Editorial — No, You Don't Have to Be Black to Enjoy Swordsfall
Swordsfall centers Blackness and still welcomes every reader who comes to Tikor in good faith.
There is a question I get every so often about Swordsfall, usually from white readers trying to be careful: is it okay for them to enjoy this world?
The honest answer is yes. Swordsfall is for everyone who comes to it in good faith.
That question exists for a reason, though. When a world puts Black people, brown people, and African-rooted cultures at the center, some readers suddenly feel like they need permission to enter. Nobody asks if Black folks are allowed to play in white fantasy worlds. We have been doing that for decades, usually while hunting for the one character who looks vaguely like a cousin.
Swordsfall does not ask to be made safer by centering someone else. It asks readers to step into a room where the music, food, gods, politics, and faces are not arranged around whiteness by default.
The song may not be about you, but you can still dance to it.
