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[squeemu]

Does anyone know of any good Native American blogs that deal with... well, with racism or other social issues? Or, hell, just "here is my life and I sometimes talk about how being Native American factors into that?" I tried googling it and didn't come up with much. D

Comments

[mewsrissicat]

Here's some places to start, just off the cuff

[squeemu]

Oh my gosh, thank you so much! I have to admit, this isn't for scholarly research and is instead for, uh, an original character that has been lurking around my brain for the past month. I'm really wary about writing her, since it's for a culture I am not at all versed in - hell, I don't even know what tribe she's from, although it's somewhere Pacific Northwest. My only comfort is that it's from the Shadowrun universe and "AmerIndians" (the generic Native American name from Shadowrun) have basically been given their own, actual, self-run country.

Still, I don't want to be That White Person.

Anyway! Thank you again for the links! <3 (I did see that ask.metafilter page and couldn't figure out how to get to the links I wanted to get to. D:)

ETA: I know Shadowrun didn't coin the term AmerIndian, it's just that I don't - know how that phrase is used in the real world? And don't want to accidentally be offensive or ignorant.

[mewsrissicat]

No matter what you do - someone will criticize it. Write a book with a non-white character (main POV or not), and you'll be accused of not writing them realistically, or of usurping their ethnicity.

Don't include anyone and you'll be accused of making minorities invisible or whitewashing history. It's a real no-win situation.

Best you can do is what you're doing. Read the blogs of people who live that life, get a feel for their daily rhythms and concerns. See what frustrates them. The internet gives us a unique ability to spy into the lives of strangers. Then jsut do your best.

[velithya]

The Two Spirit stuff is really interesting!

[thorne_scratch]

I ended up reading "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fightfight In Heaven" in college, and it was one of my few books that semester I didn't sell back. I rec it! (Though it does have a lot of damaged people in it. I think Sherman Alexie revisits that theme a lot. But, I mean, the title's pretty awesome.)

I am no help on the bogs, but I see Rissi has everything nicely covered. And I sympathize; I have a character and story idea I want to write that's all about a multi-generation Mexican family, and I am just at sea on where I could begin. I think it is one of those stories that will just have to wait until I am a smarter and more well-researched person.

[squeemu]

My library didn't have that one! It's one I would like to read, though, I've heard good things about it. And I really, really liked his poem, " Crow Testament."

I am really torn about writing stories that feature non-white people! On the one hand, I think it is awesome and more stories need to be about, you know, people who aren't just white. On the other hand, I feel supremely unqualified to write them. If you ever start writing your story, I totally want to read it! I am all for multi-generational Mexican families. <3

[soranokumo]

Rissi pretty much found a number of resources for you, including the bits about twospirits, so I guess I don't have to give them to you. XD

I have been thinking a lot about Indians, too, but that's also because I have Indian blood from both sides of my family. I have relatives out in Oklahoma I didn't even know about until a few years ago. I've never been too interested in my family's genealogy (after all, most of what I'd heard was from the European side of things) until now.

Anyway, hon--there's a lot to be aware of if you're tackling a character of any other culture, but you're definitely going about it the right way, and doing your best trying to be aware of who you are and how your perceptions might influence how you portray that character. Those are powerful things to know, right there.

And, if we didn't let our personal backgrounds influence our writing to some extent anyway, our writing would be less than honest.

TL;DR: Go for it!

[velithya]

I know absolutely nothing about any of this! Sorry!