case: (Default)
Case ([personal profile] case) wrote in [community profile] fandomsecrets2012-05-13 03:49 pm

[ SECRET POST #1958 ]


⌈ Secret Post #1958 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 05 pages, 104 secrets from Secret Submission Post #280.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

(Anonymous) 2012-05-14 12:53 am (UTC)(link)
I'm a writer and I honestly have no idea how to handle POC characters.

I can't just write them like anyone else because then I'll get accused of 'making them like white people'. I don't even know what that means? races are not homogenous groups with shared personalities and traits.

(Anonymous) 2012-05-14 01:09 am (UTC)(link)
I feel you, anon.

(Anonymous) 2012-05-14 03:02 am (UTC)(link)
I think any SJW who said something that blatantly racist would get called out themselves pretty much immediately so it's no excuse not to try!

(Anonymous) 2012-05-14 04:48 am (UTC)(link)
No, no they wouldn't. Just like how in RL people from various races will be accused of 'acting white' if they behave a certain way, and that attitude does, sadly, seem to carry over.

[identity profile] fuchsiascreams.livejournal.com 2012-05-14 04:08 pm (UTC)(link)
I doubt it. I've seen a hundred examples of SJWs saying something that was at least as offensive as what they were trying to argue against, and other SJWs never point it out, let alone admit to their own mistakes. They seem to think they're above having to apologize because AFTER ALL, THEY'RE JUST ENFORCING JUSTICE, THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE TO APOLOGIZE FOR ACCIDENTALLY OFFENDING SOMEONE, EVEN IF THEY'RE YELLING AT SOMEONE ELSE FOR DOING THE SAME THING. THEY'RE MAKING UP FOR IT BY DRIVING BAD PEOPLE OFF THE INTERNET AND OUT OF FANDOMS AND SENDING THEM DEATH THREATS.

[identity profile] megalomaniageek.livejournal.com 2012-05-14 05:14 am (UTC)(link)
OK so
I'm no expert - I'm white - but I've done a lot of reading on cultural appropriation and stuff and I know people from other countries and descendants of people from other countries and I've read books written by foreign and American PoC authors.

One thing that's worth differentiating, to me, is whether the PoC you're thinking of writing is in a culture similar to yours or in a culture different from yours, and if they're in a culture similar to yours whether they were (or their parents were) from a different culture before. For my example I'll assume you're a white non-immigrant American and go from there. An African American and a fourth generation Japanese American are probably going to be considerably culturally closer to you than an FOB Indian immigrant or Romani living in the UK. The hypothetical African American and Japanese American characters' experiences will be impacted by being PoC in the US and by the culture they grew up in, but overall you'd be less likely to make them seem unrealistic with your natural inclinations for writing characters because culturally all these characters are Americans and are shaped by American culture, so they'll be similar to white American characters you would write. Like, write a character and imagine casting them for a TV show or movie - what would have to change if you hired a PoC actor?
Doing research is usually best though, even just a little. The more the better, and the further away the culture is from your own/the character is from you the more you should research before feeling comfortable.

Try reading something like Mindy Kaling's autobiography if you're not sure what I'm talking about (I greatly enjoyed this book and it illustrates my point, so I picked that as an example, but if you've never seen The Office and aren't interested in NBC comedy you should probably pick something else). If I wrote Mindy Kaling as a character, for example, I feel confident I could write her because she's similar to my age and was raised in my culture, and she and I speak similarly and feel similarly about many things. She and I are both creative but lazy. I identified a lot with her struggles trying to get work after college. Her experiences at school and with friends were similar to mine. But I couldn't construct her experiences with her immigrant parents, which she also discusses in the book. Much of my understanding comes from hearing from her about it, very little from my own experience; it's not something I could spontaneously come up with. With research, I might be able to get enough sense of it for my purposes...but then, that's if I feel the need to examine that part of her. If I was just writing about her work life, it would be something helpful to understand her more fully, but she wouldn't be an enigma to me without my knowledge of her experiences with immigrant parents and Indian culture. It's a facet of her, but it's not her in entirety.

[identity profile] fuchsiascreams.livejournal.com 2012-05-14 04:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Does anybody else find it ironic that SJWs are so adamant that people of marginalized races, sexualities, disabilities, etc. should be treated equally (as they should be), but then attach SO much importance to writers giving them problems that are specific to their genders/sexualities/races? I honestly find that to be much more problematic and offensive than a writer writing a PoC as having generic problems that are not related to what race they are.

(Anonymous) 2012-05-15 07:19 pm (UTC)(link)
It's pure, distilled, racism....and it's so ironic that the SJWs can't see just how racist they really are.

...and don't even get me started on the whole 'privledge' crap.