Dear Minorities of Tumblr
Hopefully this is the right title. This is something I have been thinking about for a while. This is also going to be pretty long and if you can hold on for the whole thing it would be appreciated. I want to preface this by saying this is coming from a POC writer and my goal in this is to create a place where minorities can share what we want to see in the media we consume. If this interests you, keep reading. I really feel this is important so I will add tags that wouldn’t especially be related, but are semi connected based on what I have read under them.
Every year, representation gets better and better. People get more willing to share stories (or are allowed to) about minorities. These consist of characters that are diverse, ethnically, racially, religiously, or disabled/handicapped or LGBTQIA+. Basically, straying away from the norm Hollywood has provided to us. There are more characters like us. However, it isn’t perfect. This isn’t really nitpicking, but sometimes representation can be lackluster, for lack of a better word. Representation that is used for the sake of jokes or to earn brownie points. There are two types of representation I would define this under.
The first is stereotypical representation. By this I mean the dreaded “representation” that is characters chalk full of stereotypes. Characters like this do more harm than good. Characters that give people a bad impression of what types of people are actually like. Characters that are treated badly, however this treatment is hidden behind the word “comedy.” A lot of shows kids in the 2000s-2010s grew up with were filled with this. A Youtuber I watch a lot who is also on Tumblr, @harriyanna, has a lot of videos calling attention to this (which are very good might I add). An example of this I think of a lot is in the Disney Channel show Jessie. One of the kids, Ravi, was of Indian descent. The other characters in the show, even his own family, would constantly make jokes pertaining to his culture and accent. Even as a little kid, all of these jokes rubbed me the wrong way. I didn’t find them funny and I couldn’t understand why. Years later I figured out why. The show was trying to paint him as weird and undesirable just because of where he came from. I can only imagine how horrible that made people like him feel. Too many shows have done this to minority characters and have ingrained these ideas into people. In fact, writing this out, “lackluster” is far too weak a word for this.
The second type of representation I can only really describe as “a norm person painted as a minority.” I usually see this with POC, so I’ll describe it with that term. This would be like a POC that doesn’t show any traits of their culture. Not all minorities are fully involved in their cultures, this is not what I am talking about. These are characters that wouldn’t change at all if they weren’t POC. Regardless of how involved a POC is in their culture, they will always have experiences, traits, and knowledge they would not have if they weren’t POC or were part of a different culture. Without these aspects, a character kind of falls flat with representation.
Representation has a large impact on the way people see each other. If a person sees a type of person portrayed in a certain way constantly, they start to believe and expect it in real life. This is why good representation is important. It shows people less as caricatures and makes characters feel more alive. Now, where am I going with this?
A while ago I was doing research for a story I was writing when I came across a blog in the search results (this was before I got Tumblr). It was called Writing With Color. I’d imagine a good amount of people have heard of it. That day I looked through it for a couple of hours. I never knew something like this existed. It’s run by a diverse group of mods who give advice to writers who want to include good representation of ethnic, religious, and racial diversity in their stories. You can tell they put a lot of thought into the advice they give. @writingwithcolor is one of my favorite blogs on this site so if you haven’t heard of them I highly suggest you check them out.
What I want to call attention to is this post I found on their blog:
https://writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/post/621394779234861056/i-was-wondering-what-kind-of-female-black
This post has stuck with me for a while. It’s a long list of the type of black girls black girls want to see. Reading through it for the first time slapped me across the face in a good way. It was the physical representation of something lingering in the back of my head. It brought it forward and put these jumbled thoughts into words. Why is representation important?
From a young age, I knew I wanted to be a writer. As a writer, I wanted to be able to do one thing: share stories that would make people happy. This post made me clearly realize one of the best and most important ways to make people happy with my writing was to tell their stories.
Fact: good representation brings indescribable joy. I remember watching the Disney/Pixar movie “Coco” and trying to hide the huge grin I had on my face as a Mexican-American. It felt like watching my own family. It felt real. It felt relatable. At that point, I was used to the only representation of Mexican culture being someone having a quinceañera, which is lackluster when you think of everything else they could show. After that movie, I wanted everyone to feel that way, to have a story that perfectly captures a very important part of their life. It took me a while to realize I had the power to create at least one of those stories.
Now is time for what my English teachers refer to as “a call to action.” I personally have questions I don’t really have places to get answered. This site is filled with diversity. My idea was that we could share our ideas and experiences in hopes that we can take a step towards better representation. Story writers can look at this and take it to heart. If you fall under one or more of the aforementioned labels, I would love to hear your responses. Also, please include your labels if you are comfortable with that. Feel free to answer both or just one.
I have two major topics to inquire about:
First question is what kind of role would you like to see characters like you in? You can model your answers like the post above as this question is inspired by it. What kind of personalities do you want them to have? What part in the story do you want them to play? Any unique abilities or relationships you want them to have? Go as far as you want with this. Also feel free to mention positions you wouldn’t want to see them in or are tired of seeing, as this could go both ways.
The second is what are the more casual things you experience in your life in relation to being a minority? This includes things such as the food you eat, the way you dress, things you say, any unique self-care practices, or everyday struggles. The things that if you saw a character doing would make you go “Hey, I do that!”
I’m not sure who’ll actually read this, but I really hope this post helps.
So if you actually made it to the end, I applaud you for reading through my chaos. Thank you!