#creator responsibility

The Kavernacle discusses the fact that a lot of prominent "breadtubers" not talking about the genocide in Gaza, with an especial focus on Contrapoints, PhilosophyTube, and Hbomberguy. There is also a general discussion of how "breadtube" has dropped in its influence and relevance since it began in the mid-2010s.

It’s inevitable. If you require any sensitivity readers, or if you are trying to get a general handle if your premise has a problem that can be spotted in the premise stage, you need to write a summary.

This summary differs from a book summary in that the goal isn’t to sell the story to a potential reader. It also can differ from any sort of general summary of events, because the events might not be that relevant to the actual question.

A summary for receiving help must include:

Any necessary objective descriptors such as the ethnicity, orientation, abled/well status, class, gender, etc

The specific plot/worldbuilding/character identity point you are asking about. Note the word specific. Questions like “what are the general microaggressions of [group/ demographic]?” are extremely difficult to answer, are googleable, and chances are have already been answered by the blog

Relevant backstory. Mentioning your chronically ill character was mistreated by doctors when their symptoms began showing up because they were “too young” for them is important. But going into gory detail over every single specialist and misdiagnosis is tedious to read through.

That’s it. If you include the relevant adjectives and setting/leadup, you’re done.

You should question including:

Favourite classes or current profession. Sometimes these things must be asked, because certain jobs and certain favourite classes have huge unfortunate implications. But unless those are the specific points you’re asking about, they’re unnecessary

Hobbies and fashion sense. Again, sometimes these things must be asked (“are there specific fashion considerations for wheelchair users who have some ability to walk/get in and out of their chair unassisted”) but if you’re just tossing them in to show how “well rounded” the character is, chuck ‘em.

Pet peeves and nicknames. Unless you’re discussing certain microaggressions in order to fully flesh out their identity and their relationship to it, we don’t need to know they hate being called a stereotypical nickname. And even then, if it ends up being something like “hates being called by [name of their most popular media representation]”… that’s a given in a lot of situations

These are things that sometimes relate to the plot, sometimes don’t. If you find yourself going “this is on my character sheet as a field, I should include it so they know everything” or “this is what I have used to prove the character is of x group”… cut it.

You generally don’t need to:

Describe every single situation ever. We rarely need to know that the character changed schools x times because something happened each time; just say it was multiple and move onto the relevant portion

Give more than one or two characters’ situations. Sometimes getting into sprawling relationship trees is necessary to get full understanding— but those situations are few and far between. If you’re asking, specifically, about a brother and sister who are away from home, the most we need to know is how their parents encouraged or discouraged the behaviour when they were children… and that can be a single sentence. 

Give the whole sociological landscape. If you’re asking about how classism and poverty intersect, this is something that the person you are asking (the person who has lived this) already knows, or they have friends who know

Explain the basic concepts you are using. Again, this is something the person you are asking will know (don’t ask how many questions I have read where a non-Native person has explained Native concepts to me. Or a non-Asian person explaining Asia. It’s a lot)

This category is broken down into 2 parts:

1- Ask about one thing at a time

2- The person you are asking is an expert

On point 1: It takes a very long time to generate an answer about questions that contain more than one plot point. You are, in essence, asking for a full beta service… for free. Respect their time and ask about a single chunk at once to keep the answering process smooth. If you have more questions later, ask them later. If you want your whole story done, pay them.

On point 2: If you have gone to a blog, especially a sensitivity reader/personal experience blog, and feel the compulsion to explain the basic concepts that are part of their world, you have just insulted their knowledge and placed yourself in the expert position. This leaves an extremely sour taste in the blog runner’s mouth, and lowers the chances of your question getting answered (and/or increases the chances of you receiving a callout instead of an answer) exponentially.

Trust us. We get a lot of asks. Every writing blog does. We know how to answer questions! But you have to be specific in what you’re asking for us to give you a good answer.

