Homework for White Folks
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Last week the lovely Moonrat posted on what kinds of stories it's okay for writers to tell. We followed the comments with great interest, and noticed a fairly significant presence of white writers interested in/wondering how to write characters of color. Well! We have VERY STRONG opinions on this subject (us? strong opinions? who would have guessed?!?!?!) but! we're not going to share them!
Or, not exactly. What we ARE going to do is direct you to a number of fabulous posts by writers of color on this VERY TOPIC. First, the amazing and wildly brilliant writer Nisi Shawl on Transracial Writing for the Sincere. Second, the equally amazing Neesha Meminger on Writing Characters of Color. Here is the very fantastic Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the dangers of a single story. There are more excellent links in this interview with debut author Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich at Reading in Color (scroll down for the links, but the interview is great too).
Finally, may we also direct your attention to Justine Larbalestier, a white YA author who writes characters of color, on the advantages white writers writing about characters of color have that people of color writing those same characters do not.
As ever, fellow white folks, DO YOUR HOMEWORK. A great place to start is by reading MORE BOOKS BY PEOPLE OF COLOR. And also by hanging out on the many excellent blogs by writers of color, including supreme genius/interview alumnus Carleen Brice and the very smart ladies over at Color Online.
UPDATE: Please also check out this excellent post and the ensuing conversation in the comments. The entire conversation is amazing but there's a discussion about halfway down that focuses on this topic in particular. Thanks to Neesha Meminger for the link.
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I saw Adichie on Ted Talks awhile ago and loved it. Admittedly, I was already a fanboy. I'm like a one-man marketing company for Half of a Yellow Sun.
And I think people, when trying to write about characters of differing backgrounds, get too caught up in the abstract, in the big picture. "I am writing a Black Man. I must represent Blackness." When, really, I think it's more helpful to think about writing Joe Jenkings, 53, black, stockbroker, father of three, living in the suburbs...
Characters, to me, come to life in the particulars. It's not about representing the black experience (or any other minority experience), but rather about representing the particular experience of a particular character. I think those are very different things, and the latter is likely to be both more accurate and less intimidating.
Thanks for the links.
Thanks so much for the links and bringing this subject up.
I've always wondered why the future in many urban fantasy and scifi novels seemed devoid of people of color, which is one reason I decided to write. And since paranormal is a fave of mine, I figure if authors can write about demons and werewolves and vampires mating with humans, then I'd think writing about other cultures would be a snap. If anyone likes reading webcomics(shameless plug), I just started one about a Maori and Black Teen Werewolf (she's got a white vampire boyfriend and rooms with a Chinese Gargoyle :)
Hey, its just a way to pass the time and not hound agents about my manuscripts. http://razher.com
Fabulous links.
I commented on this very subject back in October (http://bccreations.livejournal.com/87663.html). Living in St. Louis city, I got to be the minority for six years. I like including minority characters in my work, but I take endless flak from other white people who think it inappropriate. It drives me nuts. At the same time, I know I do not capture what it is to be a minority when I see amazing writing like August Wilson. It's a double-edged sword, and I seem to get cut no matter which way I go.
Awesome. I love Racialicious - since beginning to read Jezebel and, through that site, learning of Racialicious, I have expanded my thinking so very much. These articles are all gold - thanks!
Ace post. Cheers!
I remember how shocked I was when I found out that Ezra Jack Keats was white. And then I wondered why I felt shocked.
Great links, thanks for sharing.
Trying to write someone of a different race or ethnicity from one's own can be very wierd. You wonder if you 'got it right' or if you are, once again, preying on a people, culture, religion that has already been sorely abused by European colonialism or some other historic event(s)...and it can be tough to do it realistically rather than pandering to stereotypes.
I don't know how it's going to work out, but my current book (set in 1749 in Colonial America) has a family of escape slaves in one of the chapters. The matriarch of the family has a long conversation with my protagonist. I'm much more concerned with making her a realistic mother than with the idea of making her an escaped black slave. I'm writing her as an intelligent human, not as the emblem of anything beyond herself. Like I say, I'm not sure how it'll work out.
Also, White Readers Meet Black Authors is a mighty blog.
I expect to see a pop quiz on this sometime next week.
At the NESCBWI conference last spring, I took a workshop about writing about people of "color". There were a few students petrified to do it.
I teach. Last school year, I had 20 students, and including me, we represented about 39 or 40 races and religions. Most were a mix of something or another. And three of us were Irish, Italian, and something else. One girl looked African American, one girl looked completely Irish, and I fell somewhere in between. You can't tell who someone is by what they look like.
That said, don't stereotype and write about our common humanity - then you can write about everyone.
These links are wonderful :). I've been very eager to learn about this subject, as one of those people who wants to be able to write about anyone I want, but doesn't want to "do it wrong."
