White Characters Dominating Fantasy Worlds

John Varley hits a similar topic in Steel Beach. It's not the main premiss of the story, more of a setting thing, but the MC, Hildy Johnson, is pretty insouciant about trading out his wingwang for a hoohah partway through the book, and it seems insouciance describes pretty much everyone. You can put your junk on ice until you're ready to trade back, or not, whatever makes you happy. It's as easy as going for a shave and a haircut. He's disappointed when he finds out that small boobs are all the rage when he decides to make the switch. "As small as that?" he says.

The things one remembers....

 

You can play the telephone game with 10 people speaking the same language and run into copying errors. When you're reading the modern English translations of the original English translations of the original Latin ...

 

Oh, criminy biscuits, we tread dangerous waters indeed. I'm as guilty as any, so... let's try and bring it back on track.

No one's in trouble, but... yeah.

 

Maybe watch some All in the Family.

 

BTW, little factoid, as huge a hit as All in the Family was in the U.S., and as quintessentially American as Archie Bunker is, the show is based on an earlier British show, Till Death Us Do Part. I don't know if it's a true reboot, so to speak, as All in the Family was very topical and culturally immersed in Americana.

 

It's a good example of portraying a bigot that the audience both disagrees with and sympathizes with. Or at least part of the audience. As the star of the show once said, half the audience was laughing at Archie Bunker, the other half was laughing with him.

 

I always pictured dolphins as being super liberal.

 

They're all Hispanic, apparently. Not sure of political affiliation.

 

There will for ever be a divide so long as we allow it. Many people chose to not see the harsh realities of our social chaos. This is ignorance but you make the choice to be this way it's not something you are born. Evil is neutral it can inspire the best or even the worst in humanity and is indiscriminate of race religion and sex. To be clear in my opinion this is the fault of Holywood and their very peculiar way in choosing what books to make movie adaptations from... Infact I can think of at least one story that featured a overweight child in a book as the main character and yet when Hollywood cast the role it was played by a child that weighed less than 100 pounds... This is wrong and does need to be changed.

 

Do what I'm trying to. Write a fantasy story that's based on a culture that ISN'T medieval Europe.

Mezoamerica for example, before the Spaniards came. Granted the "Mayincatec" trope exists and these cultures are often mashed together for convenience sake, but I've never seen a novel set solely in such a habit.

Of course the only foreseeable problem with writing such a work is that the political correctness police, who insist everything is racist because word salad, will get their knickers in a twist.

 

I do not think it wrong of you to ask this question. It is one I've asked often and I've had fruitful discussions about.
That said, writers tend to write what they know. Now, its easy to say, do some research and expand your world. But, look at one of my favorite writers, Robert Howard of Conan fame. Small town Texas boy from the early 20th century who did his world building with books from the local library and reading other works of fiction(such as Lovecraft).
Writers tend to draw inspiration from impression. Being that books or other media. So, on a certain level, they are retelling characters and stories that has left an impression on them.
Once I've became aware of this, I as a European descendant American male, make a conscious choice to 'go a different' direction. I've traveled some. I have friends from all over the world. I read literature and view media from regions other than Europe or the US.
This isn't because I'm on some crusade, it is a more selfish reason; I search for the impression that will inspire me to write something different.
You are right, the world is lot more than the US and Europe. I see as a goldmine of originality. Clothing, customs, weapons, etc. that is not a rinse and repeat of Conan and the Lord of the Rings. People are just plain cool, and, the best inspiration comes from a person. And, there is a world full of them.
Hope this helps.
Godspeed!

 

And I know that straight white men are a 1 in 4 minority in America

I've never understood the appeal of the version that goes "Write what you know, and don't learn about new things to write about," I've always preferred the version that goes "Write what you know, and don't ever stop knowing new things".

A few months into my Urban Fantasy WIP, I realized that I wanted one of my villain protagonists to have been raped as a teenager, developed PTSD, and turned to serial murder until she found a job that gave her enough money for professional therapy. When I first came up with this backstory, I did not feel that I knew enough about rape, PTSD, or the fictional portrayal thereof to make my backstory work. And so I started studying.

 

I agree with this, but only if one takes the version you mention to heart. Write what you know to the exclusion of all else would make for a literary canon composed of basically only memoirs or mildly fictionalized memoirs.

Earlier this morning, as I was avoiding the translation project I need to finish today (and I continue to avoid it ) one of my facebook pals posted something on his page concerning "why I'm tired of white gay men telling queer stories". Part of me understands the gripe when these stories seem to filter me out as a gay latino, but part of me also still feels deeply jealous of the way in which I write my stories and my personal resolve to write the stories that I want to write, not the stories that other people necessarily feel I need to write to fill some ever-changing quota. The fact that my stories check lots of diversity boxes only reflects the fact that I, as a human paradigm, check off a lot of diversity boxes just being me living where I live.

Now, and to play devil's advocate to myself, of course we need to always be learning, most especially as regards not just subjects, but our own tendencies in writing, the things we have been trained to engage as go-to's. Not long ago I realized that my WIP titled "313" is a 'white savior' story. That's really disheartening to know that I've spent as much time as I have on that story and it possesses this particular tragic flaw. @Laurin Kelly also turned me to the fact that 'magical healing cock' trope is a thing, and yes, my 'white savior' has one of those too. My other WIP has a watered down version of 'white savior' trope going on. Jeez...

I've retreated to a super-duper old WIP called "La Telenovela" that, at least to this point, seems pretty much clean of any of the aforementioned. It's also such an old WIP that the writing itself was a "stranger" to me, if that makes sense. I was able to read it as though it weren't my own writing and I was pretty happy with what I found. It all takes place in dusty little Latin neighborhood at the edge of time. That's where I'll be if anyone needs me.

 

All my characters are dragons. No white people whatsoever.
Except the daktar cameo and the Rishnaran.

 

That is my point exactly. What do we know and why do we know what we do? All all people, we as writers should be asking this question. And, the follow up question at that point is: what do we choose to learn today?

 

Especially since non-straight people such as myself spend every second of our lives learning how straightness and straight people work, so clearly it is possible to do it.

 

I suspect we both have more in common with a bowtruckle than either us do with the Trumpkin.

 

If "living my life" requires not knowing anything about the world around me, then I'd rather waste it on learning