Anonymous asks:

The main character of my story is an eleven-year-old black-and-asian girl who’s just moved to a little hamlet in northern Scotland. The first two people she meets, a pair of siblings about her age who have never seen anyone with dark skin or hair that isn’t straight and blonde or red, are gobsmacked to see her. Everyone knows everyone in that hamlet and they all see each other as family, so the siblings have never had to learn how to greet a stranger. They immediately start poking and prodding her, and asking what in the world she did to her hair, her skin, her eyes, and she grumpily asks what they did to theirs. There’s no malice behind their poking and prodding, only curiosity, and after this scene, no one bothers her about what she looks like again. This sequence is played for laughs, but is this the kind of thing that’s okay to play for laughs? I also want to make sure I handle it as tactfully as possible. This scene is used to establish that my main character is very out-of-place in the hamlet, and to show that the siblings are extremely sheltered and ignorant about the wider world.

As is, the “joke” is not funny; it’s just ignorant 

I do not see the humor in mocking a Black and Asian girl for their very natural traits, that have a heavy weight of discrimination and systematic racism working against them already, both historically and very much currently. 

You also describe her as being “poked and prodded" by these white girls. That alone is obtrusive and dehumanizing, to have them touch her to assuage their own curiosity like she is an object. Is this meant to be part of the humor too? If so, it also does not land.

Your story would not feel like a safe space, at least not for me, and likely other readers, if you make humor out of othering a BIPOC’s common physical looks and traits. This comes across as racism from the author, no matter your light-hearted intent.

“…and she grumpily asks what they did to theirs.”

Your Blasian character’s mumbled comeback doesn’t hold equal weight when these girls do not have historical racialized prejudice against them for their hair, skin, and eyes, particularly in the setting of your story where these white people's hair, skin and eyes are the norm and deemed acceptable. 

Your Woman of Color is outnumbered here; besides possibly mild discomfort, this comment won’t leave these white girls feeling out of place when they have a nation of blond-haired, redheaded people to back up that they are the majority and the “normal” and she is the odd-one out. 

Unless the character takes it to their level with the comments and returns the evasion of personal space, this simply feels like she’s saying “I know you are, but what am I?” and that's enough correction to address their racism and dehumanization, intentional or not.

Race-based humor requires a delicate, expert touch

All that being said; a scene of surprise and humor related to her presence could take place, and it could even be “funny” without singling out the Character of Color as being the victim of a joke” for being Black and Asian. 

The success of your joke will depend on if it’s relatable to BIPOC, vs. it appearing as if you’re just making fun of our features, cultures and existence.

It should make us feel vindicated and satisfied with the outcome, vs. simply reminding us of the harm and othering people do/have done to us in similar situations.

There is a distinct difference between laughing with a joke and being laughed out: being the punchline of said joke. When the latter happens, I’d know I am in enemy territory and the book will be put down for good.

I wouldn’t trust what is next to come if this is the first impression we’re getting of how you’ll treat this character.

And it’s not about not being able to take a joke — we sure can! 

Humor is actually a key component in many Black communities (particularly American which is where my perspective comes from), a way to honor the good moments and to process trauma and ongoing harm. 

There’s also a distinct difference between laughing at ourselves and among common company vs. someone intruding in our spaces to make a joke at our expense. 

Comedic writing

Important note to any comedic writers: there are cases where some topics and moments will simply not be funny to most, especially coming from an outsider of the group.

(Notes on my experience: I am a HUGE comedy fan with a natural love for humor, consume comedic-material daily, and attend live comedic performances. My laughter can be heard across the nation.)

Comedians as research

Humor that pertains to race (and towards all marginalized communities, really) must punch up, not down, or it’s not really a joke. It is just thinly veiled racism/sexism/phobia, etc. This concept applies to all comedy and some comedians handle it well, while others (too many) fail. Time and place makes a major difference as well. 

For research, you could do the following:

Search examples of humor based on race, gender, religion etc. where audiences either loved it or condemned the comedian for it. This could give you a baseline on how it’s done well and when it lands poorly. You can learn a lot from both cases.

Read and watch people’s reactions and discourse of said jokes, particularly from the very people from those communities. (e.g., If the bad joke harmed or targeted Black women, give weight to their discourse over any other group. Period.)

Where to find these jokes and discourse

Search engine search

YouTube

Comedian social media pages

Instagram

TikTok

Facebook

Blogs

Streaming channels like Netflix

Jokes found within TV shows, particularly shows with more risque or blunt jokes that make identity-humor (The Office (US), Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Curb Your Enthusiasm, etc.)

