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books, ethnic characters, ethnic diversity, multi racial characters, novels, racial diversity, racial issues, racial sensitivity, the writing process, writers, writing
Writers are supposed to go beyond their surroundings, and create worlds unlike those they’ve faced in life. That means writing about places they’ve never been to, jobs they’ve never held, situations they’ve never been in and hopefully would never be in.
This also includes creating characters very much unlike them – including those of a different ethnic, racial or religious background. 
As authors we have to portray the fact that our countries are more multicultural than ever before, particularly in the United States. I’m sure British, Canadian and over nationalities know that it is really a folly to have all-white characters in our books. Unless it is in a rural area with few industries that doesn’t often attract racial minorities, but that is not always the case.
When I wrote my book, I knew I could not have all my characters to be white. It just doesn’t make sense to do that. However, to be honest, I also knew I couldn’t create a major character who was not of European descent. Not because I was afraid of not being able to sell my book because of the fewer white characters. Not because I was afraid of some racist disliking my book. And not because I harbor any prejudiced views myself.
I chose not to write a major minority character because I truly do not know what it is like to be a minority in the United States. I understand anyone who isn’t white – or even Christian or heterosexual – has had a lot of difficulty in this country. But I could never know what it is like to be a minority because I did not live that life. I could read every single book about living as an minority in America, but I still could never fully walk in the shoes of someone who is black, gay, Jewish, Muslim, Asian, and so on.
If I were to try to write minority main characters, I really don’t think I can portray their lives and mindsets accurately, and therefore, I didn’t do my job as an author. It is almost like writing what you know. Even though writers are supposed to break that age-old suggestion, I believe it shouldn’t be done if you cannot do it well.
That being said, I don’t think an author shouldn’t at least write secondary or minor characters who are not white. In my book, I had one of my protagonist’s roommates, and close friend, be a Mexican-American. I also had one of the vampires be biracial. Perhaps I should’ve created more ethnic characters, but I plan to do that in the follow-ups, but we’ll get to that later.
I admit, though, I was nervous about the way I portrayed Monica Alejandrez, the Hispanic character. I wondered if I was subconsciously giving in to any stereotypes about Mexican-Americans. I don’t think I did, and I haven’t received any complaints. But that’s the anxiety with writing about something that is very sensitive to many people. Racial, ethnic and religious issues are very controversial and sensitive. Just the fact that I had a Hispanic character and a half-black, half-white character might be seen as a huge statement. If anything, the only statement I made is acknowledging that white people are not the only ones in America; there are many other races and cultures here. That may be huge to some, but to me, it was all matter-of-fact.
I also admit to being a little nervous about how I portrayed Claire McCormick’s other best friend, Samantha DiCarlo, an Italian-American. I made her outspoken and even a bit loud. She may seem a bit too blunt for some, but she was brave enough to confront Claire’s evil vampire boyfriend at one point. Was I giving into Italian stereotypes? I probably was, though I haven’t received any complaints. Then again, I grew up in an area that had a large Italian-American population where 90% of my elementary class was of Italian background. Maybe seeing this culture as it is gave me a good observation. But again, I’m not Italian, so maybe I wrongly gave into stereotypes.
It is a huge challenge to write about characters who are not of the same racial, ethnic and religious background as your own. Unless you’ve had a good access to those cultures, it is very difficult to do a good job at creating characters who are much different from you. That is my experience, anyway. I could be dead wrong or worrying about nothing.
If you are a writer, how do you approach creating characters not of your background? If you are a reader, how do you feel about this topic?
Good topic. Most of my stories are multi-ethnic, partly because I set f them in urban areas and it’s just a more realistic depiction of the world. I’m not sure I’d write a first -person POV with a non-white character, mainly for the reason you mentioned: How would I know what that’s like?
That said, I want to make my story interesting. If someone is offended or claims my depiction is unrealistic, I’m willing to take that risk. I also employ beta readers of various ethnic backgrounds to give me feedback. So far it has been good. My second manuscript featured a white woman as a main character. Her best friend was Chinese. The detective was black. As I’ve said many times, I do not plot my stories in advance and lets the events spill out subconsciously, so it was simply typing out what my mind’s eye was showing me.
