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OliviaWaite

Oliviate

Olivia Waite is a romance author, practicing feminist, and wide-ranging dilettante.

The lengths we'll go to to make sure our romance heroes and heroines remain white.

Somewhere to Dream - Genevieve Graham

Here we have a romance set among the Cherokee, but both protagonists are whiter than white. From what I can tell from the cover copy and ludicrously high-production-value book trailer, the plot goes through some pretty amazing twists to make sure two white people end up together -- for instance, the heroine is initially betrothed to an Indian warrior. When he is killed in battle and the hero captured, the white hero's life is spared because the Cherokee believe he holds the spirit of their fallen brother, or something. Just in case you were worried the heroine wasn't going to end up falling in love with a white man. 

 

I have to wonder if at any point the author even considered making her hero Cherokee. I know it can be intimidating to write characters of another race or culture, but this is not really a defensible solution to the problem of whitewashing in romance.