ABSTRACT
This chapter explores scholarship (both academic and para-academic) about race, ethnicity, and whiteness in the popular romance genre, as well as the gaps that have yet to be addressed. After analyzing works that examine constructions of race through symbolic language—particularly whiteness and blackness—in popular romance novels, this chapter explores critical discussions of white supremacy and white privilege in the genre. From here, it reviews analyses of characters of color and interracial romance dynamics, including black/white interracial romances. This chapter concludes with an examination of an online discussion that demonstrates the critical work that is being accomplished outside of academia, yet within the romance community, or at the border between them.
