Using religions

Hi, I'm new to this forum, so please forgive me if I'm posting in the wrong section. I'm writing a dark Comedy which sees numerous people committing accidental murders. I would like to use a variety of characters of varying demographics. I would like to introduce a Sikh or Hindu family into the mix so its not all white British committing the crimes. Its not intended to offend, its funny, but I'm worried that I'll offend someone somewhere. Is that all part and parcel of Dark comedies or are there sensitive ways to go about writing religions into novels? The murder would be accidental and nothing to actually do with their beliefs so am I worrying over nothing? Please note that being a comedy, there will be an element of covering up the murder so I think I'm concerned that I'll offend someone on that point. Thanks

 

People will always find a way to get offended, I wouldn't fret about it.
Regardless, PC has no place in comedy in my opinion. Moreover you said yourself the murders are accidental, thus have nothing to do with the criminal's religion, only the turmoil brought on by the accident, and the covering up.

P.S I don't think it could be called "murder" if its accidental xD

 

I'd be more concerned by the fact that you're considering including a "token" ethnic person into the mix. If you have other ethnic minority characters, that's less of a problem but if they're the only one, I can see an issue.

As long as you don't stereotype them, you should be fine.

 

I would say that you're worrying about the wrong thing. Sorry to be pedantic, but given your description, the issue has nothing to do with religion and instead has to do with ethnicity. If you character are Sikhs, then they are also very probably (though not exclusively) Punjabi. You'll want to know about Punjab culture.

As mentioned above, there's an offended queue forming as we speak to hold forth concerning pebbles on a beach, but your concern is understandable. My story takes place in a future Australia, and as we speak Australia is going through some very difficult situations. This isn't stopping me from writing my story.

Make your choices, own their outcomes.

 

Looks like it.
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Welcome to the forum.

 

Without context I don't think you should assume its a 'token' ethnic character. It all fits in with the greater story and like I said I want to use a wide demographic because its based around a community which would house a variety of people. If I didn't, that would also be offensive. I just don't want to get the religion bit wrong but I'm sure it would seem strange if I didn't work it into the family's profile at all. Most of my stories have been based around one family/character and this hasn't been an issue for me before because I've written about what I know, but this is new territory for me.

 

Thanks. I think everyone in this story ends up being irrational which is what brings the comedy eliment. I just don't want to upset a faith I know nothing about if the characters go on to cover up and make worse an accidental death. In real life, an accident would be reported in most situations but this obviously isn't real life, its entertainment.

 

Stop worrying about offending people and just write what you want to write. Someone is always going to get offended. Screw 'em.

 

Yes I

Yes I will research the culture once I start to build on the characters and make sure everything is factually correct. I think religion is probably just as important as ethnicity because they follow certain codes of conduct and I want to be careful not to portray their ethnicity or religion as bad. I just want solid characters with cultures/religions that do not actually have anything to do with the plot but can be mentioned. For example, if they were to pray, who are they praying to etc. Its more to do with the fine dialogue.

 

Thanks, I'll try but I think I'm finding it hard to separate my writing from other aspects of my life. I'm running to be a Councillor in the local council elections this year and it's been drummed in to me how important it is to not be an embarresment or offend any race or religion, so I'm over thinking everything I write.

 

Reducing these issues to one of offence, I think, is actually trivializing it. Offence is a broad umbrella of reactions that should be considered within the context of what actually causes offense, or more bluntly, what's wrong with something. Much as people like to talk about how people get offended by everything, people do actually get offended for a reason.
If you are concerned about causing offence, which I think you should always be, you should consider the reasons. I don't think not being intentionally offensive is enough, because you are *likely* to end up reinforcing certain biases you've unwittingly picked up, or even by simple accident. It's worth taking a little time to understand the issues. I would say the most important things to consider are accuracy of portrayal (getting the details right), representation and exclusion (having a reasonable mix across all different kinds of diversity), diversity of portrayal (e.g. not all your black characters should be mentors), and stereotypes and historical context (don't reinforce harmful narratives).

 

Then write under a pseudonym.

 

If you don't make a thing about the characters being a certain ethnicity or following a certain religion then you're less likely to offend. Write your non white characters the same way you write your white characters, naturally. Everything they do is natural and normal to them. You'll have to do a lot of research to make the characters whose culture and religion you are mostly unfamiliar with seem regular.

You know the ins and outs of whatever culture you're from and thus any character you write from your culture will have all the small things that make the reality of the person come forth. It's the subtle things that make the character come together.

So don't make a thing about it, don't lay on the ethnicity so thick they become the 'token' ethnic character. It's all about how easily the elements of the ethnicity or religion flow.

Also, most people don't actually care unless you purposely make an non-white character the villain or make them an asshole or something. It doesn't even cross their minds to question anything unless that thing stands out.

 

Well, the thing to remember is that a lot of Sikhs and Hindus are just like you, at least for the most part. Some Sikhs and Hindus drink, smoke and eat meat. There are certain customs that are followed, but most of them carry out their everyday lives in the same way as anyone else.

The level of devoutness varies from person to person. Young people in Hindu and Sikh families face exactly the same issues as their white counterparts.

People aren't always defined by their religion.

 

As mentioned above people will take offence if they want to. As long as you don't set out to deliberately offend I really wouldn't worry about it.

There was a TV show in the 70's called "Love Thy Neighbour" and the main source of comedy was racism. A black and white family lived next door. The women got along ok, but the men were very racist and disliked each other because of their skin and spent most of their time waging war and throwing insults. But the funniest thing was they were exactly the same. If it wasn't for skin colour they'd have been mates. The show was trying to say, just because someone looks different doesn't mean they are, they are the same.

Those who got the message didn't take offence (don't think they'd get away with a show like that today) and it wasn't one sided. Sometimes the white guy won the battle and sometimes the black guy did. They were pointing out how stupid and narrow-minded racism is.

 

To everyone saying 'just don't deliberately be offensive'. Who do you think that's good advice for? If someone is being deliberately offensive, do you think just saying 'don't do that' is going to stop them? It's not even well put. And, more importantly, your advice specifically excludes dealing with any amount of prejudice, no matter how gross or outright malicious, so long as one is not doing it intentionally. Are you actually okay with that?
Don't you think it might be worth people spending a little bit of time questioning themselves and their writing? Maybe actually trying not to be prejudiced is a worthwhile endeavour? Just a little?

 

There's a big difference between don't be intentionally offensive and making a message against racism. One is almost useless advice, who is going to be helped by that? and the other is actually a deliberate approach to the issue that makes a positive message.
Believe it or not everyone saying "just don't be deliberately offensive" but it doesn't necessarily matter if you intend to. Sure, most people would be less judgemental of you as a person than if you were deliberate, but offence without specific intent can still hurt, and you can have a whole heck-load of biases without being intentionally offensive. You can be a massive racist even and still think you're not intentionally offensive. And if one is intentionally offensive, that one line won't change their mind.
So, the mention of research is definitely relevant in terms of actually doing it. If you do that, you're on the way yourself. Research often highlights the pitfalls when you realise certain things seen in media are innacurrate, misleading or otherwise insensitive. Like portraying Muslims as terrorists is offensive because a lot of Muslims, particularly the refugees in the West who see Western content, are actually victims of those groups and giving them too much association with those group is basically blaming the victim.
Talking specifically to at least one person from the group is good if you can. If nothing else, you can actually find interesting little anecdotes about what's funny in their religion, culture and ethnic communities. You can learn from the way they talk perhaps to get at speech anecdotes of slang or pronunciation. So there's something to gain outside of just avoiding offence.
Tldr feelings matter, representation matters, don't be lazy; take the issue seriously.