And don’t forget to look at the comment sections.

Questions to ask yourself while researching:

Failed jokes/comedy towards marginalized groups

What did people [of the identity] find offensive about the joke(s)? 

Beyond obvious fails such as using slurs from outside the group or black/brown/yellowface, what aspects in their delivery made a joke fail, whether overt or more subtle aspects of it?

Did present or historical context affect the failure of the joke?

What was the aftermath or consequences from the joke and overall community reactions? 

Does the comedian’s background seem to contribute to the failure of the joke? (For example, having a history of picking on a certain group, their history of interactions with said group, documented history of racism, anti-xxx, sexism, assault, etc.)

Successful jokes/comedy towards marginalized groups

What did people [of the identity] find funny about the joke? 

What aspects in their delivery made a joke land, whether in overt or subtle ways?

Does present or historical context affect the success of the joke?

What was the aftermath from the joke and overall community reactions? 

Does the comedian’s background seem to contribute to the success of the joke? (For example, being an ally or having strong activism in the group, being connected to the group via partner, family or friendships, being of the same background, etc.)

Addressing the racism in story

As we’ve said before: if there are microaggressions/racism in your story, it should be corrected and addressed in the story. 

It should not be brushed off or used as humor with no commentary. 

From how you describe these girls, I'm curious if they're just crass children, or truly do not know it’s wrong to treat strangers like this. I’ve got a lot of nieces and nephews, and even the ones a little younger/around that age you mention would know better than to start touching people and making such comments. 

Of course, people are raised in different ways and cultures vary, so maybe this is realistic for them. 

Reactions (from my experiences) of someone talking/interacting with BIPOC for the first time

Staring unyieldingly with open curiosity (sometimes expressionless, sometimes with a smile, rarely have I seen over the top fear or panicked reactions, but they could happen?)

Blunt compliments, observations and questions (e.g., She was dark and she was beautiful! The lady with beautiful dark skin! He had big hair!)

An excessive amount of comments and questions to the point of feeling invasive or like a dissection 

Asking why their skin/hair/eyes are how they are (e.g., why is your skin dark? Why is my skin light and your skin is dark?)

Comparing darker skin to things they’re familiar with like chocolate and night skies (obviously not greatttt, but is just a common comparison children might make, again from what I've observed)

Referring to brown skin as being painted

Asking if they are dark because they spent too much time in the sun

Giving them a nickname based on their appearance (e.g., The brown lady)

Reaching out or trying to touch hair, skin etc. or pointing at them

The above, including the examples, are exact scenarios I’ve witnessed and experienced first-hand from white and light-skinned children of younger ages, generally 4-7years, having reactions or making comments of curiosity about skin and traits that are different than theirs. 

Handling these reactions

Obviously children of this age are generally innocent and these questions/observations aren’t generally said with malice. But when they are wrong, offensive or are rooted in racism, they absolutely need correction, whether bluntly if they’re older, or in a kid-appropriate way.

I believe that these children do:

1.Deserve an answer, explained in a way they would understand. We shouldn’t shy around the topics and it is not shameful to talk about race! Colorblindness is not real and is a racist concept itself that attempts to erase and culturally-diminish BIPOC, so it’s okay to discuss. Children of Color are born with the burdens of racism from day one and can/do face it at all ages, so yes, let’s answer their curious questions, but correct where needed.

2. Can handle gentle corrections.

Examples:

“You shouldn’t call the woman chocolate. She’s a person, like you. She is not made of candy. You can refer to her skin as brown.”

“That’s enough questions. Let them answer your first question, if they want to.”

“You can look at him, but staring is not very polite. Would you like to say hello?”

“We do not touch people without permission. Would you like it if a stranger touched your hair and clothes?”

Adding humor to these moments

I suppose there are ways to make some of these reactions humorous. Your mileage will vary, though. I’d like to note that Alice, who grew up in a predominantly white European country, says your current scenario brings up bad memories for her. You’ll hear from Mod Abhaya as well.

So, what you may see as funny may be more discomforting to another.

I’d advise getting opinions on these scenes to gauge reactions from Black, Asian and other BIPOC and readers overall (of any race).