For the most part, the books I’ve read by black and Asian authors tend to feature main characters from the same ethnic backgrounds as the themselves, so I guess we, as writers, are concerned with authenticity.
Authenticity is important as authors. I guess that’s why we don’t always break that “write what you know” rule.
Well, I’m biracial (white and Asian) and my friends are very ethnically diverse. Plus, I grew up in New York City and attended public school, so I’ve been around people of different ethnicities all my life. I guess I can understand why some people feel nervous about writing characters of other ethnicities, but I just think of my characters as people first.
Hi SunflowerRei!
I’m aware that my characters are people first too, but I get the impression that there would be some who would say, “you can’t write about minorities because you’re not one”.
I’m from NYC too, but I grew up on Staten Island which is not as diverse as the rest of the city, especially in the neighborhood where I lived.
I get the impression that there would be some who would say, “you can’t write about minorities because you’re not one”.
Eh, there are some people who would say that, but they’re asses. IMHO. 🙂
Thanks 🙂
I would encourage you not to feel such a barrier to writing MCs who aren’t your race. I really would. Lack of representation is such a serious problem, and you seem like such a thoughtful person regarding this issue — I’d love for you to feel free to dive into the pool with us! Yes, you might make some mistakes — we’ll all make mistakes — but that’s okay. You learn from them, and you fail better next time, as they say. 😉
To clarify, I think it’s probably problematic for a person to try to write an “issue book” unless they have personal experience with it — for example, I’m a POC but not black, and I would never try to write a book *about* the experience of being black as its central conflict. But I have black MCs in my speculative fiction. Yes, it requires research and consciousness to make sure I’m portraying things non-stereotypically . . . but I like to think I’m doing them justice. (Honestly, if I wrote about just people who were my race, I feel like my books would be both (1) boring and (2) very demographically weird, since nowhere in the U.S. is populated entirely by people who look like me. 😉 )
It’s kind of like including anything about which you are not an expert, I think. If your MCs fly a helicopter somewhere, you might read about the experience of piloting a helicopter, get a pilot to beta read the passage, even get someone to take you up. It’s okay if you don’t actually know how to pilot, because you’re only going to be dropping in a few little details that evoke the experience. Whereas if you were going to write a book *about* flying helicopters, I’d think you should, y’know, actually be a pilot!
I think writing about characters very different from you is similar — you do a bunch of research, you talk to people, maybe you get someone from that demographic to beta read for you. You’ll be fine. 🙂 Remember, at the end of the day, we’re all human, and we’re more alike than not.
We need more, better representation of POCs in fiction, particularly as MCs. Please don’t be so afraid of getting it wrong that it prevents you from writing them!
Thank you slhuang!
I may eventually write a non-white main character, but when it comes to race/ethnic issues, getting it wrong can be a big problem. There’s too many stereotypes out there and I wouldn’t want to accidentally add to them. But you’re right, I could always get a beta reader who is the same background as the MC, so that’s a relief!
I do appreciate the dilemma and I love that you’re being thoughtful. But as a POC, I would rather an author try for inclusion (y’know, thoughtfully, which you would be!) and mess up a little rather than not try, y’know? 🙂
Feel free to drop by the POC room on AW sometimes. You can even vet your ideas for characters there if you want — “I’m writing a half-Black, half-Iranian vampire who’s going to have these interests and this plotline . . . does anyone see any big issues?” 😀 As long as you write your minority characters as people with their own goals and motivations I don’t think it will be as scary as you think!
Thanks slhuang for the kind words!
I’ll definitely stop by that room and use a beta reader when I write a minority MC in a book.
In S&tM, Alia – in my mind – is of African descent, but I never wanted to make an issue of race, so never made it explicit; there are one or two ambiguous references to it.
Far more worrying for me: I’m a cis-everything male writer whose characters are often females of minority sexuality… How many potential readers dismiss my books purely on the basis of my gender?
I got the impression Alia was not white, and I wished it was more clear what her ethnicity was so I could picture her more easily in my mind.
