Writing thoughts under the cut, on the intersection of race and the topics I like to address, because Iâm sleepy and Iâve been thinking about this for ages.
This is deeply, deeply rambling, sorry about that.
I chattered briefly about the fact I donât write white characters in a chat a few days ago, and this is an unfortunate statement in a lot of ways! Like, arguably, I should diversify my writing portfolio and include white cast members, but - Iâm not writing for money, Iâm not writing for anyone but myself, and I am more interested, given I write primarily in the context of roleplaying, in ensuring a certain amount of ethnic diversity in my particular sphere.
There is lits no loss if Iâm not writing white characters, when a majority of people are, and founding my particular section of the sandbox in an explicitly multiracial environment satisfies me on multiple levels.
But it occasionally hits weird spots when it overlaps with themes that Iâm interested in, I suppose? Discrimination and agency are themes are constantly things that Iâm eyeing up. The fact that thirty years ago, my dad still found a bar with a âNO COLOUREDâ sign âjokinglyâ up by the front door, and my mother lived in a town where everyone referred to a suburb as âNegrovilleâ is horrifying and fascinating at the same time, as is the way that overt discrimination like that shapes peoples lives - when youâre in a society that punishes you for factors that you canât control, how does that affect your behaviours? How does that shape you as a person? Do you try to control the factors, and lean into something society thinks is respectable? Do you lash out?
And, regardless of the answer, how much agency are you actually retaining? Youâre conforming or youâre rejecting, but either way, youâre being actively shaped. What does that mean, for the characters? Whatâs the difference when the pressure is subtle (societal) or itâs overt (institutional)?
And how does the perceived ethnicity of the characters overlap with that?
All of my characters are technically multiracial! The area that I made up for the setting and that my characters originate from is a rough blur of South Indian/Egyptian/Singaporean influences, in an area thatâs been colonised by a French blend. But, also: Iâm mixed, all of my characters are of black descent as a result, because thatâs just my default, and it affects their design and the way I write them. Theyâre all fucking aliens, so human ethnicity doesnât really play much of a part in their anything, but - coding is a thing, intentional or otherwise, and the authorâs defaults always affect the way characters are written, even when Iâm actively keeping an eye on it.
But admittedly - I donât write white characters, but sometimes I wonder if my narratives would work better if I did? Iâm always trying to keep an eye on stereotypes for whatever ethnicity the characterâs most likely to be taken as, and for their sexualities / genders, but âagency themesâ and âminority charactersâ always feel like a little bit of a minefield to navigate. Being able to say âall of my characters are ethnic and would not pass the paperbag testâ does not actually stop you from engaging in harmful stereotypes or behaviours.
And set characters always just make me pause, consider, and nudge at them thoughtfully about, like.. huh, maybe I shouldâve made them white.
Current headtilting:
I have an organisation thatâs set up as a parallel to residential schools, and historical eugenics programs, both in North America and in Australia. Their thing is that they pick up children, they raise them up as servants, and those individuals run the issue that - for the rest of their lives, generally speaking - theyâre viewed as wards of the states.
Theyâre married off, theyâre assigned jobs, theyâre arguably better off than their peers, but everything about their life is decided for them, and theyâre told they should be grateful that itâs given to them. In terms of the overarching âwhat is agency, and how does ti affect you?â themes I write about, it offers up the question: okay, do you have agency if you can make some of your own choices?
Is it worth leaving this safety, this system, if youâll actually be free, or is it better to be kept as essentially a child for the rest of your life?
One of my characters killed people in a bid to fake his own death and escape. He succeeded! His plot that just wrapped up last month or so was the fact his ruse failed, he was brought back into the organisation, and he decides itâs worth literally anything to just fucking escape. And his situation is meant to parallel arranged marriages - heâs a runaway bride being brought back to the husband he escaped from, and his big, pre-canon decision was âdo I want to stay safe, but essentially property, or do I want to be free, and possibly dead?â.
But, when a characterâs partially black-coded, whereâs that thin line between âan unwilling groom is returned to his husbandâ and âthis is a slave being returned to a master?â Oneâs interesting to me. The other is squicky.
The other character I have in the organisation is someone whoâs completely gung-ho. Theyâve heard all the debates. Theyâve heard all the dogma, and theyâve bought into it, 150%: theyâre better than the common man because of the organisation, and if they werenât in it, theyâd be useless. And their arc has been that theyâre slowly realising, oh, this isnât healthy, and this isnât right, and this isnât how they necessarily want to live.
Bu~ut, when a characterâs partially black-coded, is it ever in good taste to have them arguing for the boot that stands on their neck, basically? Would it be better to have both of those characters as white, neatly skirting the issue of that entirely through exploiting the âwhite as a neutral defaultâ views that most readers have been trained to adopt?
I dunno! I think itâs all fine, honestly - if your cast is large, and a variety of views are always represented, itâs not necessarily an issue to address themes, even ones that could very easily be problematic. If the narrative is explicit in condemning the shitty attitudes and actions of the characters, and these characters are not the only representation of their ethnicity or their labels - I like tackling topics that I donât think will be portrayed otherwise, and I think itâs important to do so.
Hopefully well. But maybe not, which is why I think itâs important to acknowledge there can be alternative views of your material, too?
I think my characters are fine, personally speaking, but other people might not! Iâve been writing half of my long-haul drabbles lately with an eye towards the fact these topics are irreconcilably terrible ones, and I think theyâre important to write, but others might not. And if thatâs the case: what could be changed, and should it?