Here are some ways that a curious/ignorant reaction could, possibly, be funny in story:

Your Blasian character corrects them with a long, silent scalding look that makes them wither and instantly regret and realize they’ve said something ignorant. They have to do the thinking themselves to realize their wrongdoing.

She rewards their ignorance with a spray of a water bottle or a swat of a handkerchief, fan, or whatever is era-appropriate. A few words explaining why she’s doing it would reiterate the fault in their words. Note: this works best if physical humor is part of your story, otherwise it can unfairly paint her as violent. If other characters get involved in the corrections, that would help too.

She returns their treatment equally. (e.g., they pet her skin? She pets theirs. They compare her hair to something odd and unflattering? She compares theirs to greasy noodles and dead grass)

If excessive questions are asked, she returns the favor and asks her own and makes them feel uncomfortable right back (see above)

The character intentionally provides tall tale explanations. It could be simple or a myth of epic proportions. Whether they believe it or not, at least at first, could determine how funny it is).

The girls, having realized their innocent/ignorant wrongdoing, apologize in an over-the-top way that entertains your character.

Again! Please correct or chastise this behavior in the narrative

Whether from characters or author, this behavior should be deemed unacceptable.

In Summary:

Framing the ignorant comments as being the source of humor is something I'd advise against. Source the humor from the resulting consequences that come from their ignorant actions. Let your Character of Color get the true last laugh.

And if the children grow sullen or have their feelings hurt in this story, well, lesson learned to treat the young woman like a human.

Additionally, I'd avoid making truly egregious comments about the character's appearance. It may be fiction, but such words hurt when us real people have these features.

Take your creator responsibility role seriously. You are writing the words of these fictional characters, and some things cannot be unheard or taken back.

~Mod Colette

Intent does not excuse harm

Short answer: an individual lack of malice does not mean that someone’s actions are not harmful or indicative of broader attitudes. Playing something like this for laughs, when many people have had bad experiences like this, leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

Longer answer: 

There are a couple of aspects of this that I would ask you to consider. 

@sumflowerd asked:

Hello, I, a mixed (Lebanese/white) woman, am writing a short story about a mixed (Lebanese/White) girl living in the southern USA with her (white, Christian) mother who runs away to search for her (Lebanese, Christian) father. It turns out he abandoned her mother while she was pregnant because he already had a fiancée and wanted nothing to do with her. I was wondering if having the father be the non-white parent would be falling into unfortunate stereotypes about men of color in interracial relationships and as parents, and if I should just switch the parents' identities or just make them both white and remove that issue altogether? Thank you for your time.

Is having the Lebanese father of a mixed girl abandon her white mother while pregnant falling into unfortunate stereotypes about men of color?

On theme and author's intention

Hi! I think it comes down to your intent as the author.

What themes are you exploring in this short story?

Parental estrangement?

The mixed race/bicultural experience in America?

Learning culture from a place of diaspora?

Exploring fantasy v. reality (through the idea of dad, v. dad in real life?)

You very well might want all of these, but their priority in terms of which theme earns your interest and takes artistic precedence over the others is all up to you. Switching even two themes in terms of importance can wildly affect the outcome of the story’s execution. There’s no wrong answer, only what interests you. Not every story is about race or ethnicity, but when it’s on screen or the page - it should be intentional, because it will have an impact on the reader.  

Things to consider

So, consider and explore: What would the story be like if the mother was Lebanese (In this context - whatever that may mean to you: Pheonecian/Arab/light or dark skinned) and the father was white, switching it up? If both parents were white? Lebanese (again, Lebanese encompasses a broad range of identities within it - so take this as you will) ? Is there a strong ethnic/religious/racial exploration or element? Do you want (or intend) there to be? If you feel comfortable speaking on religion rather than race, you could make the father Maronite and the mother Druze, or vice versa. If you’re looking for differences - there are a lot to choose from.

SWANA/MENA (Southwest Asian/North African; Middle Eastern/North African) identities are often overlooked or reduced to “white” in the non SWANA/MENA American public perception. In 2024, NY Times did a great piece about the complexities of the middle eastern identity in America, where the conflation of many SWANA/MENA identities as white passing leaves a lot to be explored and understood.

If that were a focus of the theme of this reunion, then in a sense - there may be something symbolic about the Lebanese father being missing - a hole where her understanding of that side of her culture should be.

