Hi there! I read your post about white male authors writing black women characters, and I realized that in my writing, I’m probably writing similar stereotypes. If it’s not too much trouble, what should I avoid when writing poc characters?
(it’s characters of color, not poc characters)
well i can’t cover the entire spectrum of races and faces but here’s a few broad rules for writing poc, and not just what to avoid
1. try not to torture your characters of color, it happens a lot and we’re all tired
2. let them find love! please! and let them find love with each other!
3. have more than two people of color please, we don’t wanna get all hype just to find out we’re the token AGAIN
4. people of color are people, and we’re not a monolith. black people don’t all talk, act, walk, or dance the same. we are not all one thing. same with asian people and latinx people, etc. some of us are goth
5. if the only poc in your work are aggressive or antagonistic or sexual or side characters, FIX THAT
6. do research on your own. we’re not brown google. there are tons of blogs on tumblr dedicated to writing people of color correctly
7. talk to people of color, we’re nice, we don’t bite
8. don’t write men of color as being hypermasculine or sexually perverse, it’s not 1870 anymore
9. speaking of 1870, we were around back then, and not all of us were servants. Please Stop Writing Us That Way
10. if your only black character is a cop, FIX THAT
11. if you’re writing a black woman, we (black women) would appreciate y’all trying to understand how our hair works
12. ask yourself, how does this character relate to their race? they don’t have to have ‘black lives matter’ tattooed on their forehead but every person of color has thought about what it’s like to be a person of color. it’s just life
13. LET YOUR CHARACTERS OF COLOR HAVE FRIENDS OF COLOR!!! PLEASE!!! every time that one black kid in the ya novel straight up doesn’t have black friends i wanna cry!!! PLEASE!!!
14. if you can avoid killing your character of color, do it. if not, don’t make their death more brutal than everyone else’s
15. give them a backstory!
16. let them be vulnerable!
17. no one wants to read about us forgiving or saving nazis/klansmen/racists and making them our goddamn friends. i know that doesn’t feel like it’s a problem, but it is! threebillboardsoutsideofebbingmissouri
18. make us the protagonist sometimes. let us be princesses and mermaids. let us ride dragons. let us do what white people in novels always get to do. please
19. i’m so tired
20. this is gonna be my last one, because i want it to be, but it’s important. you know when you’re watching something and it’s like a white person goes somewhere for help and there’s a black woman or black gay man working behind a counter/desk and they’re lazy and unhelpful? yeah, Don’t Do That Anymore
