Everyone seems to be arguing over whether or not it was obvious that he was non-white before this late-game description. But not many people tackling the 'if you were surprised that he was non-white you have problematic worldview'
I mean. Okay. Say you LEGITIMATELY missed his being non-white. Not because your racist white brain deliberately ignored the obvious clues but because you just didn't register it. I'm a quick reader, and I've been guilty of missing non-emphasized character traits and even minor plot points because I occasionally skim paragraphs. A bad habit, but it's more a lingering trait of my inattentive ADD than genuinely being careless. ANYWAY. I haven't read this book. But say someone had. And they missed the early indications. And they get alllllll the way to the end. And this apparently fairly bland character that they maybe saw as a non-descript white dude turns out to have been a non-descript PoC the whole time. I really. I think it's okay to be surprised. Surprise doesn't equal outrage, you know? If they felt it hadn't been addressed until then, it would be surprising. I would be surprised if I got to the end of the novel and found out the protagonist had flaming red hair. And not because I'm prejudiced against redheads.
If anything, the assumption that any character is white is a reflection of popular media today, not the individual. If you read a lot of books, watch a lot of television, movies, etc. there's gonna be a disproportionately white cast in all of the above. You get used to it, you come to expect it. It doesn't make you a shit person with white preferences because you make a SAFE guess at something. And not even consciously! We're talking about a subconscious assumption.
I don't know. I don't think this is sign of a problematic worldview that needs to be reexamined. I think it's a sign of a problematic world, that has affected our views. Even the most actively non-racist, open-minded and accepting and radical person probably isn't going to assume a character is like.. black and gay and disabled without being told. They might consciously decide they are, which is super cool, but it's not where the mind goes automatically.
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I mean. Okay. Say you LEGITIMATELY missed his being non-white. Not because your racist white brain deliberately ignored the obvious clues but because you just didn't register it. I'm a quick reader, and I've been guilty of missing non-emphasized character traits and even minor plot points because I occasionally skim paragraphs. A bad habit, but it's more a lingering trait of my inattentive ADD than genuinely being careless. ANYWAY. I haven't read this book. But say someone had. And they missed the early indications. And they get alllllll the way to the end. And this apparently fairly bland character that they maybe saw as a non-descript white dude turns out to have been a non-descript PoC the whole time. I really. I think it's okay to be surprised. Surprise doesn't equal outrage, you know? If they felt it hadn't been addressed until then, it would be surprising. I would be surprised if I got to the end of the novel and found out the protagonist had flaming red hair. And not because I'm prejudiced against redheads.
If anything, the assumption that any character is white is a reflection of popular media today, not the individual. If you read a lot of books, watch a lot of television, movies, etc. there's gonna be a disproportionately white cast in all of the above. You get used to it, you come to expect it. It doesn't make you a shit person with white preferences because you make a SAFE guess at something. And not even consciously! We're talking about a subconscious assumption.
I don't know. I don't think this is sign of a problematic worldview that needs to be reexamined. I think it's a sign of a problematic world, that has affected our views. Even the most actively non-racist, open-minded and accepting and radical person probably isn't going to assume a character is like.. black and gay and disabled without being told. They might consciously decide they are, which is super cool, but it's not where the mind goes automatically.