I have enjoyed dark, spine-chilling tales of the strange from as far back as I can remember. I grew up watching everything from “the Twilight Zone” to “Tales From the Crypt” to “Tales From the Darkside,” always eager for some story of magic or the unexpected. I even carried around books by Shirley Jackson, Neil Gaiman, and Stephen King, in the event I found myself in need of something strange to read. While I loved these stories, I did notice something interesting about them: there weren’t many characters in these books that looked like me. If there were any African-American characters at all, they were normally sidekicks to European-American characters or the first people to be sacrificed to the “larger evil” (whatever that may be) or slain by the killer or the monster. In recent years, some things have changed for the better with Jordan Peele’s films and TV shows, as well as “Black Mirror” and other speculative shows that embrace diversity. Still, when it comes to writing diverse speculative fiction, authors can sometimes leave much to be desired when confronting issues of diversity.
Over the past year or so—especially on the heels of numerous international protests for racial justice—more European-American writers have become interested in combatting this glaring absence of diversity in their books as a way bringing a greater balance, and possible equity, to contemporary literature. While this act is honorable, if done without any real thought or consideration, it could create unintended
