Topic: Writing and race

[MysteryRobin]

Thanks again for your reply, Hannah! Get excited! Comment! It's awesome!
And I did direct the question at you because you seemed to have thought about this so much and already done research... I hope that was how it came across.

One thing that occurs to me is to write other ethnicities with the awareness that they don't all share one point of view or common experience. I often think of this football player I went to church with. He was black, but not African-American, he was from Canada. And yet every single time a gospel choir came through and sang, people would look at him and nudge him like he must just love it - but it wasn't his culture at all. It was probably more foreign to him, then to us Americans. Drove him crazy. So, just another thought about pushing past what might be our first idea when casting our characters and choosing to use other ethnicities...

[Karen K]

(raises hand)

I wrote a book about a Japanese-American guy. I created that character the best way I know how: by research and by observation. Also, a healthy dose of gut authorial feeling about what makes a character feel real.

For me, I look at each of my characters individually. While I try to focus on creating a unique personality first and foremost, I also try to be conscious of all possible stereotypes and ways my portrayals might be interpreted. I try to treat my characters the same way I treat my friends--their personalities and actions are what define them, while their identities are of course shaped by race and background as well.

In college, I found it eye-opening to discuss privilege and identity in an academic environment. I also made a lot of new friends in a short amount of time, and together we formed a pretty diverse group. Our discussions were even more eye-opening than my textbooks could ever have been. Especially when the topic of mixed race came up; a recurring theme seems to be judgment based on appearance, regardless of genetics. (An aside: I'm a quarter Armenian, and that seems make people pause during discussions of race or ethnicity. I stymied a guy at a blood donation center about whether I was part "Middle Eastern" or not...)

As a female studying in the field of computer science, I butt heads with male privilege quite often. I know all forms of privilege are not created equal, but my experiences with that have definitely informed my writing.

Karen

[Julia]

Great conversation! Yesterday I was part of an author panel/signing and one of the questions was how we handle race in our books (which ranged from contemporary to high fantasy.) I immediately thought of this thread!

[Christy]

This is such a great thread! Thanks Hannah for all of your resources. They are such a help. And I love how you went into specific examples.

I write YA novels with multicultural characters which has actually been an issue since I'm white. When I went on sub, a lot of editors balked at my story just because I'm not Korean. I also got responses back that said stuff like readers wouldn't be interested in a story set in Korea, only the well known nations like China or Japan.

And I can see how they would hesitate on this but it upset me. I have a strong passion for getting books out there with multi-raced characters and I think that when authors (of any race) stop writing multi-racial characters because they are scared of it, it really saddens me.

The key is seeing the world through your character's eyes. I think Hannah gave great examples of that. What smells would smell good to your characters, what would comfort your character, what jokes would they tell, what situations would make them uncomfortable or not?

I think that for some people it might take more research than others. I was lucky in that I wrote my novel when I was emmersed in the Korean culture and lifestyle. So that did help me.

Regardless, I think we would be seeing a lot more multi-cultural characters if writers weren't afraid to write them, publishers weren't afraid to publish them, and readers would buy them.

[tfb3]

Disclaimers: (1) I have not read this entire thread, and  (2) I have not personally experienced white privilege.

My advice is to write what you want to write.

Before you seek to have it published, though (assuming you're concerned about accuracy), I'd have various honest and candid individuals from said ethnic/gender group read your work to check for resonance. I prefer to use the word resonance vs. authenticity because to me, there is no one way to be "authentically" black, female or anything else...but I have read stories that don't resonate with me as being grounded in any type of cultural truth, stories that seem to come from a place of ignorance on the part of the author.

[lyrical]

Like anything else outside your direct experience, or even within your experience, you need to research. I absolutely fell in love with Memoirs of a Geisha, which was written by a white man. He did a beautiful job capturing the voice of a Geisha.

Research as much as possible. I think the best research on culture and race is to talk to people who live in that world. News stories are watered down or hype the things the journalist or publisher think are important. Talk to people like your character about everyday life. The little details, like what they had for breakfast, can be extremely important for authenticity.

[CynJay]

Not sure this is going to add much to an already awesome discussion, but I can only contribute my recent experiences. My new book has a biracial love interest (and his African American mother is a big part of the series) and it was the publisher's idea to put him front and center on the cover. When I wrote it, I didn't address the 'race issue' at all (and have been called on it by several industry publications) because I wanted this to be a book not about race, but about character. I made Griffon biracial both because that's what I would have been attracted to at that age and so that my boys and their friends would have someone in a book who looked like them 'just because'.

Plenty of people don't agree with me, but I think we need to include POC and characters who are LGBTQ in our books 'just because', with all of the fully developed characteristics of any other white/straight characters with plotlines that aren't about race or coming out (not that those books aren't needed). The only way to normalize POC and gay characters is to put them in normal situations, and while we need to be sensitive, it kills me just a little when writers say they're too afraid to because they're going to get criticized. Guess what - you're going to get criticized anyway. People ask me in private if having a POC on my cover has hurt sales and honestly, I don't know and don't really care. I'm so very proud of the indies and Barnes and Noble that display the book face out among the racks of the other 'regular' YA books and I think that's a wonderful first step. Regardless of sales, every time I see Griffon on the cover I'm reminded of my kids and all of the other kids like them who never get to see themselves on or in a book, and that alone is worth it a thousand times over.

