a person who home & unschooled three daughters into college, and these girls run their own businesses, I feel irritated when people spout off about children educated in this manner becoming hindrances to fellow citizens. The process of sharing knowledge comes from all aspects of society and I really don't think one is waaaay better than the other. Failures come from public, private as well as the home educated. The method nor the process to educate matter as much as the attention given to the one being educated. In this day and age with the vast amount of abilities to get information failure is not an option it is a choice.

Anyway, as I said times have changed. Its time for the people to change.