Indie Publisher Drops Author Over Twitter Dispute Regarding OwnVoices

[zodgory]

Another day of drama on book twitter though the current argument is about who can write what. It all started when writer Alisha Hillam tweeted about how white authors shouldn't write from the POV of non-white characters and should have sensitivity readers. This also goes for cis/het authors writing LGBT+ characters and abled authors writing

Comments

[musicnkisses]

I kind of don’t understand. The argument the initial tweet made was that white people shouldn't write POC POVs. If you don’t give your characters a voice then they end up being props. We should elevate minority writers but I don’t think the solution is saying “white people don’t poc povs” because then all you get are tropes and distant characters, or worse, stories with no minorities in it. I understand this argument in the context of some stories, like that white lady from last year (?) who wrote a story about Mexican immigration and detention. But like a YA or romance novel that’s not heavily focused on the minority experience? I don’t see the problem.

Again, it’s be better if we amplified minority writers. But this line of thinking will lead to more problems down the line.

[ms_mmelissa]

IA with this completely. I have more film and TV examples re this but I know of lots of different media where the characters are poc but the creators are white. This doesn't always work and sometimes there are obvious tells but even when it fails I think it's interesting.

Also a good rule of thumb is to have characters of colour when the story isn't about race but about something else, but at the same time it's important to weigh how race would effect the story. IDK it's a delicate balance and I truly don't mind artists trying, you can usually tell which ones are coming from a good place even if the result is a little clumsy.

[sweet_heloise]

Yeah, it depends on the subject matter but even with YA or romance novels, you have people like Rainbow Rowell who wrote an Asian love interest and it just came across super racist. I've read plenty of romance novels with black characters where the white author describes their skin tone in a very strange and fetishising manner. White authors need to put in more effort like researching the cultural backgrounds of the people they're writing about. And not being racist.

[musicnkisses]

Yeah, in these cases I like the idea of sensitivity readers. It sounds like the best way to make sure minority representation in white written novels isn’t fetishizing and demeaning without jumping to the conclusion that the story shouldn’t have minorities.

[chocolatebird]

imo it's really two sides of one coin. Asking for white authors to refrain from using experiences and voices that belong to/stem from people of color for their protagonists without also ensuring-not asking, ensuring-that own voices books are picked up at an equal, representative rate would be a failure, due to the inherent racism in the system.

I still think that the initial request is the right thing to do, but the work has to be done to make publishing more equitable for it to have a real effect.

[vintage_boom]

this is exactly how I read the initial statement and I agree with it completely. If white people can't be trusted to handle non-white POVs they shouldn't be writing them until a time that they can.

the author who was dismissed was kind of telling on herself and the whole industry to assume that if white authors can't writing non-white povs it means no non-white povs will be published.

[chocolatebird]

100% - we all know how the industry works. It's not a meritocracy and it doesn't work in everyone's favor. we have to balance it out somehow.

[justyourfaceha]

I agree with you as well.

I think if you're writing about a POC character as a white person and race is at the centre of this character's story, then you better do your research and make your character as authentic as possible. Having POC read your story (like the author above suggested) is also a good idea. I also get the argument against it. Let's take The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas. No white person could have written this story period. I would not have wanted to read this book if it were written by a white author.

Now, you can also have a character who is a POC and their race has nothing to do with the story. I don't see what's wrong with this? I'm not only surrounded by white people, so why should novels written by white people only include an all white cast?

I understand and agree that a story about race will be most authentic coming from someone who's lived it, but white authors should be inclusive imo. Wouldn't that help move things along in the right direction?