I'm so glad to know this helped! Too often we get caught up in the surface and we try to express our differences in terms of skin color or facial features when it's about the cultures we were raised in or those we were able to observe first hand. For those of us who write paranormal fiction, the importance is to honor the cultures we create, while representing the rainbow of possibility those in the culture can visually represent. A great trick is to give them something that is completely inhumane to remind the reader that they are not dealing with human beings and human culture and therefore cannot expect to receive whatever they consider a human cultural response from the characters in question. It will keep them thinking beyond their own biases and in the story fully.
I would like to touch on something that struck me in your original post and that would be brought up for scrutiny in certain circles while discussing this topic.
So, I have white, Maori, Indian (from India), Chinese, black, Russian, Columbian and Cambodian characters
Why are white and black not capitalized in the context of the other ethnicities that you mentioned? If the premise is that they aren't ethnicities in and of themselves, something I accept, shouldn't they still be capitalized as cultures? I can't argue for "white culture" save to say the American cultural default is white, but if I use the words Black Culture, it's easily accepted as a measurable social phenomena. So why the lower case? And to be clear, when I say Black Culture, I don't mean African-American Culture, which is different.
There are many people in American (we can discuss nationalism at some point as well if you wish), that are living within Black culture that are not African-American but instead, Haitian, Dominican, Puerto Rican, West African & South African students/diplomats/exiles, British, French, or Canadian expats, and more, but the common thread is that they are all Black in America and therefore all living the Black Experience and participating in Black Culture despite not being African-American. Do you see why I asked the question?
These are little things that will come up when speaking about ethnicity and culture and how to appropriately approach it with sensitivity and respect. But they are the same things very often not spoken of in a public forum to in turn help foster an understanding between those for whom ethnic heritage defines their culture and those who have a more regional based culture.
I look forward to getting to know you as well and I hope we can both be as helpful as possible to each other!
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Date: Tue, Apr. 26th, 2011 05:45 am (UTC)I would like to touch on something that struck me in your original post and that would be brought up for scrutiny in certain circles while discussing this topic.
So, I have white, Maori, Indian (from India), Chinese, black, Russian, Columbian and Cambodian characters
Why are white and black not capitalized in the context of the other ethnicities that you mentioned? If the premise is that they aren't ethnicities in and of themselves, something I accept, shouldn't they still be capitalized as cultures? I can't argue for "white culture" save to say the American cultural default is white, but if I use the words Black Culture, it's easily accepted as a measurable social phenomena. So why the lower case? And to be clear, when I say Black Culture, I don't mean African-American Culture, which is different.
There are many people in American (we can discuss nationalism at some point as well if you wish), that are living within Black culture that are not African-American but instead, Haitian, Dominican, Puerto Rican, West African & South African students/diplomats/exiles, British, French, or Canadian expats, and more, but the common thread is that they are all Black in America and therefore all living the Black Experience and participating in Black Culture despite not being African-American. Do you see why I asked the question?
These are little things that will come up when speaking about ethnicity and culture and how to appropriately approach it with sensitivity and respect. But they are the same things very often not spoken of in a public forum to in turn help foster an understanding between those for whom ethnic heritage defines their culture and those who have a more regional based culture.
I look forward to getting to know you as well and I hope we can both be as helpful as possible to each other!