[Hannah]

  CynJay, that is precisely why I requested your book on NetGalley (and loved it! *smallworshipmoment*), and that was one of the things I majorly loved about it. I agree; though the just-because argument gets so loaded because people don't see the difference between painting a white character brown and making a character someone whose ethnicity or race informs their character but doesn't MAKE it, you know? I have heard a lot of people say things like, "Well, if their race isn't a part of the plot, then you're just putting the Chinese kid in there for diversity points, and that sucks," but as long as you don't mistake it for tokenism, I think it's really a great thing to do. I agree; I was always frustrated as a kid (and frankly still am now) when I would read books that I identified with on a level other than race (whether it was a kid who liked to write or who had glasses or whatever) but could only find characters that looked more like me if the story was about civil rights or something.

[Mike Jung]

This is a terrific conversation. What I intensely dislike about statements like "you're just putting the Chinese kid in there for diversity points" is that it assumes writing white characters is a psychological, sociological, intellectual, and emotional default, and that making any other choice with a character automatically means the author is DIVERGING FROM THE NORM. That makes me very, very upset, because for me and my kids, and for countless other parents and children in the world, the norm is considerably more complex and nuanced.

I write mixed-race characters because my kids are mixed. I write about thoroughly Americanized kids of Asian descent because that's what my experience was growing up. In my first book, my culturally assimilated characters go about their business without giving a shred of thought to their ethnic identities, because that's not what the book is about. In the manuscript I'm working on now, my culturally assimilated characters DO question and explore their ethnic identities, because that IS what the book is about, at least partly. Those choices reflect real-life, real-world, emotionally authentic experiences, and they're every bit as valid as making all the characters white by default.

[MysteryRobin]

it assumes writing white characters is a psychological, sociological, intellectual, and emotional default, and that making any other choice with a character automatically means the author is DIVERGING FROM THE NORM.
 

Love this point.
I've realized that I tend to write many Asian and mixed-Asian characters because that's what my world looks like. It would feel very strange to me if all of my characters were white. I don't think that because I'm white, all of my characters should be, because that isn't what I know or experience to be true. Every once in a while I panic, because I'm not sure if I'm being true enough to my characters, but I'm being as true as I know how to be. And changing everyone's name to Mary and making them white would really be *less* true.

[Hannah]

@Mike and MysteryRobin, 

[ello]

I love what CynJay said because it is what I believe. One of my all time favorite Disney movies is UP because it has a little Asian American boy and his being Asian has nothing to do with the storyline. He's just a little boy who happens to be cute, chubby, a boy scout, and Asian American. I love this. And this is so important to all the Asian American kids out there who saw this movie and were so happy to see someone just like them. normal like them. And I wish more authors and producers could see how important adding this kind of diversity is to their audience. To the non-POC kids who will start taking it as the new normal and to the POC kids who will find themselves in the books and movies they read and watch. It's good for all kids.

[andracill]

I completely agree -- I'm another who feels strongly that the real world is reflected through diversity.  My kiddos are also mixed-race, and my life is filled with such diversity (throughout my extended family) -- not to mention friends and our community.  I love books with mixed-race characters and GLBT characters who simply "live" are are part of the book's world without a huge to-do regarding race or coming out (and that's exactly what I write, as well).  The point, to me, is showing the human experience with all its variety and commonalities together.

[Artemesia]

agreed. I've never attended a school or worked at a job that didn't have diversity. But I also get what Hannah said about tokenism. I've seen tv and movies and read books where it's really felt like that was the case. So how do we write diverse character in a story that's not about race or coming out, etc, without it feeling like tokenism? I've read books where a character is mentioned, and the only thing mentioned about them really is a physical description, as in "the tall black girl", but they were never really part of the story line, and aren't mentioned again. Like they were only mentioned to add diversity. That to me feels like tokenism. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

[CynJay]

Aw, thanks Hannah (fangirls right back!). I love all of these points. I think that as long as your character is fully formed, no matter what the race, it won't be mistaken for tokenism, even if they're in your story 'just because'. And I want to emphasize what Robin said a ways back - nobody has the same experiences even if they're of the same race and we're allowed to explore all of them.

[Karen K]

I've read books where a character is mentioned, and the only thing mentioned about them really is a physical description, as in "the tall black girl", but they were never really part of the story line, and aren't mentioned again. Like they were only mentioned to add diversity. That to me feels like tokenism. Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?

I'm also interested in what people think about the two extremes of tokenism and "issues books." For me, it makes sense that a character might be a particular race "just because" that's who they are, and it doesn't affect the main plot of the book, but paradoxically it also makes sense that a character's race/identity is inescapable and will of course lead to "issues." This of course includes characters who identify as "white." Does that make any sense?

To use a simple example, since I'm a blonde female, I definitely notice people with assumptions about my personality or behavior. But obviously I do things that clearly defy the "blonde" stereotype. Unlike, say, a blonde girl I knew who played up that aspect of her personality by speaking in a breathy voice and "blonding" her way out of speeding tickets, etc.

I have actually avoided making characters blonde before because I'm acutely aware of the way this changes perception, and also because I'm afraid people will think I'm doing a "self-insertion." For me appearance plays a huge role in writing about race, including white characters.

Karen