An African-American author who does not want to be classified by her race has filed an unusual discrimination case that could plunge the courts into the murky waters of racial distinctions in publishing.

Nadine Aldred is seeking no less than $250 million in damages for the economic losses she has allegedly suffered by being deprived of a “mainstream” audience for her debut romance novel “The Great Pretender,” published by Penguin Group in 2005.

According to Aldred, who writes as Millenia Black, the book's content is “devoid of racial characteristics.” But Penguin marketed it “as African American fiction/literature based solely on Aldred's race,” leading to the “segregation of Aldred's mainstream novel” in bookstores, the author alleges in her Manhattan federal court complaint.

“[P]laintiff has been pigeonholed as an African American author despite her best efforts to become known as an author without regard to race,” the suit, which also seeks the republication of “The Great Pretender with “race-neutral” cover art, says.

Aldred, an Orlando, Fla., resident, is representing herself and claims Penguin has similarly subjected her second novel “The Great Betrayal” to “racially discriminatory treatment,” even demanding that she rewrite its white characters as black or race-neutral.

As Aldred argues, the publisher would not make that demand of a white author. But there's a question here of whether Penguin's marketing strategy really reflects racial bias or simply what another publisher defined in a Wall Street Journal article as “the universal proclivity to think in terms of race.”

The defense, moreover, could certainly argue that Aldred cannot show she has been harmed by any pigeonholing.

According to the Wall Street Journal, having an African-American section in a bookstore is a “double-edged sword” -- while it may help an unknown black writer get discovered, it gives the writer less of a chance of making the national bestseller lists.

Who can really tell how “The Great Pretender” would have fared if it had not been labeled African-American fiction? Maybe it would simply have gotten lost in the general fiction crowd.

In its answer to the complaint, Penguin denies that it "solely" marketed "The Great Pretender" as African-American fiction or demanded any rewriting of characters in "The Great Betrayal."

"Defendants relied on legitimate and nondiscriminatory business factors in its actions and decisions with respect to plaintiff and her novels," the pleading says.

Aldred's book, at least, made it into the Black Expressions Book Club, which has 460,000 members compared to 345,000 for the Book of the Month Club run by the same company. But one Black Expressions member said of “The Great Pretender:”

I come to this website to read African American books and give my support there. If I want to read about white romance, I'll go to Eharlequin and purchase their books.

By Matthew Heller
1/29/07