OK so i was just thinking about the massive rise of POC in YA books*applause* which is great, and i was also thinking about how i find it annoying when authors describe a character by first and foremost stating their race, e.g. a small Indian man, a tall black girl etc, etc, but then I realised: thats not whats irritating. There's nothing racist about describing someone using their race, as long as you don't then rely on stereotypes for the rest of the characters description, or make it their only defining feature. Whats irritating is that the only time ive ever seen a character described as white right off the bat( excluding "she was pale with shock", or something like that) is in a missing persons report in a murder mystery book or similar. And that is because, in an upsettingly large number of media texts, white is seen as the default race or skin colour, so authors literally HAVE to describe a characters race straight away, or people will literally assume they're white. Now, I'm white, and I don't claim to know a huge amount about racism, or oppression, or the politics surrounding either subject. Maybe i only assume characters are white because of my own skin colour, but i still think what i say is kinda true, at least about the "no character being described as white" thing. I mean, for all i know, literally no one else is offended or annoyed by this, but i just thought id make a post about it, albeit a very long one(sorry), and see what other peoples opinions are. So, thoughts?
