HOW TO WRITE BLACK CHARACTERS
1. Write them. Simple. Don’t attempt to focus on one dynamic of what YOU think black characters are or what you’ve been told by a tumblr post. Black people, in general, are not a monolith. We’re diverse. We’ve experienced similar experiences. We’ve experienced different experiences. Some of us grew up sheltered, some of us have not seen explicit racism in our daily lives. Some of us have, some of us have been through it. Some are children of immigrants, some are not. Some of us grew up in affluent families, some of us have not. We’re allowed to be sad, angry, upset, whatever emotions on the spectrum of human emotions we all go through. I don’t care. Your Black characters are allowed to express an array of emotions, just like your white ones.
Black people don’t even speak the same. AAVE comes with regional variations. What does that mean? Black characters from Georgia will not speak like Black characters from California. Who won’t speak like Black characters from London. Etc! Write dialogue and stop googling “Black slang” or whatever I know ya’ll be doing.
Stop trying to focus your characters on “How to be Black” manuals. Just learn how to develop your fucking characters properly. No amount of research will ever give you the full experience of what it is to be a Black person. Period. I don’t care how many PSAs tell you to “do your research” or whatever post circulating around for notes. You’ll never truly understand – you think you can, but you won’t. Therefore, you should first, focus on writing and developing an amazing, brilliant, multi-dimensional character. With a personality!
Literally if you attempt to write a Black character and it’s just — likes: protesting, dislikes: racism. Middle name is Woke. You’re probably writing a shitty character, you’re writing a caricature of what you think Black empowerment should be and you’re trying to overcompensate for the lack of depth. Simply put. Don’t write caricatures. Write characters. Shut up and write good characters. Please. Thank you.
2. Don’t use the n-word if you’re non-black. Simple. This ain’t a game.
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