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.
Almost. I won't write Blue people because I know their feelings on the subject. And, because I know how strongly one group feels, I am forced to wonder about other groups. That wondering, then, makes any attempt to write other groups fraught with anxiety, that will then color my portrayals. Further, each time I consider writing Purple, Orange, or Green people, I have to ask myself--not if I'll offend them by doing it wrong--but if I'll injure them by doing it at all. This goes beyond challenging one's comfort zone right into committing a willful disregard for their spirits, perhaps even (metaphorically) using their religious object as my paperweight because I simply can never know enough about their lives and their perspectives to see their religion as sacred.
Am I going to stop writing diversity? No, because I'm the kind of person who will predictably push any rule I'm given. Other people very well might, though, not because they're racists, but because they do respect the humanness in the other groups and because they don't trust themselves to know the line between offense and injury.
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.
*nods* And I was trying to point out how the "damned if you do" people might well have some good reasoning that isn't about their racism, as you've suggested elsewhere.
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.
Possibly. Though, generally speaking again, with the current cultural climate, being called a racist is just about the worst thing one person can say to another. Being afraid of garnering the label is quite reasonable, in my mind, because--much like sex offender, the other worst tag--the label can't be scrubbed off with all the soap and water in the world. A bad writer can get better. A person who can't plot to save their lives might be able to improve. Even boring books can find an appreciative audience. But racist sticks, never has any redeeming qualities, and, too often, can become the sole determining feature when discussing a person's real life character.
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.
OK. That's you and your situation.
I don't live in NYC. I live in rural mid-America where finding a PoC is a challenge. So should I be punished as a racist if I don't include PoCs in my stories that are also set in rural mid-America?
More importantly, why should I (GPWP) be punished as a racist for the decisions made in choosing my characters at all? You (generically) don't know on what grounds that decision was made. It could very well have been a conscious choice to respect a group that is tired of seeing themselves misused.
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Date: 2009-02-20 08:07 am (UTC)Almost. I won't write Blue people because I know their feelings on the subject. And, because I know how strongly one group feels, I am forced to wonder about other groups. That wondering, then, makes any attempt to write other groups fraught with anxiety, that will then color my portrayals. Further, each time I consider writing Purple, Orange, or Green people, I have to ask myself--not if I'll offend them by doing it wrong--but if I'll injure them by doing it at all. This goes beyond challenging one's comfort zone right into committing a willful disregard for their spirits, perhaps even (metaphorically) using their religious object as my paperweight because I simply can never know enough about their lives and their perspectives to see their religion as sacred.
Am I going to stop writing diversity? No, because I'm the kind of person who will predictably push any rule I'm given. Other people very well might, though, not because they're racists, but because they do respect the humanness in the other groups and because they don't trust themselves to know the line between offense and injury.
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.
*nods* And I was trying to point out how the "damned if you do" people might well have some good reasoning that isn't about their racism, as you've suggested elsewhere.
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.
Possibly. Though, generally speaking again, with the current cultural climate, being called a racist is just about the worst thing one person can say to another. Being afraid of garnering the label is quite reasonable, in my mind, because--much like sex offender, the other worst tag--the label can't be scrubbed off with all the soap and water in the world. A bad writer can get better. A person who can't plot to save their lives might be able to improve. Even boring books can find an appreciative audience. But racist sticks, never has any redeeming qualities, and, too often, can become the sole determining feature when discussing a person's real life character.
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.
OK. That's you and your situation.
I don't live in NYC. I live in rural mid-America where finding a PoC is a challenge. So should I be punished as a racist if I don't include PoCs in my stories that are also set in rural mid-America?
More importantly, why should I (GPWP) be punished as a racist for the decisions made in choosing my characters at all? You (generically) don't know on what grounds that decision was made. It could very well have been a conscious choice to respect a group that is tired of seeing themselves misused.