The missing Lebanese father would serve a different purpose within the story, compared to celebrating the potential Lebanese culture of a mother that stayed. 

Depth vs. flat stereotypes

Remember that stereotypes are often superficial things. We talked about this with the Latino-in-manual-labor-trope - if the manual labor is short hand for ‘uneducated unimportant Latino side character’ sure, it’s bad. If the manual labor of a Latino parent is contextualized as part of a story on the theme of parenthood and immigration, and it ends with the mechanic father celebrating his daughter's college graduation, saying her success is the answer to his dream, and his greatest pride - then… that’s not so one dimensional, right? Less stereotypical. More holistic. Both examples are using the same ‘stereotype.’

So, this really comes down to: What do you intend? Why? And does it best serve the story as you wish to tell it?

@writingraccoon said:

My character is black in a dungeons and dragons-like fantasy world. His name is Kazuki Haile (pronounced hay-lee), and his mother is this world's equivalent of Japanese, which is where his first name is from, while his father is this world's equivalent of Ethiopian, which is where his last name is from. He looks much more like his father, and has hair type 4a. I plan to make his character very finnicky about his hair, both enjoying styling it, but also often being unsure how to style it (not in that he doesn't know how to, but has so many options for how to style it, he has trouble choosing). However, I know that there are some very harmful ways to write black hair, especially in regards to how the black character themselves feels about it. Kazuki does not hate his hair, in fact he takes joy in it, and I'm researching black hair and hair styles to be as accurate as possible. But I'm unsure if portraying a black character as occasionally overwhelmed by or vain about his hair is negative. How would you suggest either changing this or making it work? Does it need to be changed in the first place?

Black Character Overwhelmed by Curly Afro Hair

Your Black character wanting his hair to look its best and at times feeling overwhelmed seems reasonable and natural to me. It appears their challenge comes with how to style it. Not so much with struggling how it looks or how hard it is to manage. That is good, as this further helps avoid placing a strong negative focus on Black hair. 

Him caring a lot about how it is style should not be deemed vain or frivolous, either. In any case, hair care is self care. There’s nothing wrong with having pride with your hair, especially hair that mainstream society, historically and present, might say is not beautiful. This still matters, even in a fantasy world, since your readers still exist in this reality. It’s empowering and a welcome change to see someone who loves their afro hair, actually.

There are unique factors someone with coily afro hair would experience vs. straight, wavy, or looser curls, but people struggling with their hair (too frizzy, too flat, too limp, too thin, too thick!) is universal. 

There is a delicate balance to achieve.

Avoid Writing a Black Hair Journey Experience 

An overall negative Afro hair journey might be the reality for many, especially when society deems Afro hair as unacceptable and slaps so many uninvited opinions, laws and policies over its existence and on certain styles (again, historically and very much at present), but that’s the kind of story that is best handled by someone with the background. Someone willing to commit to the research might also be able to pull it off, although it’s truly not the kind of thing an escapism novel needs in my opinion. If the story is not meant to delve into “A Black /Black Hair Experience” then I'd avoid going that route. That is moving a bit towards a struggle narrative, depending on how much it defines your character’s story.

Add positive and neutral hair language and interactions

For your writing, I’d avoid using unchallenged negative language about his hair. Being overwhelmed at times and frustrated is one thing and expected. If his hair is constantly brought up, and is associated with uncontrollable, ugly, or too [insert struggle here], then rethink the direction you’re going. 

Add some positive or neutral terms, reactions, and interactions in the narrative towards afro hair, such as describing color and texture.

“His fine coils bounced in the wind.” 

“Hair black and shiny” 

“She wore her hair in two large, fluffy buns.”

“He admired his fresh, neat braids in the mirror, smiling at his reflection, before turning to leave.”

Another tip: It may have been for research purposes, but leave out any hair number categorizing in the story and rely on description. I’d say this goes for any story, as reading the number would feel off. 

“He had coily 4a hair.” Nahh! :P 

Also, I would suggest sending all passages that focus on his hair to a Black sensitivity reader for review.

