This past week in my creative writing class, we had a discussion about authors creating characters that are of a different ethnicity, gender or sexuality from themselves.
It began with one of my classmates describing a story he wrote in which a queer character of color is the main character. My classmate is a white, straight man. Naturally, this created some questions.
What was his motivation for writing such a character?
Was his character weighed down by stereotypes?
A big question: what right did he think he had?
He answered that he just wanted to take a stab at writing from a perspective completely different from his own. While this was an innocent and genuine attempt, it still bothered some people.
Some classmates said they believed in artistic freedom being the right we have to write diverse characters. Other classmates argued that white men writing diverse characters takes away from the diversity.
I believe as long as a writer can create a character that embodies the identity of their subject while avoiding terrible stereotypes, then more power to them.
Writing a believable, diverse character is extremely important considering so many people are looking for those characters to relate to.
While we have many white authors and screenwriters trying to portray characters of color or LGBT characters accurately, there are the revolutionary writers who are taking classical white characters and turning them into characters of color.
“Hamilton” created a huge splash in the musical industry with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s recreation of colonial America and its founding fathers.
The production involves a cast almost completely composed of people of color, despite the fact the historical figures the characters are based on were white.
Everybody loved it. Why? Because it diversified a history that many people have a hard time connecting to due to lack of representation.
And the writer was a person of color.
So what do we do with this? Do we only let those who have the best experience write what they know?
Writing what you know is one of the most common pieces of advice someone can give a writer. Why is that? Don’t we eventually get tired of hearing the same story that we have all experienced?
I definitely advocate that writers of color deserve more recognition than they have received. Too often, we give credit to white authors who seldom include a gay character, or hell, even a woman.
People of color, the LGBT community and women should not have to depend on a white man to have their voices heard in literature, television or other types of media.
After class, I asked my professor, Samrat Upadhyay, what he thought about the discussion.
He said, “Writers need to be cautious, knowledgeable and sensitive, but they also need to take risks.”
Writing, at times, is an art that has to include tact. Whether it be journalistic, nonfiction or fiction writing, the author should keep tact in the back of their mind at all times.
We write because we feel strongly about a subject, and even begin to feel empathetic towards the characters we have created as well as the people we base our stories on.
It is very rare that an author goes into a project with the intent of offending a reader or indulging in stereotypes. Authors want to share their empathetic feelings with the public in hopes of inspiring empathy within them as well.
mmgarbac@indiana.edu
