Writing thoughts and white invisibility

[valarltd]

The fish is unaware of the water.

I find this is true for writing as well. I write white characters as ordinary people. Even when they are extraordinary: super geniuses, assassins, politicians, artists, werewolves, demons, the Devil himself. Growing up in the area I did, my default value for "human" is "white male." And I know, I know, I'm working on that. It's only been in the last year I've even tried writing anything other than white people.

OTOH, when I start dealing with Characters of Color, regardless of the color, I get tangled up.

When I write Akino, am I slipping into Fangirl Japanese as she teaches Nick a few basic pleasantries (taken directly from Bun's Japanese study book)? Am I perpetrating the Inscrutible Oriental stereotype by having her be calm and meditative and a complete schemer, in addition to being both ninja and geisha?

When I write Steven, am I going for the Magical Negro stereotype or the violent thug one? I've tried to make him interesting and three dimensional: a man loving a woman who does not love him, beloved of a man he loves but cannot desire. A Zen master to control his ferocious temper. He's a big caretaking cuddlebum stuck in a cut-rate version of Othello. In the pirate universe, I made him the loyal quartermaster of the ship, and later captain of his own.

By making Elena Esosa wise and ancient, the ruler of all Africa, am I making the black woman a sexless and non-sexual being? (Esosa, unlike the rest of the Eight, has refused to take the age-defying treatments. James, who is 80, looks 40. Elena looks her 90.)

Adrien has become Adlai for a 19th century pirate series. Now he has not only a white male lover, but has taken a wife of the "mixed blood." Marielena.

I wonder about writing them, because racism is so ingrained in that time period. Not all the characters are as enlightened as Capt. Collins (Adlai's lover). I try to keep it limited but wonder about putting any in, since it may be off-putting to modern readers. I mean, Gone with the Wind is less than a hundred years old and most readers find it virulently racist. In 1804, most blacks were still considered livestock, a mindset we find hard to swallow now.

Adlai was sold as a slave. He remained very conscious of this through the first novel, but was never subservient.

And my romance novels aren't meant to be a treatise on racism. They're meant to be romances. Boy meets boy, boy falls for boy. Boy marries girl and keeps other boy too. And that, too will offend. Although what we consider a gay identity is relatively modern, and before the mid-twentieth century, most gay men did marry women.


And then there's Chuck. He's fiercely independent, hard working and hates the prejudice he faces because of his ancestry. I worry that I've made him "too white"--just a ground-bound Han Solo type--but I also worry that having him observe his father's people's religion would be out of character. (He doesn't seem to have too much faith in anything except himself and his truck)


I'm of the opinion that as long as the characters' actions are logical for their personality the story will work. I just worry about whitewashing my characters of color, or, consversely, turning them into stereotypes.

For those wanting a sample, there is a fair bit of Adlai in yesterday's posts.

Comments

[reannon.livejournal.com]

Interesting thoughts, and if you don't mind, I'd like to link to this and send my denizens here to comment. Let me know and I'll wait till I hear before I link.

Hilariously, I've faced the same dilemma, but not so much with race. I find it daunting to write gay characters. I have on occasion as tertiary characters, but I don't like the way I do it. It's extremely difficult for me to write a gay character who isn't a flaming stereotype ala Nathan Lane in THE BIRDCAGE, but without butching him/her up to the point that s/he isn't really gay anymore, It's not like I lack access to gays, lesbians and bisexuals in my real life, so I don't know why I have this trouble.

In the third (as yet unwritten) book of the SANCTUARY series, there's a character who is gay and very much a major character, including a love life. I don't know how to write it yet. Fortunately, I'm three books, a contract and a miracle away from having to worry about it. :)

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Oh please do send the denizens...

(and please, do holler at me at some point, Re: Ellora. I leave out tomorrow and the story is due by Friday)

[reannon.livejournal.com]

Yell at me tonight by email or AIM (elizabethdonald) so I don't forget.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I'm asparrow16

[kadath.livejournal.com]

In my contemplated-but-not-begun future history novel, "race" is a function of planet of birth, not skin color. I have no idea how to check yourself for subconscious stereotyping in a setting that has real-world baggage but doesn't want to explore said baggage. And I suspect the effort to do so would make you start running in circles. O_o

I think you're ahead of the game by even considering it, though. Just be careful not to force any PoC friends into the position of assuaging your White Guilt. ;)

[(Anonymous)]

Horrible to say, but I have no PoC friends. Some LJ friends, yah, but none in real life.

Then again, IRL, I have almost no white friends either--at least that I haven't met on the net. I've been too busy just surviving to socialize.


We'll explore some of the baggage, but it's not meant to be "The Compleat and Fynal study on Race in the Early Nineteenth Century Barbados and Barbary."

And not even my good guys are saints.
Nathaniel Collins may be open-minded on black folks, but he hates Muslims, and he's leery of native Caribbean islanders (heard too many stories about Caribs eating people, and Arawak butcher shops where young girls are sold in joints).

