The white man in literature

The white man/woman in literature is a topic that has caught my eye of late especially when the white man dates and possibly marries a black woman. It being 2016 in a world that prides itself of equality and global citizens, it was rather intriguing for me to find out that the issue of race is still as tense as ever. People still get judged on the color of their skin, and people still want to separate people based on their race and background.
Intrigued, I decided to include white characters to my stories, and have them date and marry black characters in my stories. In itself, the storyline is dramatic and interesting, but moving away from that I wanted to understand why dating the white man in particular is still a sensitive subject. For my writing, I want to explore the connection between the way we view the white man in generation, in relation to power struggles, colonization and slavery, affects the way we see him, and the way we feel when he starts dating one of our own. To explore this storyline I introduced Carter Grey into A thorn in the Rose.
Carter Grey has an affair with Charmaine Chaire, a married woman and the affair results in pregnancy. Though Charmaine miscarries, her family learns of her infidelity and the whole issue is further complicated by the fact that Carter is white. What ensures is as much of a drama as it is a tragedy.
What was interesting to me was the way in which people responded to Carter Grey and to Charmaine's husband Matt Chaire. Carter was everything Matt was not. He was young, handsome, content, confidence and wealthy. He was someone who could afford to take care of Charmaine in a more respectable manner.  BTW Matt physically, emotionally and psychologically abused his wife. when i was writing, I didnt put into consideration that the way I presented the two men would be analysed along the basis of race.
People appreciated the kind of man Carter was, and just how good he was toward Charmaine, but where bothered that the white man was presented as a saint, whereas the black man was presented as a beast. Again,the way the men acted had nothing to do with their races, but everything to do with their personalities. A thorn in the rose allowed me to better understand how delicate the issue of race is. Whereas I presented the two men as individuals and not representatives of their races, the people who consumed the stories saw past the individual personalities and focused more on the fact that Matt was black, and a savage, and Carter was white and Charmaine's rescuer.

THE BLOODY EPISTLES

i read somewhere about a author who wrote short stories that connected and sort of told one story. Before that, i knew of short stories that shared a theme. I must say, I was very intrigued and decided to try it for myself and I learnt a thing or two about me. 1, I love writing short stories, especially those that tell the same story. writing short stories allowed me to tell the same story but from different angles. in a way, all my characters, no matter how small a part they play in the telling of the story, became 3D. they became real people with flaws and I felt that it added something to my story. For instance, i could now show the family of the victim in  their element, I could show them as people that had lost and that were grieveing.
I would say the fav part of doing this was, i was able to present the victims as people, rather than as a means to tell a murder mystery story.
That was the good part. the bad part, was that I dont think i want to continue writing novels anymore, but at the same time I dont want to be remembered as a short story writer. I am in a bit of a pickle. to date I have written 14 short stories, eight of which tell the same story, but I only have one novel. I am hiding behind the fact that the publishing process is taking too long, but I dont think I will be writing anything abov ten pages anytime soon and that is very worrying to me. on my next posts, I will be discussing the highs and lows, emotionally that is, of writing each and every piece that I wrote.