Today's Frustration
How is this so hard to understand? I’m not trying to tell white writers what characters they can and cannot write. I’m just saying that if they chose to write a fictional world or an urban setting where there’s only white faces (or a token brown face or two), then as a reader I might say that I wish they’d consider writing more a inclusive world view. That doesn’t mean I am calling them out as a racist. If I thought they were racists I wouldn’t bother talking to them at all…what would be the point?
Dear white writer friends looking for their tickets for the cluebus:
“Imagine you grew up as a white yet in all the books you loved all you saw was a sea of brown faces. There was no one you could really relate to, no one you could connect with. You had to settle for brown faced heros doing all the things you dreamed of doing, while people around you reminded you that white people just didn’t get to have adventures like that, they didn’t get to romance the beautiful women, they didn’t get to become king/queen, etc…”
When the big guns of the white pro writers come out and start throwing their weight around it silences many non white writers (or even white writers vocal about race), who find themselves afraid to speak out, afraid that speaking the truth might kill our careers in the industries. How long have non white, lgbt, or other marginalized folks lived in silence acceptance of their fates, knowing that others had the power to punish them for “stepping out of line”.
This is why when white writers say it’s too hard to write CoC, too risky, that these words upset us. They’re the ones out there with the sizable readerships, with the big contracts, with the ability to make a positive change so our children don’t have to grow up without characters they could look up to in spec fic. They are the ones many of us have been reading for quite some time. No, they won’t please everyone, but does that mean there’s no point in trying?
Yeah, when someone dismisses the race issues we deal with everyday, some of us get upset. We might lash out, call for a boycott, write a long post, anything to trying to express our frustration. It’s hurtful to know writers you support, see their risking some negative criticism more crucial than the risk those who speak out, who live within their racial identities, who don’t fit in societies norms face every day.