More reading:

@pleasespellchimerical asked:

So writing historical fiction, with a white POV character. I'm not sure how to address race in the narration. I do have a Black main character, and I feel like it'd feel out of place to have the narrator refer to her as 'Black', that being a more modern term. Not sure how to do this without dipping into common historical terms that are considered racist today. Thoughts on how to handle this delicately, not pull readers out of the narrative? (fwiw, the POV character has a lot of respect for the Black character. The narration should show this)

There are non-offensive terms you can use, even in historical fiction. We can absolutely refer to Black people without slurs, and if slurs is all one can come up with, it’s time to go back to the drawing board. I cannot say which terms are best for your piece without knowing the time period, but hopefully the list below helps.

Historical terms to use for Black people (non-offensive)

African American documented as early as 1782 (documented in an ad in the Pennsylvania Journal). Note the identity isn’t accurate for non-American Black people.

African could refer to African people or “from 1722 as ‘of or pertaining to black Americans.’”

The place of origin could also be used. For example, “a Nigerian woman”

Africo-American documented as early as 1788.

People of Color documented as early as 1796 (with specific contexts, usually mixed people)

Afro American documented as early as 1817, 1831 (depending on source)

Black American documented as early as 1831 

Black was used in Old English to refer to dark-skinned people. Black was not capitalized until recent years, so “She was a young black woman.” would make sense to say, though “She was a young Black woman.” is the better standard today, although not universally adopted. I personally prefer it capitalized. 

Moor was used as early as the late 1400s for North African people, but had a somewhat flexible use where anyone visibly Black / Of African descent or the Afro Diaspora might be referred to or assumed as a Moor. Note, it has other meanings too, such as referring to Muslim people, but that doesn’t mean the person using it is going by the dictionary definition. Not really the way to go today, but okay in a historical setting (in my opinion).

Biracial (1860s), mixed race (1872), multiracial (1903) and multicultural (1940s) are also terms to refer to people of two or more races.

Occupation + description. Throughout history, many people have been referred to as their occupation. For example, the Carpenter, The Baker, the Blacksmith. Here’s an example of how you might go about using occupation and traits to identify a Black character in history. Here’s an example I came up with on the fly.

“You should go by Jerry’s. He’s the best blacksmith this town’s ever seen. Ya know, the real tall, dark-skinned, curly haired fellow. Family’s come here from Liberia.”

Offensive and less-sensitive terms for Black people 

Blacks was used in plural more, but this is generally offensive today (Even writing it gives me **Thee ick*)

Colored was mostly used post-civil war until the mid 20th century, when it became unacceptable. This is not to be conflated with the South African Coloured ethnic group.

Negro/Negroes were also used as early as the 1550s. Capitalization became common in the early 20th century. I'm sure you know it is offensive today, though, admittedly, was not generally seen as such until around the 1960s, when Black replaced it. It does have its contexts, such as the trope “The Magical Negro” but going around using the term or calling someone that today is a lot different. 

Mulatto referred to mixed people, generally Black and white, and is offensive today. 

The N-word, in all its forms, is explicitly a slur, and there is absolutely no need to use it, especially in a casual manner, in your story. We’ve written about handling the N-word and alluding to it “if need be” but there are other ways to show racism and tension without dropping the word willy-nilly.

Deciding what to use, a modern perspective

I’m in favor of authors relying on the less offensive, more acceptable terms. Particularly, authors outside of the race. Seldom use the offensive terms except from actual direct quotes.

You do not have to use those offensive terms or could at least avoid using them in excess. I know quite famous stories do, but that doesn’t mean we have to so eagerly go that route today. Honestly, from teachers to school, and fellow non-Black students, it’s the modern day glee that people seem to get when they “get a chance to say it” that makes it worse and also makes me not want to give people the chance. 

It goes back to historical accuracy only counting the most for an “authentic experience” when it means being able to use offensive terms or exclude BIPOC from stories. We’ve got to ask ourselves why we want to plaster certain words everywhere for the sake of accuracy when there are other just as accurate, acceptable words to use that hurt less people. 

Disclaimer: Opinions may vary on these matters. But just because someone from the group cosigns something by stating they’re not offended by it, doesn’t mean a whole lot of others are okay with it and their perspectives are now invalid! Also, of course, how one handles the use of these words as a Black person has a different connotation and freedom on how they use them.

