On Writing Race

[whipchick]

So I wrote this.

And got a great question from similiesslip:

I find your perspective very interesting. I may be taking this too far but I truly would like to understand... Do you feel you have the right to invent stories only about those of your own nationality?The following is also in the comments on that piece, but I'd love to hear from the flist (and

Comments

[xo_kizzy_xo]

My piece was discovering native history in my own backyard then finding either many discrepancies or nothing at all in my research :)

I see your writing of late as more in the creative nonfiction sense, in that you take a RL slice of life and form a narrative around it. I treasure that kind of narrative because it not only introduces me/the reader to something I/the reader may know little to nothing about, it it also gives a voice to whatever that RL slice of life is.

[whipchick]

I have to say I love slice of life stuff - I love getting to look up facts and figure out how to connect them to a narrative. Dick Francis wrote a ton of mysteries, all related to horse-racing, but each from a different perspective - one hero was a glassblower, one a caterer, one a wine-merchant, etc. I loved that every book let me learn about a new world.

[xo_kizzy_xo]

I've heard of him, but I've never read him. I'm going to look him up the next time I'm at the library :)

I love slice of life stuff too. Everybody has a story, but not everybody can relate it to a larger audience. That where writers come in :)

[whipchick]

He's great! Avoid the two most recent books co-written by his son, they aren't as good :)

[similiesslip]

I'm going to keep thinking about this.

I appreciate you explaining it in more detail though.

I guess .. my first reaction was .. if that was how you feel, then I would be extremely limited in what I would be "allowed" to write as my experiences are so small. So my initial reaction was disappointment.

But in reading your wider explanation, I guess I never thought as much as I should have about ... the role of responsibility in the depicting other people, even fictional people.

So, that is something I need to think more about in my own writing. I'm disappointed that I have been so...casual about it.

I guess I somewhat viewed writing as "an escape" for me which is selfish. I never thought much about the responsibility side of fiction. I know one needs to portray accurately if writing for publication. I just never applied the same principles to my Idol entries.

But the more I think about what you wrote, maybe I should.

[whipchick]

Viewing writing as an escape is totally valid and legit, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise

[mzrowan]

I very much liked the previous piece and this one. The amount of thought you put into this is, sadly, commendable. I say "sadly" because in an ideal world, everyone would put that much thought into how their culture, experience, and privilege intersect with and influence what they write.

Another thought I've had about this for some time: it seems like there's a bit of a catch-22 in the current moment, in that most published writers are still white, so if they demur on writing non-white characters, then there's a huge lack of diversity (as there has been down through the ages) in the stories told and the characters who populate them. I guess what I'm saying is that the world needs more writers like you right now. ;-)

[whipchick]

Thanks :)

And yeah - that's such a huge issue! It's a cycle that's hard to break - young people of color or of different cultural backgrounds don't see characters they identify with, so books are not as interesting to them, so they don't get to the point where they want to make their own books.

I'm working on it :)

[kathrynrose]

I'm a white woman, raised in the South, (hah, notice I capitalized "South," yeah. okie dokie then) so racism is a thing I think about all the time. And I can think myself into a knot about it. I don't expect to have a magic answer any time soon

[whipchick]

Yes. Yes. Yes.

And I think one of the things we overlook is the level of loudness of the voices of the privileged. Not because we're mean ol' racists, but because our voices are amplified by the culture around us, and we don't even know it.

"So in that situation I felt like people I knew and cared about were being misrepresented and my culture and history was being written wrong."

And it's amazing how much that matters. And how often it happens to people outside the majority.

And yes, it's very hard to have the conversation without it feeling personal.

[clauderainsrm]

Since I don't comment on contestant entries - or try not to - this gives me a good place to give you the FULL request of what was simplified as "Write about Indians":

"And I think it would be fascinating to ask people to write about Indians -- without specifying anything else -- because there's so many options, and different ways people could look at the topic."

Confronting cultural stereotypes and people's perceptions were inherently a part of the exercise.

[whipchick]

Love it! The suggester has definitely succeeded :) And it's nice to know more about the context they were coming from, and that it's a wonderful, literary provocation rather than thoughtlessness or racism.

[clauderainsrm]

Did anyone *seriously* think that I would have used it if the intent wasn't obviously to explore and provoke?

Yes, people submit the topics. But I choose which ones to use out of the stack. Had that tag *not* been included, it definitely wouldn't have been used. But I also think it would have been leading had I included it in the context of the topic post.

After all, you don't want to point out the landmines. It's far more entertaining to put a puppy on the other side of the empty field and see who runs to get it! :)

[whipchick]

Agree on all counts :)

Also, have you read any Christopher Brookmyre? Because I think I have to send you some. Puppies and land mines.