Writing and race

[bubosquared]

I've been thinking lately about if/how to write about a minority I'm not part of. Specifically, about me, as a white girl, writing about non-white characters. This could apply both to fanfic and non-fanfic, but I'm mostly thinking about the latter, because in fanfic, if the canon glosses over certain aspects of racial differences, for example, it's easy enough to follow its lead and not bring that up in fanfic.

But when I'm creating my own canon, that's a decision I actually have to make, and it's one that keeps making me wibble like there's no tomorrow. On the one hand, I don't want to write "colourblind", but on the other hand, I also don't want to fuck up if I do write about the more touchy subjects.

(And that's not even mentioning the "How the fuck do you show-not-tell race?" issue, which is something else I wrestle with, and augh.)

So, yeah. Thoughts? Opinions? Pointers? Swats upside the head? Anything? Like I said, this is mostly a non-fanfic thing, but opinions pertaining to fanfic arealso welcome, as I do write non-white characters in fanfic as well. *vague handwave at Lee and Mickey* (This is not a crossover bunny!)

Comments

[sweetle.livejournal.com]

I don't know I've you've read anything by Neil Gaiman? His latest book, Anansi Boys, is about primarily non-white characters, but the way he handles it is so subtle that I kind of kept forgetting it while I was reading. I'm sure there's some discussion of it on his blog (http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/), although of course I couldn't find anything when I went to look just now, apart from a link to this post on someone else's LJ (http://nhw.livejournal.com/557151.html).

Anyway. Not a topic I've got a lot of experience with, but this was the first thing that came into my head, and I thought it was interesting. *shrugs*

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

Neil was rec'ed in the second link troubleinchina mentioned up there as someone who does it well, so I may have to check AB out. (Oh woe, etc. Heh.)

I'm not sure if I'd want people to forget/not notice some of my characters are nonwhite, though, although I suppose it's unavoidable in some ways. *ponders*

[troubleinchina.livejournal.com]

I must admit, I never notice that Angelina is black, until later. Or Lavender, I guess, although I'm not sure what race she is. I think it goes into that same thing about Joss - colour blind instead of acknolwedging that you've got a person who isn't white. Cho Chang is only known as oriental because of her name, same with Padma.

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

And even with Cho and Padma, there were people who actually didn't realise until the movies that they were asian and Indian. Granted, you can't really cater for a minority of morons, but still. (Oh, HP fandom, so cute, yet so dumb.)

[troubleinchina.livejournal.com]

I've dated cute but dumb guys. ;) Sorry, random comment, I'm overcaffinated.

I think that discussion linked about Anansi Boys makes an interesting point - we all have our 'default normal'. For us, it's White, and unless someone says "not white", we don't notice. It's not racisim so much as the belief unless told otherwise, people are like us.

[sweetle.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if I'd want people to forget/not notice some of my characters are nonwhite, though, although I suppose it's unavoidable in some ways.

Yeah...I saw it as a problem with me as a reader, though, as much as anything, because my "default" view of characters when I'm reading is usually that they're white unless it explicitly says otherwise (which I realize is stupid, but I can't seem to get rid of it entirely). And in the case of Anansi Boys, it certainly does say otherwise, it just doesn't beat you over the head with it.

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's part of the whole "white = default" thing, and I know I do it myself, too, and it annoys me when i catch myself. :/