Great point about doing our homework. Thanks, Le R!
I'm with Ink. As a reader, I'm way more concerned with the whole person than racial background. It's also the only place most of us stand a chance of "meeting" someone with no preconceived notions based on appearance unless the author chooses to tell us.
I love it when a new character is described in detail and it doesn't become clear until later that they aren't actually of Northern European descent. And I HATE when we get a full description of everyone in the book (green eyes, freckles, skinny, snappy dresser) and the token "other" friend is simply "asian."
Cultural issues that are important to a character's background need to be fleshed out. I shouldn't be expected to make the leap that because the guy is gay that he likes art galleries and shopping.
This is great. I've been struggling with this very topic over the past few days. I want to include some more diverse characters but have been scared off by doing a crappy job of it. I am excited to look through these links. Thank you.
Thank you for linking to my interview :)
I LOVE Chimanda Adichie's video, danger of the single story. She makes some excellent points. I need to read her books. These are some great links and I hadn't seen Nisi Shawl's article yet so thanks for that link.
@Keith-I think (sorry if this is a little addled) that person of color is better than colored person because well... you make a good point actual. For me, it's just easy to abbreviate and it covers the wide range of non-white groups. Colored is more old fashioned and carries with it the sting of segreagation with the 'colored' water fountains, restuarants, etc. However, I wasn't around during that time, so I don't really know why people I don't like colored. I hope that helps a little bit and your question has really got me thinking, I feel a blog post coming on! I'll be checking back to see the comments
ha ha, I just wrote a paper on why I wished more white authors would write non-white characters as long as they do research.
*dons devil horns and brandishes picthfork*
How is it any different than writing cross gender, or about a chef or a psycho or a rabbit?
I'm assuming many writers do these things and don't think twice about it.
I could care less if a red-butted male monkey wrote the next best selling chick lit book. As long as it's good.
"write non-white characters as long as they do research."
This baffles me. I work with a Latino guy named Tony. He likes baseball and home-brewing beer. We talk about work, baseball and beer. And women, too. He likes women. Hell, so do I. Some of my best friends etc. I work with another guy named John. He's Dominican. He likes movies and photography. We talk about work, movies, photography and the part of town we both live in. I know these guys. I could write these guys. I don't think I need to research or vet my writing with anyone. I could write about the Tlingit woman I work with. Or about the Eretrian woman I work with. I would have a harder time writing about the wealthy, white male dean of the college. I don't understand him at all.
Scott:
Knowing those guys is research! This is what I was trying to articulate. You know a guy. He happens to be Latino. If you wrote his character it would be him, NOT "the latino guy." Whatever cultural background has influenced him is already present and doesn't have to be explained ad nauseum or accounted for because he is who he is.
This is totally different than sprinkling in non-white characters so you have some. Their entire function is then to be the "not white guy." I would certainly find that insulting. My racial background is now a prop? No, thanks.
"sprinkling in non-white characters so you have some"
Yeah, that's just a repulsive idea. Thanks for clarifying!
I doubt that is something I would attempt. Usually I leave most of the character's description to the reader's imagination, providing more personality than hair color, eyes, and skin color.
ALSO. Have you read The Help? It's a white woman writing from the p.o.v. of two black women in the 50's/60's, and it's BRILLIANT. Amazing. The voice was actually what kept me reading. Difficult to put down.
I love you.
Laura:
The chick who narrates the audio version of The Help is a friend of mine from high school. She came to my post prom party! How cool is that? Octavia Spencer. IMBD her!
I routinely give her static about being my most famous friend. She's been in bunches of movies. I'm my very own version of Almost Famous. It makes me proud that I know her.
Thanks for the great links, that in turn link to additional insightful comments on the subject. I'm glad to see people talking about these issues, as it can only raise interest in books by and about people of color. I've edited MultiCultural Review for 16 years now, and over the past couple of years have seen more and more discussion of "the right to write" about cultures besides one's own. One thing that's new in this round of discussion is a greater consciousness of bi-and multi-cultural/racial identity.
Great post, and links -- thank you.
I also wanted to add this link to your list:
http://blackeyedsusans.blogspot.com/2010/01/mama-lockdown-recognition-for-black.html
There's a great discussion in the comments section that I think definitely needs to be included in this dialogue. At one point, "jl" and myself have an exchange about how writing LGBTQ characters as an ally is similar to writing PoC characters as an ally. Worth checking out what everyone has to say there, as well.
Thank you for this post and for addressing an important issue.
Warm regards,
Neesha
Hi Laura,
I for one hated "THE HELP" and I won't go into all the reasons why on this blog, but one that stands out is what you stated, "It's a white woman writing from the p.o.v. of two black women in the 50's/60's, and it's BRILLIANT."
