The Problems With “Stay In Your Lane” Diversity
I'm thinking about writing (early stages of plotting), a book about teenagers from around the world who get selected to go to space. But the ship sinks, and they end up trying to survive in a submarine while exploring a planet.
Yep, it's very inspired by Subnatica. The similarities will get less and less however, as the plot thickens.
Now, in my research about trying to write characters from around the world with different life views and experiences, I stumbled upon some articles.
And what I found shocked me.
The article started by saying that is fine to write POC characters, but not as the MC. Harsh, but I understand. But darn, I guess that means my original main characters will have to be swapped with the (white) oringal side character.
As the article continued, it said that white people make POC characters the sidekick too often, and they need to have more of the focus for once. That conflicts with the previous point a little, but...actually I'm not sure how you can have a character that isn't an MC and isn't a side character.
Next, the article said that actually, white people should never write POC characters because we will never know what it's like, even with days and weeks and months of research, talking to people, and travel. Which I suppose means I have to kick those POC characters out of my book entirely and replace them with white people from around the world.
Problematic.
But thinking about it more, I realized that “life experiences” will apply to everything. With those rules, it means my book characters should become 10 white teens from Canada who are distantly francophone in a small town with short brown hair. They're all going to be white, straight, cisgender girls.
The article also said that say, Chinese characters should only write Chinese characters for the sake of “diversity”. No South African characters, because “that will make your book bad”. I find that just as problematic as my previous statement.
The article finished with a rant about how few books are diverse.
Is this truly the path to diversity?
-Sarah
What your describing as 'stay in your lane diversity' is more about a diversity of stories being available, from a diversity of authors. It's about whose voices haven't been heard in the because they been excluded in the past. It's about who gets to tell the stories of a people. It sounds like your thinking about an interesting story about a group of people working together, rather that a book about a people. I don't think you will have a problem if you are true to yourself and your characters. This is a tough issue though, that people are trying to work out.
ReplyDeleteThat you are wrestling with this issue at your age is a credit to you, keep thinking and writing.