Minority Characters

[cwilliard]

One of the first people I asked to read my novel; Belly of the Dragon is half African, half Native American. One of his first questions when he was done reading was “Where are the black guys?” I told him that there was one but he was a very minor character and was killed. Although the question about minority characters was asked jokingly it got me thinking.

I myself am half Italian; and yes being only half Italian is better than all of anything else. Just kidding. I am by no means a racist nor was it a conscience decision to exclude minorities and to a large extent women from my story. In my WIP I considered this from the beginning and probably half the characters are either women or minorities. I was just wondering if anyone else as looked at their story and saw that there was a lack of female or minority characters. Is this a common occurrence?

[DamaNegra]

I haven't had that happen much. I try to include a variety of people into my WIPs, and use most of the groups I live with in my WIPs.

[three seven]

One of his first questions when he was done reading was “Where are the black guys?”Always nice to know your beta reader's mind is on the job.

[PeeDee]

I agree. What a wonderful beta reader you've got.

I think skin color and race are wonderful things to play with in stories. Harlan Ellison did a story (I want to say it's The Paladin of the Lost Hour, but I'm not postive) in which he told us about his two characters, and said, "One man was black, the other man was white."

He never clarified which was which. I love that. Absolutely love it.

[Aconite]

Always nice to know your beta reader's mind is on the job.
That (the quote referred to) was a legitimate beta reader's question. It does occur to people to wonder, "Why isn't there anyone like me in there?" Sometimes there's a good reason for it, but most often, it's because the writer didn't think of it.

If you're a woman, you do tend to notice that the only thing the one woman in a cast of fifteen characters does is scream and fall down. If you're Latino, you notice that there isn't a single non-Anglo character. Readers who don't share your assumptions pick up on them, and that's one of the jobs of a beta reader.

[MadScientistMatt]

Is it a literal or figurative dragon?

Just wondering, since fantasy often tends to take place in a world similar to medieval England, France, or Germany. So it would be expected for most of the people there to be white. The ethnicities of the characters should make sense for the time and location of your setting.

Stories set in the future can be a whole new can of worms. I've made a start on a space opera set a couple hundred years from now, where most of the people in that future are multiethnic.

[CaitlinK18]

I agree that it depends totally on your setting. Cwillard, you're writing about the Italian mafia, right? Not a lot of women or people of mixed ethnicity in a story like that. On the other hand, my WIP (urban fantasy) takes place in a fictional, modern-day big city, so I have tried to represent what you'd find there--the protagonist is a female of Scottish descent, there's a prominent supporting character who's black, the love interest is a Ukranian immigrant...in other words, a big melting pot. Just like a big, modern-day city.

If your story is location and/or period-specific, then you can get away with not mixing ethnicity much. You wouldn't see any Anglos in feudal Japan, for example. But if it's the modern day and a story grounded mostly in reality, you are remiss if you don't at least acknowledge that there are people out there who are a different color, size, shape ect. than you.

[Kasey Mackenzie]

I'm white, but it only seems natural for me to include multi-racial cast members in my WIP's. The previous one, a paranormal romance, had a white heroine and hero, but the heroine's best friend was Indian/Hindu, her stepfather/stepbrother were black, her half-siblings obviously half black/half white, and secondary characters ranged from white to black to Native American, etc. The current WIP has four different MC's, each of which comes from a different culture including white (she was orphaned so doesn't know much beyond that), half-Asian/half-Irish, black, and either Latino or Arab-American (haven't decided on the last character). I don't sit down to make sure I have a perfectly balanced cast of characters, it just usually seems to develop that way.

[Valona]

My recently completed novel also contains multi-ethnic personalities because I felt it reflected the location and times, not because I wanted to write a treatise on ethnicity.

I think we make too much of not wanting to offend people by merely inadvertently omitting that person's race, ethnicity, color, or what have you. To me, it's more important to just write the best story we can. We're entertainers, not politicians.

I recently read several young adult books by a black author, I can't remember her first name but her last name is Draper. She has wonderful books. I loved them all. Very exciting, suspenseful, realistic, and very well written. The setting is a city in modern-day United States. However, she does not have ONE white person, or anyone of any other ethnic group mentioned in any of her books as far as I could tell. Do I condemn her as racist? Never. She's a great author. She wrote the book she wanted to write, the one that was in her heart. In the same vein, I don't think it should be a requirement of any author to make certain we include some quota of minorities so we don’t offend someone. Just write the best book you can, the one that's in your heart, as realistic as you can. The salability of the book will be its measure.

