White Supremacy

First of all, nobody is forcing. I don't know how many times I have to repeat this. Second of all, how in the world does avoiding stereotypes create more stereotypes? That makes absolutely no sense. Stereotypes are often widely believed misconception. For example, the stereotype that all Asians are smart is obviously wrong; many of them come from hard working backgrounds (inspired by the Tao philosophy), but they are not inherently smarter than other ethnicities. Lastly and most importantly, ethnic people don't always act "ethnic" or have brown skin. There is no such thing as "white" behaviour or "black" behaviour or any other type of behaviour. That's just ridiculous. Yes, culture is very influential, but if any foreigner were to live among others, they will naturally acquire that behaviour. It's called "adapting".

lol oh my god.

Okay, despite our differences, this greatly amuses me. That would actually prompt me to buy your book.

 

I agree with this one hundred per cent. A couple times, I almost got around to saying something like this.

What we may still disagree about, (and I'll accept that), is whether the average middle class white American not exposed to diversity will understand this point. The problem is it's not even a point that can be grasped by "research."

People from different cultures may live differently and have different values, and different skin tone can indicate different culture, but it doesn't necessarily. If someone of a different race from me is born in my town, our parents were also born in this town, and we go to the same school etc., there's a good chance there'll be nothing fundamentally different about our ways of life or core values. The only difference is that one person knows what it is to be a minority and the other doesn't.

So just to reiterate that that was part of my original point: not only is it difficult for white American writers to write other ethnicities when they're unfamiliar with other cultures; it's also difficult when they don't grasp the above point. And the results show that. This is why I don't feel the need to encourage such writers in this endeavor.

 

The way people behave is determined largely by their background. Their background is determined largely by wealth and culture. Ergo, people of similar culture have similar influences on their behaviour, and their behaviour reflects that. I'm not saying there are any rules or intrinsic behavioural traits - that would be Bologners. What I am saying is that one of the biggest influences on how we think and act is culture, and to ignore it is to write-off a potentially interesting aspect of our characters. For instance, you mentioned Tao. If they were not brought up with the Tao philosophy, would they be as hard-working? Probably not. If they weren't Asian, would they be influenced by Tao? Probably not.

 

But Kio is correct that there is no such thing as "white" behavior or "black" behavior, and I think this misses that point.

Culture is not the same as race. Two people can be different races and their cultures can be the same or similar. Two people who grow up down the street from each other can be growing up in the same culture even if their skin tones differ.

 

^^Of course culture affects people; however, I was trying to tell you that "white" behaviour and "black" behaviour is not real. Culture does not go by race; it goes by society. You said that you would not like to have a white character with brown skin; this is ridiculous because if a black person were to be raised among white people, of course they are going to act like the people around them. Same goes for any other individual who grows up among a certain group of people.

I don't think I ever said that we should write off culture. I said we should write-off stereotypes and, from what I know, stereotypes often have nothing to do with culture. Stereotypes are beliefs that are widely spread and are, more often than not, generalised misconceptions of an ethnicity.

Those are assumptions. Besides, most, if not all, cultures originally believed in hard work. The Tao philosophy managed to prevail during the Westernization and colonialization that occurred (and still occurs) around the world. Besides, I know some Asians that don't do so well in school or could care less about hard work. Obviously, they are not influenced by Tao. Yes, many Asians are, but we can't say that all Asians or even most are influenced by him. Stereotypes are what propogate these general assumptions.

 

This is really interesting question! I never thought about this until I started to write my current novel. One of the major characters simply "revealed" herself as a black female. I never thought about race or ethnicity, beyond wanting to represent various ethnicities because I wanted to "set" different pars of the book in different places, but she appeared in my mind as a real person, I know her face, her character, her issues, everything.
Because the book is set in the future, and as a person I don't focus on skin colour beyond appreciating everyone for who they are, I "imagined" our world to move away from the racial discrimination as we know it today. But since it is in human nature to find something to discriminate about, in the book the discrimination is economic and based on geography (long story, plot story ). Because I find racism utterly devoid of any intelligence and reason, I chose not to carry forward our current struggles with this issue (as in, old wounds heal eventually).
And then I ran into a black American guy who kept insisting that just because I am white, I am inherently racist. And the more I try to socialise with black people, the more effort I go into to get to know their culture, to treat them like any other person, everything I could conceivably do - I will still be a racist. If I try to have black friends - I am inserting myself into his culture. If I stay away - I am a racist because I segregate. If I try to behave the same way towards black people as I do towards whites - I am disrespecting the suffering. He also went as far as calling any black person who doesn't feel the same way as he does an "Oreo" (black on the outside but white on the inside).
Basically, I tried and tried and in the end he just said that there is nothing I as a white person can do other than accept the hate. And i know he is not the only one who feels this way.
This made me feel very insecure about writing my character. She is part French. Her father is a nasty piece of work who basically used his daughter to further his own career goals. This has robbed her of peaceful childhood as well as her femininity. She is strong, devious, ambitious. But deep inside, it's another story.
I don't want to offend, but I don't mean to. It makes me feel mad that there should be a restriction on the race of the characters I write. But I suppose whatever we write, there will be people who will be offended for some reason or another, we just have to brace ourselves and not read hate mail when it arrives