If anyone thinks your books are not worth reading because your a man writing about bisexual/lesbians, maybe you can do a campaign explaining why you write about those characters, like a blog tour? I think it is sad for a woman to refuse to read your books because you’re a man, but there’s no misogynistic attitudes toward your characters so they’re missing out.
How interesting that you felt that…
I’m sure there was a decision point where I wanted to describe Alia, and it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t ever described Suzie as white so was it really important to describe Alia as being other?
I was just reading Jami Gold’s post on Kristen Lamb’s blog which talks about the problems of including excessive detail – clearly I’m guilty in this case of not including enough.
I don’t mean Alia’s ethnicity needed to be mentioned in all her scenes. I probably overlooked the two times you did mention that, so that’s my fault there.
No, no,… I didn’t mention it at all, so you’re not at fault, and I find it interesting that you sensed it anyway – but your post and comment make me wonder how wise my logic was in choosing not to be explicit.
Great post on an interesting topic. After quite a few of these discussions, I came to the conclusion that I choose the character that best fits the need of the story, regardless of race, religion, or gender. I don’t believe it’s possible or necessary to “get it right”. Because, unless you are trying to make a statement about stereotypes, cliches, or are writing historical pieces showing human condition, there is no right. Just varying shades skin tone. Right is being true to the character. If racial issues are important to the character and the story, then more attention should be paid to that area of the character’s makeup. But these issues are individual to the character in question. I do like the beta reader idea if the writer feels it’s warranted.
Thanks Dennis – great point!
I think the key to writing multi-cultural characters is realizing that ethnicity is just one aspect of who a person is and that the character you create is not meant to be a stereotype or some generic representation of an entire culture, but a unique individual. When you write a Mexican-American character you are not speaking for or offering a representation of an entire culture. Diversity exists within these confines as well. You’re simply writing about a person–making them feel as real and authentic as you possibly can–who just happens to be Hispanic.
Thanks laekanzeakem!
I actually do feel that way – I wrote about a human being who just happened to be Hispanic. Maybe my concern over someone not liking how I portrayed her was not necessary.
However, I read that there were some people who weren’t happy that Ben Affleck played the role of Tony Mendez in the movie, “Argo” – simply because he’s white and not Hispanic. That’s odd because the movie had nothing to do with Mendez’s heritage, and even Mendez himself wasn’t upset.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2012/10/16/ben_affleck_in_argo_why_is_a_white_guy_playing_tony_mendez.html
Looks like the bottom line is you can’t please everyone, so just do your best.
Oh, gosh, the Argo thing ticked me off SO much and I’ll tell you why. 🙂 The reason is that there are so, so few good roles for POC in Hollywood, and so many times, when a story gets made based on *real people,* the protagonists are whitewashed because Hollywood thinks people can’t “relate” to a POC. For instance, the heroic doctor Extraordinary Measure was based on was Asian; they whitewashed him to be played by Harrison Ford. The main kid and the professor in 21 were *both* Asian in real life, and they whitewashed them both. They also whitewash stuff based on fictional properties — Avatar: The Last Airbender is a prime example; all the characters were Asian in the cartoon and they cast them as white actors in the live action movie. They do this with black and Hispanic RL people and fictional properties, too. It leaves POC actors with very few roles other than villains and sidekicks, and leaves POC viewers with no heroic protagonists of their ethnicities, and it reinforces stereotypes in people’s minds by never portraying POC as the heroes *they actually are in real life.*
Argo was one of the worst examples of this, IMHO, because we have a big problem in the U.S. right now with a very specific bigotry against Hispanic people that codes them as “un-American” (because of the controversies surrounding immigration). It would have been AMAZING if a major Hollywood movie directed by Ben Affleck could have starred a Hispanic man playing a character who is basically *the most patriotic type of person possible.* The most heroically American person possible. The type of person who put his life on the line for his fellow countrymen/women. Instead, Affleck decided to play such a plum role himself. (To add insult to injury, at the end of the movie they flashed the pictures of the real people, and all of them were cast to look like their RL counterparts . . . except Mendez, who looks nothing like Affleck.)
