No, yes - no.

[fuzzylobsters]

One of my worky-work bosses, the one who is immensely and impressively organized (and who shares my tastes in music to a large extent!) has been promoted and is leaving, though not leaving the organization as a whole. I am a bit nervous about the aftermath!

Indispensable? It seemed like he was, but of course that's very rarely thoroughly true. And

Comments

[likethewatch]

With the name, maybe it would help to think about why your character's parents chose that name for him, and what he has thought about it over time. Did he get teased for having a strange name, or is it common? Does he know its meaning?
If his name is Abdul Jones, does that mean "servant of Jones"? What does the meaning of his full name mean to him? You can write it out if it helps, not necessary to include in the story unless if makes for good character development, but mainly it's to give you backstory on him. That is how I write: research a lot, then write from what I (now) know.
What does it mean that you have chosen a black man as your main character? Is it totally irrelevant that he's black? What does it mean to be black in the future?
The danger for a bad white writer in creating a character of another race (or age, or culture, or sex) is that the difference is a symbol to the author, and so the character is there not primarily to be a fully dimensional character, but to be a trope; his first job is to "be" black. So let him become realized for you, and let him decide how he'd proceed, not how "a black man" "should" do it, for the purposes of making you look like an enlightened white writer.
That's what I'd suggest, anyhow.

[fuzzylobsters]

Thanks so much for the thoughtful questions! Good question as to what exactly it means in relation to the last name, I will have to find out.

He's named this for his grandfather, who is dying, and by the time he's born, dead, and it's a reconcilatory gesture between generations. Not that there was a huge rift, more of a uneasiness.

He doesn't know the meaning at first, and he has a mild dislike for it because he is taunted by friends rhyming it with "fool" and "tool". But it's mild teasing and not prejudice-related. Eventually he finds out, and it seems all too appropriate.

Oog, I was about to think of having his mother point out that it also rhymes with "cool" and also "shul" and... is she Jewish? Or just a chaser like me ;) Hmmm.

Yeeeeah, I'm afraid that it's emerging that my motivations: a) Well, why not? Which I think is kind of valid... b) mostly showing off how much I know through reading and exposure about people who aren't WAS, as I happen to be. (Formerly WASP, but I have ditched the Protestant part!) c) experimenting with building characters who aren't me in a relatively safe space. I mean, if I hadn't mentioned it here, very likely no one who isn't a m-preg enthusiast would be aware of it and all the Issues bound up in it all... d) Perhaps gathering courage and practice to create characters who aren't me for view in the very, very critically aware space of dykes and their associates.

I guess that comes back to "why create those characters?" and I _think_ that `because they're there' is the answer. Well, the best short answer, anyhow.

At the same time it's sort of because it's `the future', and I'm thinking of it in a sort of post-racial, but not way. As in, there will likely be many many more people of mixed race but the old issues certainly haven't vanished. Since he's sort of the new Eve, in a way, for instance, his mother will gloat that any of these polite bigots who want their genes passed on will have to endure a touch of the tar brush. And he'll wonder what the heck she's talking about.

I'm aware I have a fondness both erotically and in cultural artifacts for people who are what I might dryly call "safely exotic", folks of color who are often estranged from their ancestral cultures and who mentally dwell mostly in the same realms of interest that I do. And, as pull_toy has playfully noted, I'm a matzoh queen!

This is highly suspicious and probably problematic for a whitely mcwhitestone such I... at least I'm aware of it. :/ Also, I think, at the same time a sign of my growing beyond my background. I hope. Hmm.

This story is also turning out to be a lot about gender, another of my fascinations, which is I think fine, as I have a lot more direct connection to that body of issues. Heck, maybe I should make my future as white as the original Star Wars. It's what I am bedrock familiar with...

Gee, thanks again, I will think more on this!

[fuzzylobsters]

Errrr, now I notice that the idea of writing characters of color "Because they're there" is the response some white guy gave on why climb mountains. And climbing mountains is often a conquering, colonizing sort of act. Oog. Not the best phrase to use in this context, although possibly revealing! Too revealing, perhaps.