Tuesday
My Little Black Book
I've got a dilemma on my hands. Rather than complain about it, or feel helpless against it, I've decided to address it proactively.
But I need your help. That's right, yours.
If I ever had an ulterior motive for this blog it hasn't been to present some false image of myself as a Man, Dad, or Husband. It hasn't been to troll for tail behind the scenes or have any of my loyal readers validate me. If I need validation anywhere, it's in the real world and not cyberspace.
What is my validation a.k.a. ulterior motive? A non self-published book. A thing made of either paper or electronic ink with a title and my name on the byline.
That's it. Nothing more. Oh and illustrating through stories that men can really love their children, wives and families as a totality and have their own struggles in the meantime. So I wrote a proposal and created a tentative book title, Bottom Line Fatherhood - Bottom Line Manhood (they are pretty much one in the same), I prospected for a literary agent, sparked the interest of one, sent her my proposal, she sent me edits to make what I am proposing stronger and more salable in the marketplace, I sent back my revisions, she likes it and now it just...
...sits...somewhere in the land of being pigeonholed as a "Black Book."
In leafing through the pages of this blog, the source material for my impending book, I can hardly note what makes my book project a black book except for my "black" skin (my daughter says, "You're not black! You're brown!"). My male readership here on the blog represents a rainbow coalition of individuals scattered throughout the US in the 35-44 demographic. My female readers are considerably more weighted toward African American and women of color in the 25-44 demo. Probably because with all the negative imagery, speekery and proofery in our culture, I am an oddity, an African American man willing to bear my soul for no real reason at all. I hear that I help women understand what is going on with their own men. If that's true I'm glad I could help.
But that still doesn't make what I write "Black" except during those anecdotal moments when I've specifically referenced racist (or at least ignorant) behavior toward me and/or my family. I write based on what God puts on my heart to write, and sometimes I write for the sake of staying fresh and relevant. Either way I don't write in color.
But even if I did, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with a positive representative of a subset of the population that has been perverted to a degree of nearly inconceivable, foolish and criminal misogyny. People of color would snap up the book and mainstream population would read it for the sake of furthering their own knowledge of said subset, to argue the validity for better or worse over coffee or at dinner parties. Ever read Stuff White People Like?
So here I am stuck at GO with what you and I know is a valid product. Raw, uncensored, unshielded fatherhood told from a first person point of view.
So what do we need to do with My Little Black Book?
I would ask that you make this post and this blog go viral. Tweet and retweet, ask to retweet aka "PLS RT", Facebook and Digg and Stumble and Ping and anything else you might have in your social media revolver. And then there's good old email.
I do want to do this for my own personal validation, but I'd also like to donate partial proceeds to a worthwhile cause such as the National Fatherhood Initiative. (They owe me an email also.)
But apparently I can't do this if only notable Black people endorse me. (I'm sure this wouldn't be the case if I had Essence Magazine on my side, or Oprah! - man can dream can't he?) I gotta throw some white folks in the mix. This will be probably one of the only times you read me mentioning race here for the year. Let's make August, my best month all year, go out with a true BANG!
Help me make my movement viral, so that it can become re-al.
Please? (As I always tell my daughter to put at the end of any of her requests.)
Thank you!
There's a new book on Fatherhood coming to a store or e-reader near you! Add your name to list of people who want to see it happen. Please "Like" Bottom Line Fatherhood and count yourself as one who supports positive outlooks on the Dad Life.