Harmful representation of black people in my fantasy novel?

Hi guys,
english is not my first language, so I'm sorry if there are any mistakes.
I'm really very unsure and need constructive criticism. I have a dilemma:
I try to be diverse in my fantasy book and have a lot of poc, queer and black characters. I try not to make bad representation and don't want to reproduce harmful stereotypes. Here to my problem: In my fantasy world, there are seven realms, and people from each realm have a specific ability. There is a realm where there is a black population and the residents there have the gift of 'warfare', meaning they are physically very strong and fast and their wounds regenerate faster.
Now to my problem: I saw a post by a social scientist about the prejudice that black people are supposed to be more athletic. This prejudice is said to have arisen in the colonial era, when black people were never "spirit" but only "body". They were reduced to their bodys and physical abilities. I.e. the ability to speak, to think, to philosophize was denied and he was exclusively the subject who should and had to work. This reduction of the human being to the body still works in prejudice today.
I had this idea long before I knew about this prejudice. In my world, every empire is a kind of continent and every continent has people from different ethnic groups and is based on an ancient empire. I can't really swap the ability. E.g. there is a realm where there are magicians, and they are genocidized and partially enslaved. That's why it would be even more critical if I made the "whites" warriors and the "blacks" "magicians".
So that you don't misunderstand: The 'Warriors' are highly cultured, a wealthy and proud people, with a diverse culture and an honorable code of war. They have a long tradition in the art of war, which they cherish. I try not to portray brutal or wild people like e.g. in Game of Thrones with the Dothraki.
The warriors play an important role in the book and fight with the other main characters for a good cause.
Is there a problem if I make black people 'warriors'?
The other realms also have warriors, so they wouldn't be the only ones fighting with their skills.

 

The first rule to writing: get off social media.

 

You could make them purple-skinned. But then I guess you would offend people who are suffocating.

By your description, I don't think this is an issue. But if it is an issue, and it is a fantasy novel, you could maybe make them whatever colour you want?

 

It's fine.

Since it's fantasy, your black or green or blue people aren't black or green or blue people from the real world. You can't misrepresent a fictional culture or race. The social scientist is no authority on your creations.

 

I’m still wondering why being considered more athletic than others is an insult in the first place.

 

Positive prejudices are still prejudices. And attributing a trait to someone based on their 'race' is racist.
For example, black people who are not very athletic would then feel deficient, because they feel they need to be athletic because it is expected of them.

 

Yes, when dealing with real-world humans.

I agree with those above who make the distinction regarding fantasy. You can have fantasy 'races' that have distinct racial characteristics. It's not a problem, imo, unless you're trying to make your fantasy race analogs of real human 'races.'

 

Any fantasy race runs the risk of having parallels to real life races and thus real life racism. Many many many aliens and fantasy races are compared to real life races, often the author did not intend it that way (we hope), but it's unavoidable, because real world humans will always view fiction through the eyes of the real world including it's horrible history and stereotypes... it's not necessarily a bad thing (well racism is, but people seeing parallels is okay).

It is impossible to avoid this. So while you should be aware and sensitive to this, don't over correct to the point of making it offensive in a different way, ie excluding black/minority people.

Some people say change the skin tone... I would say that's a LAST resort.
FIRST step is what you've already said, show them as a culturally diverse at the end of the day if you have fully fleshed out races that feel real most people won't see (or care).
SECOND step lean into it a little bit, people are going to make that comparison, well head them off at the past, do a little research about some African societies that championed warriors (most notable imo are the Zulu, but if would be cool if you researched another one), take one or two positive traits from the that culture (make sure a few are more than JUST warrior based) and sprinkle them into your society, suddenly the comparison to black people isn't a bug it's a feature, and it is to show respect and homage to the culture (warning only do this if you can be genuine and have some real respect/fascination with the culture you're mentioning, if not skip to step #3).
THIRD step when you've done a draft in addition to having a beta reader, get a sensitive reader, they can tell you if you have any glaringly offensive red flags. If so here is where I would consider changing skin tone (but in my opinion 9/10 if your story is offensive the skin tone isn't the problem).

 

Thank you very much for the answer, that was the most helpful thing I've read so far. I will definitely take the advice into account.

 

Nothing harmful in that whatsoever. People who whine about wanting more representation only want it in a certain way, e.g the prejudiced group being perfect, heroic, Mary Sues. If you were to make one the bad guy, the woke crowd would REEE at you. I don't know what you're material is and whether you intend to tackle real life subject matter regarding minorities. My advice would be, be very subtle about it. People hate stuff that is very on the nose and instantly turn them off.
Best of luck.

 

I understand your worries. When I created a character who is racist, I feared that people might falsely attribute her opinions to me personally. So to be on the safe side, I made her an antisemite as well (I'm Jewish). So hopefully that would resolve that. But also, please remember, if people want to attribute bad opinions to an author, it's because they want to. You can't do anything against people who have decided you were a bigot, and decided they should search for the evidence. They will find it because they want it to be true.

Regarding the actual story: I don't know anything about the realms in your universe, but wouldn't it make sense that in each realm there are a bunch of people with different colors and cultures? So maybe in the warrior realm you'll have some white people and some black people, and in the other realms you could do the same. Obviously if it's an important part of your mythology, to keep them separate, then feel free to ignore this advice. I'm not here to tear apart a carefully built mythology.

Secondly, while I understand your fears about the whole concept of "no spirit, only athleticism", I don't think that most people would see it that way. You see it that way because this novel is your baby and you want it to be well received, and you're checking under the hood (I'm comparing the book to a car. Not talking about that other hood).
But I think that most people are just going to look at these characters and see the positive. They're athletic, and they're fierce.
When The Hunger Games books and movies came out, nobody was accusing the author of bigotry over the fact that county 11 is black and poor while county 1 is mostly white and rich.
There were talks about colors and race in context of the movie and county 11, but not about that specifically).
Now when The Woman King is coming out, there are discussions over the history of that tribe when it comes to the role they played historically in the institution of slavery, but nobody is attacking Viola Davis over the concept of showing powerful black warriors on screen.

