White Perspective; July 4 2022

This will come as a shock to y’all, but I… am a white person.

I know. I’m so brave, to come forward about it.

I am firmly anti-racist and always willing – and wanting! – to learn. I benefit from institutionalized racism in ways I’m certain have never even occurred to me. And (here’s where I’m going to lose some of you), I write about non-white characters.

I do not write stories about being a person of colour. Even in fiction, in worlds I create from scratch, I simply can’t write those? I don’t have that life experience and I never will. Furthermore, attempting to write from that particular viewpoint will inevitably be robbing someone of that space, if I manage to get my works published.

It’s tricky, though, this desire to create diverse fiction without stepping on anyone’s real experience. I want authenticity, but I don’t want to speak over somebody. Particularly in my book, The Other Face of Sympathy, there are several characters from different parts of the world, and they put down their traumatic experiences. I had to remove several things and take out one character diary altogether.

Then there are my fantasy books – the Qistedei series has No White People. This wasn’t an attempt to appropriate, nor was it an attempt to be ‘woke’. When I formed the world of Qistedei, it was based heavily on research done into various East Asian cultures, which I can only write about through a white lens. Qistedei is not, as such, an Asian Fantasy series. It literally can’t be. It’s just a world with characters who look and are inspired by East Asian cultures.

What it boils down to is, I don’t think it’s wrong to have characters that are different from you. I think that’s needed in order to expand your worldview as a writer and as a reader! But particular emphasis on reader.

You want to write about a bisexual Black man? Read something from a bisexual Black man first. Write your book, and be sure to get a sensitivity reader – paid! – to review it and tell you how to make that voice come through with authenticity. Write about other people, but not for other people.

And, for the love of everything, elevate minority voices. That doesn’t mean repeating what they say like it’s an original thought you just had. When a member of a minority group makes a great point, point to what they’re saying. If it was to you directly, thank them for it.

Now, grain of salt to all this, I’m still learning too. I could be wrong on all fronts. If you have resources (especially, for example, a blog post of your own) feel free to drop a link in the comments!

Now back to our story:

Damn it.

They ran on, clothing bundled in their arms, only for it to go spilling across the dirt – their foot had caught on a tree root, and they realized in that instant that they were going to be caught.

They could at least get dressed quickly, then. Save some of their dignity.

The young woman caught up as they were finishing tying the laces of their pants, scrambling to pull on the tunic. They glanced back at her, only to freeze with the garment halfway on, meeting her eyes.

Beautiful.