In my corner of publishing Twitter, many people have settled on the rule that a white person should write books with diverse casts—but may NOT write a non-white “POV character” because the author can never truly know what it’s like to experience the world as a person of color.
I think this is silly – most authors don’t know what it’s like to experience the world, period, as we’re on the couch in our pajamas making up stories. Fiction = imagination. But also, it seems regressive to dictate that for white authors, POC can only be secondary characters observed by white people. That’s not going to prevent lazy stereotypes.
The other argument is that it’s wrong for a white person to profit from “stories that aren’t theirs” – profits that should have gone to an author of color. People imagine publishers rejecting books by authors of color because they already gave those spots to white authors writing similar (but less authentic) stories.
I’m sympathetic to the idea that some stories aren’t mine to tell, especially “what it’s like to grow up as a person of color” books. Yeah, I could do the research, but there’s no good reason to try. And if “diverse books” lists were full of books by white authors, I would think that was unfair.
But to the extent that this was a problem in the past, we have already overcorrected for it. Your book about little Maya will never be published, and that's for the best. But I don’t believe books about homicide detectives or space pirates must always map on to the author’s exact identity.
About a year ago ago I read Underground Airlines by White Guy Ben Winters which was published in 2017 and I thought whoa-ho-ho buddy you just snuck this one in under the wire! It was a decent book, not a stunning favorite, but an interesting idea for sure. But the premise alone would get a white guy cancelled these days.
I’m so pleased you wrote about this topic because it’s ridiculous and deserves to be excoriated as such.
Good luck on your book! Back in 2004 I wrote a series about a young orphaned witch named Helen Porter and I’m still trying to get an agent to bite.
That article in the link is amazing, for the story it tells about Dutton, Simon and their project, but also how so little has changed, and yet this reporting is so, so much better, so much more thoughtful in explaining what the irritations of a Dutton or Dionne Warwick about portrayals of black people to white people are, than what we get from the Times these days
In my corner of publishing Twitter, many people have settled on the rule that a white person should write books with diverse casts—but may NOT write a non-white “POV character” because the author can never truly know what it’s like to experience the world as a person of color.
I think this is silly – most authors don’t know what it’s like to experience the world, period, as we’re on the couch in our pajamas making up stories. Fiction = imagination. But also, it seems regressive to dictate that for white authors, POC can only be secondary characters observed by white people. That’s not going to prevent lazy stereotypes.
The other argument is that it’s wrong for a white person to profit from “stories that aren’t theirs” – profits that should have gone to an author of color. People imagine publishers rejecting books by authors of color because they already gave those spots to white authors writing similar (but less authentic) stories.
I’m sympathetic to the idea that some stories aren’t mine to tell, especially “what it’s like to grow up as a person of color” books. Yeah, I could do the research, but there’s no good reason to try. And if “diverse books” lists were full of books by white authors, I would think that was unfair.
But to the extent that this was a problem in the past, we have already overcorrected for it. Your book about little Maya will never be published, and that's for the best. But I don’t believe books about homicide detectives or space pirates must always map on to the author’s exact identity.
It’s about time someone cancelled Kazuo Ishiguro!
About a year ago ago I read Underground Airlines by White Guy Ben Winters which was published in 2017 and I thought whoa-ho-ho buddy you just snuck this one in under the wire! It was a decent book, not a stunning favorite, but an interesting idea for sure. But the premise alone would get a white guy cancelled these days.
I’m so pleased you wrote about this topic because it’s ridiculous and deserves to be excoriated as such.
Good luck on your book! Back in 2004 I wrote a series about a young orphaned witch named Helen Porter and I’m still trying to get an agent to bite.
“The current madness is a perversion of a legitimate critique.” Spot on! Bumper sticker this.
So…about David Simon and The Wire: Charles S Dutton was *very* suspicious of him while directing The Corner:
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/national/race/061100scott-corner.html?scp=8&sq=Black%252520Man%252527s%252520Cry&st=cse
That article in the link is amazing, for the story it tells about Dutton, Simon and their project, but also how so little has changed, and yet this reporting is so, so much better, so much more thoughtful in explaining what the irritations of a Dutton or Dionne Warwick about portrayals of black people to white people are, than what we get from the Times these days