J.C. Davies has got The Fever

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When Christelyn asked me to do this article she suggested I focus on how black women have received my book. Because it’s not officially out yet, I don’t have a great answer for that beyond what I’ve heard from test readers and friends. So maybe you all can tell me.

I Got The Fever is great for black women because it gives so many options. All the other books on interracial dating are on black/white relationships (and even more specifically, black man/white woman). How does that help you? It doesn’t. Besides, many black women already know the issues facing black/white couples. Many have at least a white Uncle Bob or a white Aunt Becky in the mix. I Got The Fever goes way “beyond black and white.” It deals with men of five different cultures (or as I call them, Fevers): Yellow Fever (Asian), Jungle Fever (Black), Curry Fever (Indian), Shiksa Fever (Jewish), and Salsa Fever (Latino).

Christelyn is always telling her readers to expand their horizons. A major reason most people don’t is that they are afraid of the unknown: I won’t be accepted. I don’t know the culture. Something horrible and terrible might happened to me even though I have no idea what that might be.

That is why I wrote I Got The Fever—to downgrade the fear factor and give all women the information they need to feel more comfortable dating outside their race.

The book is touted as the definitive guide to interracial dating partly because it covers a lot of practical information. Things like what you need to know so you won’t mess up with your new man’s relatives; elements of a culture that might have you asking what the hell you got yourself into; what women thought was hot and also not-so hot about the men in each culture; and of course, how each guy stacks up in the sack. But the book’s pièce de résistance is really “Our Stories.” Obviously, not every person you date is going to display all of the norms of his culture. “Our Stories” gives you real-life relationship examples. Some sad, but mostly funny, the stories demonstrate what interracial relationships are really like and they’re told by the people who really live in these relationships, everyday.

More than anything, I Got The Fever is fun and entertaining. This book is not a scientific study of interracial dating. There are plenty of those books out there (most of which are a total snooze). This is just what real people, women and men, think of culture, race, and dating. I Got the Fever’s back cover says it’s “Injected with pants-wetting anecdotes, eyebrow-raising commentary, and plenty of juicy details, offering a practical course of treatment for dating within five unique cultures.” And they ain’t kidding. What makes the book so great is commentary from real people. People are so genuinely funny, insightful, and entertaining—many times without even knowing it. And when you are reading I Got The Fever, you will often find yourself saying, “You really can’t make that shit up.”

I would love to see black women read the book. And whether you chose to crack up or curse me out, I don’t care. As long as it gives you a laugh and gets you a little closer to a good man, my work is done.

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