~Mod Colette

The colonial context

Since no country was mentioned, I’m going to add a bit about the vocabulary surrounding Black people during slavery, especially in the Caribbean. Although, Colette adds, if your Black characters are slaves, this begs the question why we always gotta be slaves.

At the time, there were words used to describe people based on the percentage of Black blood they had. Those are words you may find during your searches but I advise you not to use them. As you will realize if you dive a bit into this system, it looks like a classifying table. At the time, people were trying to lighten their descent and those words were used for some as a sort of rank. Louisiana being French for a time, those expressions were also seen there until the end of the 19th century.

The fractions I use were the number of Black ancestors someone had to have to be called accordingly.

Short-list here :

½ : mûlatre or mulatto

¼ or ⅛ : quarteron or métis (depending on the island, I’m thinking about Saint-Domingue, Martinique and Guadeloupe)

1/16 : mamelouk

¾ : griffe or capre

⅞ : sacatra

In Saint-Domingue, it could go down to 1/64, where people were considered sang-mêlé (mixed blood for literal translation, but “HP and the Half-Blood Prince” is translated “HP et le Prince de Sang-Mêlé” in French, so I guess this is another translation possibility).

-Lydie

Use the 3rd person narrative to your advantage

If you are intent on illustrating historical changes in terminology consider something as simple as showing the contrast between using “black” for first person character narration, but “Black” for 3rd person narrator omniscient.

-Marika

Add a disclaimer

I liked how this was addressed in the new American Girl books it’s set in Harlem in the 1920’s and there’s a paragraph at the beginning that says “this book uses the common language of the time period and it’s not appropriate to use now”

-SK

More reading:

NYT: Use of ‘African-American’ Dates to Nation’s Early Days

The Etymology dictionary - great resource for historical fiction

sodapopsculptor asked:

I’m writing a story with two sets of protagonists: A trio with a Black girl, a Latino, and a Vietnamese-American boy who all come from middle-upper class to ridiculously rich families, and a pair of white working-middle class sisters. They’re all heroes of this story. I’ve seen way too many rich white people and poor poc people in fiction, and I’m kinda getting sick of it, but I’m worried that by having the poc kids be rich and the white girls not so much, I’ll be reinforcing the idea that poc somehow rule the world. The only time the rich kids use their status as leverage is when the Asian threatens to sic his cop dad on a bully (race unstated but I imagined him as white) picking on a freshman, and during the Black girl’s birthday party, when she pays the biggest jock there fifty bucks (And later says offhandedly that it was just what she had in her pocket) to chase off a creep hitting on her.

OP, have you ever seen the “diversity win!” meme before?

I understand that your motivation for these narrative choices is to give POC a chance, if you will, to be the rich characters. But it is evident from this ask that you have not asked yourself what this entails. I want to ask you to critically examine the race and class intersections you’re creating here, as well as these kids’ roles in oppressive systems.

You explain that these rich POC are heroes and only have righteous reasons for leveraging their power.

But is your Black girl character aware of the potential disciplinary and/or legal consequences her jock accomplice might face while she has the resources to keep her hands clean? Are you?

Is your Asian character aware of how much of an abuse of power it is to “sic” a cop on someone, and the sheer amount of harm a criminal record or incarceration does to a juvenile with behavior issues? Are you?

So you want to put POC in positions of power for #representation.

Does it resonate with the group you’re representing?

Do you research and portray the unique ways race, ethnicity, class, and majority vs. minority status come together?

Or are you putting these characters in oppressive hegemonic roles for the sake of a power fantasy, on behalf of a group you're not even in?

To your question, you're not reinforcing the idea that "POC rule the world" because such a generalized belief does not exist. Instead, you're reinforcing:

The idea that society has “winners” and “losers.”

The idea that the problem with disproportionately powerful people is the lack of “equal opportunity” as opposed to the power imbalance to begin with.

The idea that those in oppressive positions of power need only have the right intentions to justify their use of it.

To be clear: that is not to say that you can't have jerk aristocrat billionaire millionaire crazy rich POC. Evil or mean rich characters are fun! I have some myself! You can even have rich characters who are gentle-hearted and well-intentioned, but you have to know the ways in which they’re privileged and decide how aware of that your characters are. That’s no problem.