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Darn it. I didn't realize I wasn't logged in.

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

I think you've raised some very valid points. It's hard to avoid stereotypes in general -- are all my older characters neuter, are all my mothers maternal, are all my villians surprisingly well educated? Throw race into the mix, and you add another layer of complication.

I think the first step is to be concious of what you're doing. Second is to let your character be your guide.

It's impossible to know how what we write now will be seen a generation or two down the road, much less one hundred years. I don't let myself think about that, as it would cripple me.

I think that there are cultural 'twinges', those shared beliefs or knowledge that someone in the culture just gets, without ever articulating it, that are impossible to capture in writing unless you yourself are of that culture or are very intimately acquainted with it. That's why I get a little weird about writing a culture I know nothing of at all -- race set aside, I'd have just as hard a time writing a story set in a large metropolitan city, for example, because I just don't know that world.

Not making any sense, but you've spurred a lot of great thinking for me. Thank you.

[(Anonymous)]

You made plenty of sense.

Also, since Steven and Akino and Elena are from the future (right now, Elena would be about 10 years old, Akino is about 3), I kind of have to worry about where race is going and how it changes and is perceived.

I know where you're coming from on the city thing. Each city has its own feel. Memphis is different from Little Rock. Both are different from Kansas City or St. Louis. I would hardly dare write something set in New York or Boston.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Me, sorry

[winterknight.livejournal.com]

I hear you! :) I research characters according to what I need to know about them - whether it's profession or race or religion or anything - and then I write them. I trust myself for the first draft and then I trust my friends/editor for the rest. Mind, I rarely right in an immediate-world setting. Still, I believe you are correct.

I have one character, an Aboriginal man, who I worry about because his religion/race is central to his character, so I contacted someone who's involved in Native American affairs and asked for advice on where to go for information on not presenting him as a stereotype. I got some great links and did some reading and will go carefully. I also decided that, given the genre (fantasy, superhero, etc), I would fabricate his tribe and faith from what I learned and discuss it directly with people, possibly students/professors of Aboriginal studies, when I'm done the first edit. I feel more comfortable with than than with exploiting something I can only half-understand. I would not do so if I were writing him in an immediate-world context.

I would do the same research if I were writing anyone else for whom something unfamiliar to me was at the core of their character and it needed to be realistic and respectful in an immediate-world context. Reading autobiographies or (blessed modern day!) blogs has been a big help for me, too. Universities can be a great source of help. Many professors or grad students are willing to meet up for a chat and they love to be heard and share what they know, or at least they know of resources the rest of us don't. But at the core, I think we all need to simply write, in the end. If we write well, we write well.

[winterknight.livejournal.com]

right=write. DUH. That's better than my usual typo, wrong=write. I'm Freud's whipping girl, yes I am.

[airycat.livejournal.com]

I came in from reannon's LJ. I believe that the reason there are stereotypes is because some people are exactly like that. The stereotyping comes when we take one known characteristic and assume the rest. I think the only way to avoid it is to get to know our characters very well and let them tell us who they are, what they are like. Then, if we really listen to them, we'll show them as individuals and either break the stereotype mold show it as more than "just" a stereotype.

[zorathenne.livejournal.com]

Here through reannon. Skimmed through your entry for the moment, as I have to run errands in a bit. Just putting it out there that if you need any type of.. Um.. I guess perspectives/viewpoints from a Black (mixed) Bi (if sexuality is relevant in any way) Female, I'm more than willing to help out in any capacity =).

The D-Man checks in

[(Anonymous)]

Practical experience and wisdom teaches that you cannot (and therefore arguably should not) write what you don't know, otherwise you do run the risk of entering into Sterotype Land, and then risk insulting people who actually are what your characters are pretending/supposed to be. I have heard this happens a lot what "straights" try to write "gays," because... They have no experience being gay, and therefore--not understanding the culture or the symantics of various acts (seductive or sexual)--they are fairly easy to spot as not knowing what they are doing just by how they write. Just because a writer is like a tree with branches stretching out to the sun does not mean you must branch out in every direction, especially since what you already do write is so good.

Re: The D-Man checks in

[eyeless-angel.livejournal.com]

I have to disagree with this one. I've never had anyone tell me thus far that my very sexual, lusty *male* characters are somehow written wrongly because I happen to be a celibate (and virginal, no less) female. Writing what you don't personally know is half research and half imagination. Writers are thankfully blessed with the second part by default. The first part depends on how much you actually want to work.

I personally like the research part. It's the writing itself that's the real work to me.

And as far as the offending part, I wouldn't worry about it. The offended party is only one opinion. For every one who feels offended by it, there may be one or more who think it's quite plausable and real.

Re: The D-Man checks in

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I STRONGLY disagree.

I don't know what it's like to fly a space ship, be in a boat bigger than a canoe, have sex with a demon, live under a theocracy, turn into a wolf on the full moon or make love to a Gorgon.

Yet, I've written all of them.

And gay men say I write convincing gay men. As opposed to my rather flat female characters.