Diversity in Fiction.

[misslj_author]

I've been thinking about this for a while but it came to a head today after a discussion with jerusalemorbust last night and a discussion between meredith_shayne and myself this morning. (Both of whom I hope will comment here. :D) The subject being multiculturalism and interracial relationships in novels and characters that are in some way disabled and characters that are over the age of 25. (Warning: this post does contain a bit of self-absorbed hyperbole alas.)



It's been on my mind so much, personally, because in writing my Archangels novel, I am very aware that choosing to have each of the ten Archangels be a particular race, I am putting myself out there to be potentially inflammatory and/or offensive. It's on my mind that I could be called a racist or accused of cultural appropriation. Not to mention the religion thing, but I'm choosing to ignore it for the simple reason that I ignore it in the book. They're Archangels, they have a job to do, there's no praying or reading of scripture or anything like that. They just happen to be made by God – and God means different things to different people – there's no pontificating about any religion because that's just not what I want to write about.

So, I have white, Maori, Indian (from India), Chinese, black, Russian, Columbian and Cambodian characters. I've asked a few people about describing these characters because I want it to be very clear that they are not the default of white, male, mid-twenties, because they can switch gender as they choose, they aren't all white, and, as Archangels, older than time itself, they really aren't in their mid-twenties. My main concern is stereotyping: I don't want to describe them too much but I don't want to scrimp on it, either.

They are, in their natural state, creatures of light and energy. They take human shapes so as to do their duties and interact with humanity and also, the pesky side effect of their natural state tends to blind and melt the brains of humans. So it's a protection for human eyes as well as a means towards interaction without too many problems. Of course, there are problems, because otherwise there would be no story, but that's not what I'm going to talk about here.

I don't want to do PoC a disservice or show disrespect in how I write these characters. They're all likable characters, they all have flaws. (She says with great modesty!) I don't want the colour of their skin or the race their chosen forms are to be a deciding factor in whether or not they're likable. In short, I am genuinely terrified of being disrespectful.



Then there's able bodied versus not so able bodied. I'm working on a sequel to City of Gold right now, and my two main characters are older men, one of them has less mobility than his partner. This is due to a war injury and because of it, his hip and knee play up. Now, that sounds all fine and probably, to someone who doesn't suffer this sort of pain and the debilitation that goes with it as it gets worse, nothing worth mentioning.

I want to say right here and now, that's bullshit. Chronic pain is, to be blunt, a bitch. I know; I live with it. Every. Single. Day. The pain and frustration my character suffers is familiar to me, because I deal with this myself. The atrophy of muscles, the irreparable damage to cartilage and nerves makes mobility difficult, makes joints sometimes unusable. This is hard for me to articulate here, actually – it's easier for me to do in fiction because I can separate myself from it, in a way.

The character doesn't talk about it unless asked directly and unless it's someone he knows very well, he'll just say it's a war wound and change the subject. (Setting is the Byzantine Empire, the year 1131AD.) Why doesn't he talk about it? Because he's ashamed.

I know what that feels like too. My own situation makes me ashamed to say the words, "I'm disabled." I hate that I feel shame when I say this, but the reaction to these two little words is either pity – and I don't want pity – or disgust. Neither reflect the reality of my life, but there we go. Now, I, like my character, don't want to go into the nitty gritty of it, but it wasn't a war wound for me. It is what it is, I live with it daily and I don't particularly like explaining it – even to medical professionals because there's always that lingering shame of it and that whatever I say will be met with pity and/or disgust.

And it is, each and every time. Even in, I'm afraid to say, some of my friends. I know they don't mean it, and I know it's not conscious. I know that the pity they exhibit is genuine compassion and they wish they could help or something, but... having this, living with this does not mean I need to be treated as any less a person. So yeah, it's a bugbear and I can completely understand why authors would feel concerned that they might give offence when writing a character with a disability that they themselves don't have or have direct experience with (i.e., caring for a relative, working in support for that disability, etc.).

Which brings me to my point, in a long winded way – how do we, as writers, approach these topics that we, personally, may not have experience with, without giving offence to readers who do ?


People are people and love is love. Age, race, religion, disability, sex – none of this should matter. Unfortunately, because of societal conditioning, it does. And that's terrible.

Comments

Answer part I

[xakara.livejournal.com]

That's not a short answer, I'll probably have to do this is two comments, but that's okay. :)

There are scores of books and entire courses of study based on breaking down the Black Experience, Black Culture and African-American Culture and Experience. I look at the difference in terms of background and experience and inclusive vs. exclusive. African-American Culture is the shared experience of an entire hue of skin colorations, socio-economic circumstances, and educational backgrounds that are superseded by the commonality of expression and oppression. For African-Americans, as for all cultures, that expression of shared history and identity comes through in music, clothing, food, celebrations, lexicon and an inherent resonance with what it means to be Black in American.

The Black Experience on the other hand, is global. Regardless of your country of origin and the regional identification, there is a unique experience to being Black in the Western & Western-influenced World. Despite our individual genetic histories, the shared ancestral legacy of slavery and oppression, along with modern bigotry and ignorance binds us together. You can take someone of African descent from Canada, the United States, South America, Spain, England, Algeria, Angola, South Africa, Egypt, Inda, Mongolia, Australia and New Zealand and have them walk together down a street in Midwest America and they are all Black. They will all be treated with the same biases, be they good or bad, and they will have the same experience for as long as they are in the same location.

So while the African-American Experience is local and the culture internal, the Black Experience is global and the culture external. All African-Americans are Black but not all Blacks are African-American. Your two Archangels will be treated the same when they walk down the street, but if Raphael lived a human life, he'd have a different culture base than Samael would have had in Ghana, but they're both in America from what you said, so where Raphael's African-American Culture and Samael's Ghanaian Culture overlap, is their shared Black Experience and the Black Culture that comes from that experience.

Going from the global and inclusive definition of Black Culture, to the nationalist explanation, Black Culture is the accumulation of cultural influence by all those internally and externally identified as Black in the United States regardless of how they individually identify. So again, all African-Americans are included in the term Black Culture but not all who identify as Black consider themselves African-American.

I think one of the best ways to really take in a cultural sensitivity is to hear and read about the experiences of each ethnicity in the words of those who've lived it. There are countless essays and documentaries and studies and where you don't have to turn it into a second career, I think it's imperative that we all dedicate time to each culture or ethnicity we wish to represent in our writing and that we take every opportunity to soak in that knowledge when it's presented. I watch everything I can that comes concerning ethnic migration and the experience of PoC in the U.S. and abroad because I know my story is only one way it could have happened. The greater the variety of stories I learn I want to learn the more effectively I can touch on those different threads and weave a new narrative for my character.

It can seem daunting, but the information is out there and much of it in easily digestible form in order to encourage understanding across cultures and ethnicities.