But if you think that wealthy and powerful POC would have the same values and priorities as their poorer counterparts, you’re deluding yourself. There’s a reason why the quote “power corrupts” exists. There’s a reason why no matter where you look on the globe, there are historical dictators and tyrants.

If you want bratty rich POC who lack regard for the consequences of their actions, because you want bratty rich characters, great! If you want them because it would be uplifting or empowering representation? You’re doing it for the wrong reason.

~ Rina

I fully agree with Rina, and truly want to emphasize the last paragraph.

If you want bratty rich POC who lack regard for the consequences of their actions, because you want bratty rich characters, great! If you want them because it would be uplifting or empowering representation? You’re doing it for the wrong reason.

I don't think you need to aim to subvert or purposely make all the BIPOC rich and powerful and the white people poor and suffering. Add diversity and include upper class rich and class privileged BIPOC, sure thing! And you can avoid your fears of intentional subversion message by including rich and powerful white characters as well, even if they're not the focus of your story. Just their existence helps. You could also include middle-class characters of Color as well.

More reading: Black in upper-class society

Anonymous asked:

I’m a white-passing Asian author, and I’ve never felt all that connected with my heritage. My current story centers on a fairy (re: fantasy-world POC) child and ends with her realizing that her parents are toxic af and her human best friend’s family takes her in. This is the perfect opportunity to sort through my own issues with my heritage and finally convince my monkey-brain that it’s okay to not know how to cook Vietnamese food or celebrate tet or speak Vietnamese… But I also realize that if I’m not careful, this could easily slip into “Hey, I hate my heritage and so should you!” So how can I stop that from happening?

Writing for yourself first, not an audience

I ask you a simple question: why put pressure on yourself to have any sort of non-offensive messaging for a story that hasn’t been drafted yet and is to convince your monkey brain it’s okay to exist as yourself?

That seems like the fastest way to stop the story from being actually cathartic and instead a performance art piece when you already feel hung up on performing as “properly” part of your culture.

As I said in Working Through Identity Issues and Other Pitfalls of Representation, not all stories you write need to be for public consumption. Especially stories you’re using for your own self-processing and therapy, because you’re trying to get a cathartic moment that is rewriting your own story.

At what point does the public need to be involved in that?

I do understand the compulsion to want to post—I have definitely posted some Questionable™ material in my drive to get validation for feeling the way I do, wanting people to witness me and say “same.” It’s a powerful urge. Sometimes it’s worked, but most of the time it’s just made me feel horrifically exposed.

But you really do not have to post in public to get any sort of validation. Set up a groupchat with friends if you want the cheerleading and witnessing—people who will know your story and give you good-faith interpretations and won’t accuse you of anything. Honestly I’d suggest setting up this groupchat anyway; as someone who just got one again after quite a few years without it, my productivity has skyrocketed from being around supportive people.

Let the monkey brain have its monkey brain moment and shut off the concept the story is for the public. Shut off the concept of performing for an unknown audience. It’s for you. Be authentic, no matter how bad it would look to outsiders. They’re not reading it. Part of getting catharsis, sometimes, is being the worst version of yourself, somewhere nobody else can see it.

Deciding to publish the work

If, after you do write it, you find that you actually do want to polish it up and put it somewhere… edit it. Rewrite it entirely if that’s what it takes. Take the story through the same drafting process every story needs to go through, ripping out the unfortunate implications as you go.

Editing can be its own form of healing, as you try to figure out what this character would need to not be hateful. As you realize, once this longform journal entry is out of your head, what was bothering you now that you can see it pinned down on a page. But you absolutely do not need to write with the intention of editing in that healing. When I’ve tried, it’s fallen flat.

The healing will come from being yourself, no public involved, and writing about your feelings in their rawest form. Anything else is extra.

There’s no point in trying to put guard rails on the drafting process, not for a deeply personal piece. And by the time that drafting process is done, you’ll likely have specific scenarios and contexts that you can ask about, and you might even have ideas on how to fix it yourself once the story has a shape to it.

This is 100% a situation where there’s no real sense in idea workshopping something in the plotting stage. You’re doing something for you. Decide if it’s for public consumption later (while acknowledging “no” is a perfectly valid answer), and only figure out how to make the story not overtly harmful if you decide to put it out into the public.