I’m still working on the project, although not getting the data I would like, unfortunately. I think this a project I’ll have to do when I’m a big more “popular” so as to get a lot more support from readers, etc.

Again, thanks for posting about it and feel free to send me some data :P.

We had a black sci fi festival in Seattle a few years ago: http://www.cdforum.org/bttf/

I don’t know if the ultimate goal is really so that minorities “won’t feel left out”. I think one of the main points of literature is to try to experience someone else’s point of view. And if you (white or other) only read the Hawaiian shirt crowd, you’re missing out on a lot of important points of view.

There are white authors who write about race (oddly enough a lot of them write about politics too — China Mieville, Kim Stanley Robinson). There’s nothing to say that a white person has nothing to say about it, but I think it’s different when you’re writing about someone else vs. writing about yourself.

Have you read anything by Samuel R Delany? A lot of his stuff is more or less about being black (and gay).

And I know you don’t think graphic novels are literature, but if you can appreciate them as their own art form, check out the Arrival by Shaun Tan.

(I apologize for the stream of consciousness of this comment — this tiny little box doesn’t really make it easy to edit)