 

I too, have met a person that felt as the fellow you described above. It is kind of weird to see this post on Martin Luther King Day. I am a very new user - first day on this forum. This post (and it's history) really made me think about all the books I have read in my 50+ years. The originator of this thread was right (note the past tense). However, in the past decade I have read quite a number of books where the main character's ethnicity (indeed, the entire cast of characters) were non-white. My latest read (just finished two days ago) was 'The Inheritance Trilogy' by N.K. Jemisin. This is a wonderfully written story that encompasses many ethnic backgrounds (including gods that took on whatever form was convenient). To be honest, I didn't notice whether a character was 'black' or 'white'. I was too busy enjoying the story. I was hoping we were past this question of typecasting and stereotypes. Get out there and write!

 

I think the problem is not so much the race but the region of that white character, i.e. the West. The way I see it, some people might be frustrated by a supposed domination of Western values in Western literature and they want to see some diversity in expression, and one of the best ways to fundamentally change a character's perspective is to establish a different descent, regardless of skin colour. White Caucasians are a nuanced class of people that are not limited to the West. The oft forgotten Balkans, the rest of Eastern Europe, Russia and some of its neighbours offer a great variety of "non-standard" white people you can write about. Just because you're white doesn't mean you're Walter White.

 

I'm into making up entirely different worlds, so that, even though my MC is black, he doesn't have to slot in to any stereotype. He's not white-washed, because even the white people don't have a similar culture to mine. It's so much easier to escape into fantasy and completely disregard all that bs. Much less restrictive.

 

Erm, I just write the characters based on their personalities, not their skin color or sex. I don't think, "Susan, because you're a girl, you have to do girl things!" I think, "Susan, you seem to really like doing this, so let me expand on that. Oh, you like that guy over there? OK, let me include him and study into his character."

Their personality would be based around the area they grew up in, the culture they were exposed to, and their own personal interpretation of the world around them, not their skin color. It's racist, in my view, to think that because someone is of a certain color, they must act a certain way. It's bigoted, backwards.

Should an author be afraid to write about a character completely different from them? Certainly not. Research would come in handy (as with everything you write about), but no, an author should not be afraid to write about someone else. I've got plenty of female protagonists and non-white protagonists, and I'm a white guy.

 

@Link the Writer well, there is always the pxoblem of particular cultural models originating amongst peoples of a certain phenotype - Caucasian Zulus or Bantu Vikings? I don't think so...

 

I believe that's a story premise that's been done in a dozen ways. Take a privileged white male and plop him into opposite land. Planet of the Apes is one example. But you need an observer like the privileged white male or it would just look like a Viking or Bantu story with different characters.

 

Maybe because white people were the largest market of authors back in the day and somewhat now-due to the population. But now since the Earth has grown in population and the world has become more globalized, there are more Authors who are not white. As a culture, it's easy to create things that are similar to us- it's just natural. People often regard this as a racist attribute, but it's honestly a fictional representation of who we're commonly around. Not all writers do this, but it's enough to be noticed. I think there are a lot of non-white characters submerging to forms of media, but in the writing world it's harder to find due to the normal fixation of whites being the most populated in the States. I make my characters white and non-white,due to the fact it gives the world more diversity and flavor. Now maybe back in the day it was racist towards blacks due to the slavery ordeal, but that was logical for them to think that way due to the harsh way they were treated back then. But now, that's a tired excuse. Simply because blacks are free and black people can be authors and create black characters too. I'm not being racist, I do think that it's somewhat of a problem to always have white characters, but claiming that white authors want a white supremacy ideology for this nation is mostly appalling.

 

In my story, characters have darker skin because they are descendants of the Khan the sun god. They can breathe and shoot fire, and are the best warriors in the world. There is discrimination, but its based on whether you have divine blood or not. Khan's children are some of the most revered and feared.