Please understand that since Sackett was born in 1969, I can see why she'd think that all black Southerners spoke that way.
But they didn't. Please note that Martin Luther King was from the South,and during that timeperiod
tradionally Black colleges had heavy enrollment. Unfortunately, when some writers call to mind this timeperiod, they tend to fall back on stereotypes of what they believe African Americans spoke like, and even lived like, which Ms. Sackett has done. Note also, none of the white characters have such heavy southern dialects, yet they all lived in the South.
And please also understand, that I confess, though I may not have been around then either, I have an oral history passed down to me. While I see many white readers are extolling the virtue and say the book is spot on, notice it's rare that African American readers and critics and those that experienced the real South from their perspective are raving about the book.
"While I see many white readers are extolling the virtue and say the book is spot on, notice it's rare that African American readers and critics and those that experienced the real South from their perspective are raving about the book."
This brings up something else we think is pretty important in this discussion, which is that what is and is not okay for white folks to write about is not really a conversation that white folks should be having; instead it's one we should be listening to. It's easy (and soothing) for us to reassure one another that we have "good intentions," but intentions don't have anything to do with the very real lived experience of racism, which is obviously something white folks will never experience.
It's super exciting to see so many new commenters here; welcome everyone, and thanks so much for participating.
This post directed me to great reading all over the place. Thank you! I feel like I just took in a lot. Much appreciated.
mythicagirl said: Please understand that since Sackett was born in 1969, I can see why she'd think that all black Southerners spoke that way.
If you take this argument to its infinite conclusion, we've run out of people who can write books from a Holocaust survivor's perspective. Or historicals. Or any other experience that we could not possibly have lived through.
The point of literature is to connect to humanity. Not black, not asian, not native american. Just human. To qualify an author based on their birthdate and race disqualifies the recognition that we can relate, in a real way, to another person's experience. Even if it is not our own.
If we are constitutionally incapable of understanding what someone else might feel or live despite the difference between us, then there is truly no hope for reconciliation.
I argue that white, mainstream, straight, never-had-to-worry-about-it authors who try to bridge the gap to the extent that they write a POV outside of their experience are doing the hardest work there is in crossing the divide. We need to stop terrorizing people from experimenting with a voice that is not native.
Hi Laurel,
My point was a very simple one without jumping further. I'm speaking of this novel specifically, nothing more, not the point of literature, but the point of one book of literature.
In this case, "The Help".
The author of this book chose to speak in the voice of two cultures, and is being widely praised by many for her authenticity.
I'm saying, as a descendent of one of those cultures and of individuals who were domestics from the south, imho, the voice wasn't authentic and I cannot praise it.
Nothing to stop anyone from writing as another culture. I'm only talking about this book.
I've stated a few of my reasons in my original post, but I'll also add;
When creating a black character, the default position, I pray, I hope for writers won't always be a re-creation of past characters seen time and time again. In this case, the bossy loud mouth Minnie and the silent, long suffering Abilene. I've seen Minnie in just about every sitcom with a black maid, which includes the Jeffersons. I've seen Abilene in Imitation of Life with Juanita Hall and Louise Beavers, some would even say she's a version of Mammy from Gone with the Wind. Nurturing, long suffering, not a woman but a writer's idea of black nobility.
The author of THE HELP took liberties in speaking and feeling in what she believes, as black woman, and she has admitted to as much in subsequent interviews.
one such link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=120966815
Laurel, many thanks for your response and thoughts on the matter. I wonder, is there a book on the Holocaust in the first person, from both the perspective of a sympathetic Nazi guard and his Jewish concentration camp charge?
I ask this in all sincerity.
And to the blog owners, my apologies, I did not mean to derail the point of this thread.
You rock!
And I'm jealous. You commented at Ari's.
Keep doin' what you do.
I think you might appreciate this:
TIC News: Bloomsbury Seeks Acquistions.
Dear Laurel, we totally hear where you are coming from. But the other side of that argument is that people without power (in this case, people of color) have historically had the ability to tell their stories taken away from them or have had their own histories rewritten. There definitely are people (none of whom are commenting here) who will argue it's never okay for white people to tell stories from the perspective of people of color, and we can certainly see why; we can also see that ultimately, that's a limiting and sometimes impossible position. That said, we would argue that white people need to be really, really careful and really, really respectful when approaching perspectives outside their own experience. In a perfect world, we could all be "just human"--but we're a long ways off from that world. Fingers crossed we will all arrive there soon.
Dear mythicagirl, derail?!? are you kidding? Perhaps if you meant derail upon the train track of AWESOME.
You can tell any kind of story you want as long as you end it with "I don't know what that has to do with anything".
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