Hi there! I read your post about white male authors writing black women characters, and I realized that in my writing, Iām probably writing similar stereotypes. If itās not too much trouble, what should I avoid when writing poc characters?
(itās characters of color, not poc characters)
well i canāt cover the entire spectrum of races and faces but hereās 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 weāre 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 donāt wanna get all hype just to find out weāre the token AGAIN
4. people of color are people, and weāre not a monolith. black people donāt 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. weāre not brown google. there are tons of blogs on tumblr dedicated to writing people of color correctlyĀ
7. talk to people of color, weāre nice, we donāt bite
8. donāt write men of color as being hypermasculine or sexually perverse, itās 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 youāre writing a black woman, we (black women) would appreciate yāall trying to understand how our hair works
12. ask yourself, how does this character relate to their race? they donāt have to haveĀ āblack lives matterā tattooed on their forehead but every person of color has thought about what itās like to be a person of color. itās 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 doesnāt have black friends i wanna cry!!! PLEASE!!!
14. if you can avoid killing your character of color, do it. if not, donāt make their death more brutal than everyone elseāsĀ
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 doesnāt feel like itās a problem, but it is! threebillboardsoutsideofebbingmissouriĀ
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. iām so tired
20. this is gonna be my last one, because i want it to be, but itās important. you know when youāre watching something and itās like a white person goes somewhere for help and thereās a black woman or black gay man working behind a counter/desk and theyāre lazy and unhelpful? yeah,Ā Donāt Do That Anymore
