so I saw this thing today saying "white authors saying they can't write non-white characters bc they write from experience must have intimate experience with dragons and elves" like first no dragon is gonna get pissed off if I fuck up their culture because dragons are NOT REAL and are MADE UP CREATURES FOR HUMAN ENJOYMENT like look what stephenie meyer did to vampires which tbh offended/pissed off 98% of people who are actually interested in vampire/werewolf lore, and it still became a NYT best seller and a movie series and all this other shit it didn't deserve, so obviously there's no backlash if a mythical culture is ripped apart and insulted second I personally have attempted to write a female Hispanic character (after taking years of Spanish classes and learning about various Spanish-speaking cultures around the world) and was told that due to the character having a love interest I should stop writing the story, since I shouldn't be furthering the stereotype that Hispanic women are just sex objects (a stereotype which I personally hate, and I was debating making the character asexual anyway, but decided to leave it undetermined since her orientation wouldn't matter to the story). white authors can't write white characters without getting hate. we can't write undetermined or vaguely-hinted characters since they're assumed white (re: the hunger games). but we can't write a character with one specific race, lest we be accused of racism, race fetishism, inaccuracies in the culture, and worse. the reason I as a white author can write about mythology and vampires and dragons and elves and evolutionary changes resulting in new species and whatever else is because at the age of 17, I've spent at least 13 years of my life already invested in those kinds of stories and creating my own stories about them. the reason I as a white author do not feel comfortable writing about minority groups is because I don't have another 13 years to spend immersing myself in those cultures (since I don't plan on writing professionally [which may or may not be because of bullshit like this], besides maybe a novella or two on the side) and I don't appreciate being criticized for my inaccuracies when I try to right the wrongs I see in the world. tl;dr: if racial minorities are gonna bitch and moan at white authors for the lack of racial minority written characters, why don't y'all pick up a goddamn pen and write something yourself? maybe then you'll realize what we do isn't exactly easy, and stop telling us how to do it.