Avoiding Stereotypical Portrayals of Black Characters: When Disability and Race Intersect

I think you’ve made a nice start with having more black characters, although they don’t have to all be neurotypical, as neurodivergent people are a large and greatly varying group of people. It’s important to let these characters be different, in their personality as well as their looks, etc. Stay away from stereotypes.

Make sure you know what you’re writing about. Research Cri du Chat syndrome, read about people’s experiences (the people themselves more so than their families, etc.), and read about the ableism they might face. Do your research for writing a Black woman, about the racism and misogynoir Black women face and how life as a Black disabled woman.

There’s a lot of ableism to unpack here on top of misogynoir, because it could slip into the way you describe your character. 

To be honest, you’ll have to think about intelligence and what it really means, especially when disability comes into play. What is “intelligence” and how is it defined? Why? Think about how the idea of intelligence is praised, while the lack of it is seen as a reason for ridicule, hate and genocide (think of forced sterilization, accepted torture and murder, etc). Think how all of this affects someone’s life when they have an intellectual disability/learning disability. And think how this goes hand in hand with Black people being seen as less intelligent to begin with. Plus: intellectual disability =/= lacking intelligence.

Suggestions of what might help to avoid stereotypical portrayals here:

You don’t have to shy away from their disability, from any learning difficulties they might have, etc. They can still have things they know a lot about or skills they are really good in. This is NOT to compensate for any supposed lack of intelligence, but to show them as a well-rounded developed person. I’m not saying that they need to be an expert or even good at anything, nor do I mean for them to have some kind of skill or attribute to compensate for their disability. Let your disabled character be disabled! 

Your character has distinctive facial features because of their syndrome. It’s okay to let your readers know that. While you describe them though, be neutral in your word choice. They look different, meaning there will be people who think they are ugly, but there will also be people who don’t see her like that. HOWEVER, since society and beauty standards are biased as hell, there will be lots of people who will be negative about her appearance. This could be shown through microaggressions, her reaction to them. You could give her space in your writing to share her thoughts and feelings concerning her looks and beauty in general. 

Black women are often written off as undesirable. You could combat this by allowing people in her life who care about her, who love her. It doesn’t have to be a big part of the plot to show a window into her love life. Then, disabled people are seen as undesirable too. As not interested in sex. Don’t infantilize your character, for her disability either. 

Have black women in your story who are smart, who are beautiful, have some be educated, etc. (I mean aside from other traits. Don’t make them ~*perfect*~) Have your black women be diverse. Same goes for disabled and neurodivergent (black) people in your novel.

Something different, but still important:

Don’t use words such as st*pid, d*mb or r***** in your novel. I know there’s a lot of talk about stripping your vocabulary of ableist language and not everyone supports it, but since you’re writing a neurodivergent MC, possibly with a learning disability it would be wise to leave such language out so you won’t alienate a big part of your audience. 

Don’t use a lack of “intelligence” as a negative trait. 

Have appropriate beta-readers.

Be clear on your representation: don’t make people guess about her syndrome.

Once again, because this is important: Allow your disabled character be disabled! Their disability will influence a big part, if not all of her life. We have a lot of issues with representation for disabled people, where writers make their characters be disabled only in name.

And just a cautionary note: don’t make inspiration porn out of your character.

1.) I grew up on a beef cattle farm. I still consider myself a farmer even I have lived in the city for about a year (blah).

2.) I don’t like birds as pets. I think birds should be in the wild not in houses or cages. I spent my childhood dealing with chickens, ducks and geese so I don’t like them either. They are fine running loose but everything kills them and I feel bad when foxes eat them. Then I feel bad when they in fenced area and hen house. It’s a no win situation. So I no longer have chickens and buy free range eggs from other farms. I don’t want to touch, hold or pet a bird unless it’s a duck or baby. I have no idea why I don’t connect with birds like I do other animals but there it is.

3.) I have a mad passion for nail polish. Normal nail polish not gel nails. I love nail art. All that stuff you see on pinterest where you paint your nails and then put tape on part of and put another color. Creature cool effects. Draw on your nails, put dots on, pen art on your nails etc. I love black nails the best. It makes me feel sexy and powerful. Sadly now that I am a baker I cannot wear nail polish anymore. It’s not food safe and there is no point of putting for two days for the weekend and taking it off to go back to work. So I cannot enjoy the thing I love anymore.:(

4.) I have 20/20 eyesight. Very good long distant sight. 

5.) As part of learning disability testing I had all this testing done to how my brain works, how interact with world and all that jazz. Turns out I have a below average short term memory but a above average long term memory. Guess one makes up for the other. It’s why I have trouble learning things. Hard to get things past the short term memory. Also it’s why I can’t remember if I’ve done something I just did. The infomation wasn’t important enough to store in my long term memory so puff gone! Least that’s how it feels sometimes. 

6.) Also in that same testing I learned I have Spatial Hearing Loss. While my hearing is good I have trouble understanding speech in the presence of background noise. I grew up thinking everyone heard this way but parently it’s a form of deftness. I never think of it as deftness because I still hear people it’s just a struggle at times when music is playing, or I’m in a crowd or something like that.  I was recommended to go a hearing doctor for further study on the subject but sadly I don’t have time for that. It’s very interesting to me so I’d love to know more about it but it’s not going to happen.  

- google doesn’t even know what you’re trying to spell half the time

-when people point out that you used the wrote your/you’re or there/their/they’re you feel like you fail at life

-Grammar police are your worst nightmare

-you randomly forget how to spell words like mirror 

-”getting” to type your assignments in class also means you’re the weird kid wose always carrying around a laptop/tablet

- explaining to every kid in the class why you’re typing your assignments and then them responding with “im so jealous”

-explaining to your math teacher that you can’t do an assignment becuse you can’t draw a triangle, but you could explain how to do it with no problem

- your signature literally means nothing because it’s different every time you write it

- dreading trading papers but not wanting to make it a big deal

- having to use certain pens/ pencils because that's what you’re used too

-people genuinely asking you if you’re retarded 

-being told “if you just practice it will get better”

as school is starting please take note of this, don’t make a big deal out of things, if you see a someone in your class with messy hand writing and misspelled words and bad grammar using a word processor, or a high schooler reading Junie B. Jones or having to count on their fingers to figure out what 9+3 is, please don’t make a big deal out of it, they’re trying and starting a new school year is always scary having to answer the same questions over and over again, if you’re good at reading messy handwriting offer to grade their papers for them, let them copy your notes as you write them.

Hello! I do volunteering with these guys. An amazing organisation called Heart n Soul. It’s so much fun, everyone is so open and loving and not to mention its really well run by fantastic leaders. 

The charity/arts company has birthed a band called ‘The Fish Police’, who have received acclaim on BBC Radio 6 and so forth and you can catch them at the Tate on Saturday 25th July as part of the Turbine festival.

Their music “combines upbeat surreal pop imagery with glitchy beats. They mix their love of computer games, cartoons, fast food and Japanese culture to create new sounds.” - YES