Anyway, sorry to go on for so long :), but that’s why the Argo thing was such a problem for a lot of people. It’s not so much a case of “can’t please everyone” in this case as a repeated, systemic whitewashing of which this was just one more example, and an especially egregious one considering current attitudes regarding Hispanic citizens.
🙂
I see what you mean, and it makes a lot of sense now. Gosh, I was already annoyed with all the inaccuracies in that movie, now knowing this isn’t making me feel better!
I can’t say I understand this mentality. I’m mostly black, and I’ve never had anyone tell me my MCs can’t be white because I’m not white. People are people first. I don’t have any special issues from not being white. I grew up like everyone else in the suburbs. I’m ditzy and scatterbrained and earned the nickname “Blondie” in high school. People are people.
Just because your MC is Asian, doesn’t mean they have to “act Asian.” If they grew up in the suburbs around a bunch of white people like I did, it makes sense they wouldn’t be all that culturally different. I’m not Asian or Hispanic in anyway, and I wouldn’t (and don’t) let it stop me from having characters of those nationalities. Just know your limits. If you don’t understand the inner city, don’t have characters (including white ones) from the inner city in your books. I’m not going to write about black people that grew up in a predominately black neighborhood because I don’t know them. I know myself and the ones that grew up with me and those are the ones I’m going to write about. I don’t write issue books though. Still, if I’m going to have a stray out of line comment thrown at an MC, I may not understand what it’s like to be called that, but we all know how it feels when someone makes you feel like crap.
You can’t put people in a box. Not all white people are the same. That goes for everyone else. Maybe it’s because I write fantasy. But the character is a person first. And the story is about the plot first. Their ethnicity is just their ethnicity. I think people make this way too complicated.
I didn’t mean to upset anyone with this post. I have seen other blogs talk about this and I wanted to give my perspective since it’s a topic worth addressing.
I guess I am making this more complicated than it needs to be, at least for me. Maybe it’s something worth noting for all writers.
Not upset at all by this- great topic and discussion.
My series is about four heroines. The first is half-Asian, the second is half-Israeli Jewish, the third is from a Boston brahmin blue blood family and the fourth is an African immigrant. I struggled with writing to all of them because while I am half-Korean, the first character’s story doesn’t talk a lot about the Korean-American experience, and it seems that a lot of books marketed as multicultural deal with the “clash of cultures” angle. That isn’t what my story is about, so I didn’t market it that way, but I’m still nervous that someone is going to scoff that I’m just throwing interesting characters around for window dressing.
The character who is an African immigrant is based on a close friend of mine, but then my concern was putting too much of my friend into that. So I’m intentionally vague about country of origin to protect my friend’s identity (countries in Africa aren’t similar enough that you can just sub one for the other), but then I worry that, again, people are going to think I just threw something in to be interesting.
On top of that, I have two homosexual characters that come up in later books. I was VERY worried about writing to that because I didn’t want to be seen as being titillating in any way. I don’t go into detail about their sex lives because, again, that’s not what the story is about, but I’m very nervous about how that will be received.
Finally, one of the blue bloods in my story is a scientist who starts a company with friends from college, and none of them are white- one is Indian, one is Mexican and one is African-American. The story isn’t about them, but I felt like it was important to reflect the kind of people you meet in college. But am I going to get busted for not delving into their lives more?
Sometimes we just have to write what we want to and cross our fingers.
Thanks Deb!
It’s great to know that there many other authors who feel the same way about this. I also felt when I created the characters of Monica and Yvette – that readers thought I was throwing them in so my book would be more interesting.
I’m very glad this was an honest discussion for everyone!
I write ethnically diverse and white main characters. I’m Haitian American (black). I approach my characters of all ethnic backgrounds the same way. They are people. No matter what ethnicity people tend to have a lot in common, more so than one would think. We tend to all love/care about family, health, finances, etc. Being of a different ethnicity does not automatically mean my life experiences are going to be that much different from a white or Hispanic or Asian American. I think people may over think ethnically diverse characters.