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Heated Rivalry and Red, White and Royal Blue-both beloved MM romances, both with biracial lead characters-and both written by white authors. It is hard to be familiar with both of these books and not notice the glaring differences in portrayal of Alex Claremont-Diaz and Shane Hollander. These differences are clearest when comparing the role that race plays in their characterization, and the sensitivity shown by authors towards the impact that race has on various aspects of these characters’ lives.
To begin, it must be pointed out that Rachel Reid and Casey McQuiston have a huge disparity in exposure to races other than their own. Rachel is from Nova Scotia, Canada, where the population is nearly 90% white. Casey is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where the population is 50% Black/African American. Without factoring in aspects such as neighborhood demographics, racial demographics in schools, and similar in Nova Scotia, I don’t find it to be too much of a stretch to surmise that RR could easily have gone her entire life without having meaningful contact with any person of color. Casey on the other hand was at least exposed to people of color, Black people specifically. Obviously I can’t know if they had Black people in their friend circle or had a diverse milieu of people around them, but they at least might have had regular exposure.
For myself, I am Black and Mexican, but was raised far outside of both cultures, and have admittedly not known many Japanese people throughout my life. However, the experience of being biracial overlaps regardless of heritage, and I have made efforts to educate myself where my knowledge is lacking.
I.
Alex Claremont-Diaz is the son of a white mother (and the President of the United States) and a father born to Mexican immigrants. He was raised in Austin,Texas, which has a large Hispanic population. Throughout the novel, Alex speaks of how his race has led to comparisons to his love interest, the Prince of England, how it affects his career prospects in politics, and the fact that regardless of his charm, intelligence and work-ethic, there will always be those who see him as lesser. While Mexican culture specifically is not really part of the narrative, it is important that Casey McQuiston at least displays understanding of what it is like to be a biracial person, who cannot pass for white, attempting to navigate an arena where the people in the highest positions do not look like you.
Some meaningful passages:
“I’m the son of the first female president. And I’m not white like she is, can’t even pass for it. You’re basically a living reminder that I’ll always be compared to someone else, no matter what I do, even if I work twice as hard.”. This is said directly to Henry, at the beginning of their relationship, and Henry takes it seriously.
Any person of color with a spark of ambition or determination knows this feeling intimately.
“His dad wasn’t wrong about how ugly things would get with Richards leading the ticket (for election)...Right-wing think pieces about entitlement thrown in his and June’s (his sister) direction, reeking of “Mexicans stole the First Family’s jobs, too "".
And in the real world, Latinos are somehow, simultaneously, job-stealers and leeches who don’t work and are living off of the government. There is a realism to Alex’s experience as a half-Mexican man. If he existed in the real world, he could very well end up in an ICE detention center, even as an American citizen.
Alex also does not exist in a world without others like him. His mentor, Rafael Luna, is his father’s best friend and a Senator. He is also Mexican. Zahra, his mother’s Deputy Chief of Staff, is also a person of color, though her race is not specified. Additionally, the narrative does not shy away from Alex having uncomfortable moments with white characters, or from showing white characters to be prejudiced.
Alex is a man of deep ambition...he works himself to the detriment of his physical and mental health, relying on coffee and willpower to complete his studies while also working on his mother’s campaign for re-election-and a huge factor in this, his superhuman work ethic, is his knowledge that because of his skin color, he has to be better than good, maybe even better than best, if he wants to succeed in politics.
II.
We see a lot less of this kind of detail in the character of Shane Hollander.
He is also biracial, Japanese and white, and without it being mentioned in the beginning of the book, you would never know it from the narrative. It is simply inconsequential. His Japanese heritage is mentioned twice in Heated Rivalry-both times by his partner, Ilya, with one of those mentions being specifically about his looks. The quotes themselves are nearly identical.
“His mother was Japanese or something, right?” (regarding Shane’s dark eyes and hair).
“All I know is your mother is Japanese or something.”
There is something dismissive in the words “or something”...as if exact heritage doesn’t actually matter. It’s as casual as “Just make a sandwich or something.”-as if to encompass all Asian identities instead of one specifically.
And where Alex’s heritage serves to add complexity to his character, Shane is not afforded the same. Instead, what we get is this-he’s “short” (5 '10”), with a smaller build in comparison to his 6 foot 3 partner, and is described by other hockey players as"pretty ". Shane laments that Ilya “looks like a man” when they are 18, while he still feels baby-faced. The feminization is blatant. The reality of being a person of color in a white milieu, the sport of hockey, is never touched. Being called “pretty” by his teammates is a microaggression, to say nothing of any slurs that may have been used in his presence-but we see nothing of this. Because Shane’s experience as a man of color is not deemed important to his character. He is biracial in order for others to find him attractive-canonically the Hottest Man in Hockey. There is no mention of any other Japanese or Asian characters in the hockey world, so Shane does not have the comfort of being understood by someone who is living a similar experience.
While Red,White and Royal Blue is not a book specifically about race, enough is provided in the narrative to paint a pretty clear picture of what Alex’s experience is as a biracial man, surrounded by those who think less of him because his skin is brown. He is physically attractive, but not in a way that relies specifically on his being Mexican.
Shane as written is a hockey player first, a closeted gay man second, and a biracial Japanese man last-his race plays no significant part in the narrative, even though HR was ostensibly written to challenge toxic hockey culture, which should include racism, and how a person of color would be impacted by hockey culture.