I'm actually rather confused by your reply, and I think there are some specifics to your situation which I may be misunderstanding or not quite catching on to.
Then, to have you (as a white person) judging me negatively because you only see the results of the decisions I've made doesn't exactly provide the positive encouragement to take risks with characters.
I don't think I was necessarily judging you negatively as posing some questions so I can understand where you're coming from. And if I came across as being judgmental or otherwise harsh, I apologize. I was trying to get a feel for what you might be dealing with.
I hope this won't sound rude or snarky, but from what you told me, you feel like writing CoC's will result in you being labeled as a racist by a person (or group of people) at your university who can get you fired.
If this is so (and if it's not, I apologize for making that kind of assumption), is my encouragement or discouragement really going to change anything? I don't mean to make you feel bad, but it sounds like you're telling me you're in a situation where writing CoC's could jeopardize your job, and is against the wishes of this person and the group they represent.
At the same time, you said: "Since I have no way of knowing where groups fall on that continuum, it puts me into an untenable position."
I suppose that's where my confusion comes in. Again, there may be something I'm missing or not getting - forgive me if I am.
It sounds like you're saying, for example, there is a Blue People woman (I don't know her group, so I'm making something up) who is at your university in some position of authority to speak for Blue People. Not sure why, but she is. Maybe she is department chair of Blue People or Blue People liaison or something. Whatever she is, she's made it known she and some other Blues feel white people shouldn't write Blue characters, and that no one should write a group they don't belong to. Thus, you feel constrained by the consequences for your job and your desire to respect their wishes. Hence, not only do you not write Blue people - but you don't write Purple, Green or Orange either because you don't know what they think.
That's where I should cut the comment off, and give you space to answer so you can tell me if I've misunderstood something or have it wrong.
Because I want to make sure that a) I'm not making you, my friend, feel bad about something that you genuinely can't do anything about and b) that I've got a good grip on what you're saying.
My entire post was for the point of saying that I think white writers have a responsibility to step out of their comfort zones and not to shy away because they're afraid of criticism and want to find a way to write something without having people point out any flaws in it.
A lot of this stems from comments made during the Cultural Appropriation Debate of Doom (aka Racefail 2009). Several white writers commented in a post about writing the Other respectfully that they felt "damned if they do, damned if they don't" - when what they meant by "damned if they do" is that they felt that PoC's would read their work and always say "You're doing it wrong, this is racist!" when they felt they were doing their best.
That (specifically) is hogwash to me, because if you're looking for a way to write characters of color that will never garner any criticism, you're doing it wrong. Everything will garner criticism from someone, either for racism, sexism or just plain old bad writing. There will always be people who say you wrote the worst novel in the history of novels.
I felt that shouldn't be an excuse for white writers never to try and thus erase PoC's and cut them out of a narrative they have a starring role in.
Not to mention that I, having lived in NYC, can't see how it's possible or even ethical to write a novel about this city, set in this city, without having lots of characters of color in my writing.
But if your reasons are that you're afraid for your job, or respecting the wishes of a community, that's perhaps separate from what this post was intended to address.
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Date: 2009-02-20 05:34 am (UTC)Then, to have you (as a white person) judging me negatively because you only see the results of the decisions I've made doesn't exactly provide the positive encouragement to take risks with characters.
I don't think I was necessarily judging you negatively as posing some questions so I can understand where you're coming from. And if I came across as being judgmental or otherwise harsh, I apologize. I was trying to get a feel for what you might be dealing with.
I hope this won't sound rude or snarky, but from what you told me, you feel like writing CoC's will result in you being labeled as a racist by a person (or group of people) at your university who can get you fired.
If this is so (and if it's not, I apologize for making that kind of assumption), is my encouragement or discouragement really going to change anything? I don't mean to make you feel bad, but it sounds like you're telling me you're in a situation where writing CoC's could jeopardize your job, and is against the wishes of this person and the group they represent.
At the same time, you said: "Since I have no way of knowing where groups fall on that continuum, it puts me into an untenable position."
I suppose that's where my confusion comes in. Again, there may be something I'm missing or not getting - forgive me if I am.
It sounds like you're saying, for example, there is a Blue People woman (I don't know her group, so I'm making something up) who is at your university in some position of authority to speak for Blue People. Not sure why, but she is. Maybe she is department chair of Blue People or Blue People liaison or something. Whatever she is, she's made it known she and some other Blues feel white people shouldn't write Blue characters, and that no one should write a group they don't belong to. Thus, you feel constrained by the consequences for your job and your desire to respect their wishes. Hence, not only do you not write Blue people - but you don't write Purple, Green or Orange either because you don't know what they think.
That's where I should cut the comment off, and give you space to answer so you can tell me if I've misunderstood something or have it wrong.
Because I want to make sure that a) I'm not making you, my friend, feel bad about something that you genuinely can't do anything about and b) that I've got a good grip on what you're saying.
My entire post was for the point of saying that I think white writers have a responsibility to step out of their comfort zones and not to shy away because they're afraid of criticism and want to find a way to write something without having people point out any flaws in it.
A lot of this stems from comments made during the Cultural Appropriation Debate of Doom (aka Racefail 2009). Several white writers commented in a post about writing the Other respectfully that they felt "damned if they do, damned if they don't" - when what they meant by "damned if they do" is that they felt that PoC's would read their work and always say "You're doing it wrong, this is racist!" when they felt they were doing their best.
That (specifically) is hogwash to me, because if you're looking for a way to write characters of color that will never garner any criticism, you're doing it wrong. Everything will garner criticism from someone, either for racism, sexism or just plain old bad writing. There will always be people who say you wrote the worst novel in the history of novels.
I felt that shouldn't be an excuse for white writers never to try and thus erase PoC's and cut them out of a narrative they have a starring role in.
Not to mention that I, having lived in NYC, can't see how it's possible or even ethical to write a novel about this city, set in this city, without having lots of characters of color in my writing.
But if your reasons are that you're afraid for your job, or respecting the wishes of a community, that's perhaps separate from what this post was intended to address.