I know a lot of people can find a lot of race-based discussions that exist both over The Hunger Games and The Woman King, but, again, as I've said, I'm talking specifically about the representation of people who are black as fierce and strong. Nobody is offended by such representation, nor should they be.
And also, nobody should be offended if a bad character happens to be black.
All humans are flawed and there is representation among the heroes and among the villains.
It is okay to have a flawed hero of every race or gender, a flawed villain of every race or gender, and fierce and powerful people of every background.
If anyone calls you a bigot, it is because they already planned to do that.

 

@Happeegirl

Non-human characters with black skin | Creative Writing Forums - Writing Help, Writing Workshops, & Writing Community

Welcome to the FORUM. Similarly, another new member asked this question above. You two should touch base at least. The problem with this subject is alienating your audience. What story do you want to tell and underlying message?

I’m the worst demographic on the planet. British over 50s married white male, living an expat life. Building prejudices into any story is fine, even in fantasy Sci-Fi. However, more often than not SFF tales tend to reflect real life at there particular time of writing. This then immediately puts off part of your customer base.

Here are two examples of good and bad racial representation. The new HOUSE OF THE DRAGRON series did something unusual. The Royal Targaryen House had distinctive white hair. Within this household we saw both black skinned and white skinned people with lineage. It made sense, also built the intrigue when a mixed marriage produces offspring not expected.

The LOTR, going way off script here with all things woke. Sticking with the black skin thing first. Here it’s shown more to prove a point to its audience more than anything else, we are a diverse culture show shut up and watch. The problem is the black skinned characters make no sense in their roles. First off is Arondir an Silvan Elf.

The word Elf in JRRT Lore means “the fair, as they have golden hair with pale skin”. He is the only black elf in the entire story and we as the audience are supposed to ignore it otherwise, we are racists? Without context as to why the character’s skin colour is different makes no sense. This is also true with the Lenny Henry character as well.

Why do we not see a single Chinese elf or a Japanese character with bleached white hair Targaryen dragon rider? WHY IS THAT?

This prejudice is said to have arisen in the colonial era, when black people were never "spirit" but only "body".

I think you should look at colonial and human history more. Slavery is a key part within human civilization. The prejudice that black people are supposed to be more athletic, you state comes from early sugar plantations between the French and British.

A Slave is a machine. Calories in, work out leads to a production stockpile. Here comes the problem, if you cut down on the calories given your profit margin goes up, but your machine breaks. The British and French in Jamaica and Hispaniola hit a problem.

To harvest the sugar cain needed all hands-on deck. It was brutal hard work. Death rates sky rocketed so demand for replacement slaves grew. The war in Europe compounded the need for sugar exports, but slave populations fell due to death rates.

The British came up with the idea of calorie overload and marriages within the slave community. This is still awful and tragic yet needs to be understood. Make the machine happy he’ll work better harder faster… like your printer at work.

We the British out produced France in sugar for years. In fact, the slave trade act was approved by Parliament in 1807 which outlawed international slave trade. This in part was to strangle France rather than us British becoming all moralistic…

With @drygin question I offer a reason why a race would be black. Above I show you how your printer could be better at work.

I Think prejudice or racism add relatable depth to a story. Problem is it becoming cliched within your fantasy tale. I’d suggest seriously you also look at the Indian Caste system.

Caste system in India - Wikipedia

This type of system used as a backdrop for the fantasy world could help develop real divisions within a society that on face value don’t look obvious.

Please take what I’ve said with a pinch of salt. Let me know how you get on and get in touch with the other new member….

MartinM.

 

I think the most important thing is, make them diverse within that culture. I could say that "on average", British people are reserved, Russian people are fatalistic, Italian people are outspoken and passionate and French people are romantic. And on average over a whole country, that might be true--but you certainly wouldn't have to look far in any of them to find lots of exceptions to the rule. Some more thoughts--

--A warrior society is still, well, a society. Someone still needs to clean up, construct homes, bake bread, deliver children, make decorations for victory parades, manage the administration for conquered territories, etc. What about those people? Are they regarded as lesser, or washouts who couldn't hack it as real warriors? Are they honoured in a different way? For example, we remember the Mongols as a warrior culture, but arguably a bigger feat than their conquests was governing and administrating their incredibly diverse conquered realms in a semi-harmonious way, with successor states of the Golden Horde enduring as stable nations for centuries afterwards.

--An obvious question that comes to mind is; what happens where the cultures mingle? Unless there's something major to separate their homelands, you're going to get mingling, exchanges of ideas and fascinating hybrid cultures. The same applies if they conquer other lands--you're going to see cultural exchange between the two groups in most cases. For example, the original Normans were Scandinavian raiders who were given land by the Frankish kings so they'd act as a buffer against other Vikings. They adopted a settled lifestyle and changed accordingly, then changed again after they conquered England and began mingling with the native population there. Even in colonial administrations that tried to keep a distance there, you still had the supposed problem of white people "going native" and feeling more comfortable there than in their homeland.

--Are some people unhappy with their designated role? Yes, you're biologically the ultimate warrior, but what if you'd just prefer to be a scholar, gardener or singer? By the same token, do people who are deemed to aggressive for another culture move here?

 

Different ethnicities with gifts and presumably faults?

Off-hand, I would say you are treading on thin ice, but you do what you want.

Now, if there were guilds that taught these "gifts", or if "gifts" just came to people regardless of ethnicity, then I would say you are back on a good track.