With white writers writing more diverse characters, could we face a situation where the white writer with a diverse cast is seen as more diverse / given preference over a minority writer who choses to write a white cast?
This question has been bothering me since a friend posted it.
Diversity of characters and diversity of authors are separate things, but they overlap. Minority writers are often pressured to write only minority stories. Usually couched in the terms of advice or well-meaning criticism like, “Aw, I was hoping this would be another of your great [insert marginalization] pieces.”
I have a POC writer friend who lamented about wanting to write about the white suburban kids who filled much of the media that she consumed as a child. The same stories that made me feel angry and ashamed because my life didn’t match, even if my skin tone did. Stories written with an audience in mind that was neither of us. I digress, but it’s a point that everyone has valid reasons for wanting to write what they want to write.
Way back during the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes had to deal with patrons wanting him to only write “primitive” poetry. It’s an ugly white privilege to demand minorities perform their ethnicity for us.
Conversely, I’ve heard aspiring white writers whine that they “Have” to write diverse casts, even if they aren’t comfortable doing so.
Oh dear.
For me, writing diverse characters reflects the reality I live in, but if you live in an all-white suburb with all-white friends, that pressure to write people you have no contact with seems… dangerous. Because it’s much harder to write about things you haven’t experienced, and research can only do so much.
It invites error.
As a white writer, I worry about overstepping my boundaries when I write non-white characters. And I do it a lot. I’m super guilty of it. And I have anxiety attacks about it shortly before and after clicking ‘submit.’
“South of the Waffle House” features a POC narrator. “A Place to Stand On” has a cast of only Mexican characters. “The Seventh Street Matriarchy” has a black main character. Is there a word for this? I have sold non-own-voices stories. [let’s shorten that to “non-voices” yeah.] No one has directly criticized me for this or subtly hinted that it’s my duty to focus on “my people.” Part of that is that “my people” are hella represented already in all forms of media. (And I could digress about class identity here, too. You know I want to. My minority characters are “my people” when it comes to class … ok so anyway… )
I see articles and memes and jokes slamming non-voices writers and I feel that pressure. I am the bunny singing the song of the frogs. Am I directly competing against own voices with my work? Should I stay in my lane? I’ve actually withdrawn stories from consideration after exactly this panic attack.
But the fact remains: I have sold these stories. Also, for the white newbie lamenting the ‘need’ for diverse casts: The great majority of my published fiction features white characters and I have never heard a peep of complaint that those stories weren’t diverse.
So how does my success compare to the success of a POC writing non-voice work?
I don’t have an answer.
If there is pressure on white writers to write, say, Asian characters, and pressure on Asian writers to write ONLY Asian characters… that’s a problem.
For myself, I’ll try to point out to others when they contribute to this pressure, and not do any of it myself.