[Celia Cyanide]

When I read a story written by a man, when all the characters are men, it doesn't bother me as much. I might relate to it better if it has a female character, but it wouldn't turn me off. What DOES turn me off is when male writers create female characters that don't feel real, just for the sake of having female characters.

As much as I loved "The Last Gentleman," by Walker Percy, I couldn't stand the character of Kitty. He did a much better job with Allison in the sequel.

[Nicholas S.H.J.M Woodhouse]

What DOES turn me off is when male writers create female characters that don't feel real, just for the sake of having female characters.


that is one of my biggest fears as a writer.

[kmm8n]

What DOES turn me off is when male writers create female characters that don't feel real, just for the sake of having female characters.
.

I absolutely agree. Because my current WIP is a romantic suspense in NYC, I tried to include a variety of ethnicities. However, as I am a white person, I really don't know what the (for example) African American experience is. So, I asked a friend who is African American to critique my characterization. I am also not a cop, so I asked NYPD officer to critique that aspect of my story. It just makes sense to me.

Peace,
Kathleen

[FolkloreFanatic]

When I read a story written by a man, when all the characters are men, it doesn't bother me as much. I might relate to it better if it has a female character, but it wouldn't turn me off. What DOES turn me off is when male writers create female characters that don't feel real, just for the sake of having female characters.

Exactly! ARGH, I HATE that. That and cheesy horror stories like the plot of I Know What You Did Last Summer 2 where the writer lets the black guy acknowledge that the black guy usually gets killed. Then the black guy gets killed. -.-

I'll give you one example of an author who tells excellent stories that I simply cannot read: Bernard Cornwell's Arthurian trilogy. His plots were fantastic, but he was such a chauvinist when it came to his protrayal of women that I didn't even make it through a whole book. His idealized woman was a blonde bombshelle with no brains in a medieval shift, and he actually managed to make Guinevere even *more* of a loathsome villain than Tennyson or Malory ever could. The women in power were always evil b****es hell-bent on castrating their male counterparts. My brother says the Sharpe series Cornwell wrote isn't any better in this regard.

Heck, I'd much rather relate to a man than any woman he writes, and that's difficult enough as it is.

[Jamesaritchie]

I think a writer needs to write. If minority characters belong in teh story, put them in. If they don't, leave them out. Putting them in for the sake of political correctness is what's wrong with half the TV shows these days.


Minority characters only belong in a story if they belong in a story, and there's no reason at all to add a single minority character unless the writer is telling a story that demands such a character for whatever reason.

Get enough beta readers from enough minorities, all of who ask where their particular minority is, and then what do you do? Of course, if you skip several minorites as beta readers, well, that's a problem, too, isn't it?

You can't, and shouldn't, stick minority characters in like raisins in a cookie. And you can't stick them in for political correctness, or because someone might call you racist if you leave them out.

I think the best answer to "Where are the black guys?" is "They're in the story you're going to write."

[cwilliard]

[QUOTE=CaitlinK18]I agree that it depends totally on your setting. Cwillard, you're writing about the Italian mafia, right? Not a lot of women or people of mixed ethnicity in a story like that.

This is really why he asked why there were no black guys. He knew before hand that it was a story about the Mafia. In that book and it's sequal there are few characters that aren't involved in the larger plot. In my WIP there are a lot more secondary charaters. Also, my WIP takes place in Cleveland which is only about 45% white. Female characters have always troubled me. The ones I do create are very strong characters but I always wonder if women think in real life how they think in my stories. Fine I'll admit that a lot of the time I don't understand how women think; I'm sure I'm not the only one.

[CaitlinK18]

Cwillard, I know that the Mafia is extremely racist and sexist...did you touch on that at all? Just curious.

[loquax]

What DOES turn me off is when male writers create female characters that don't feel real, just for the sake of having female characters.On the flipside, I hate it when female writers create female protagonists for the sake of it - ones who are successful, intelligent, but have enough problems to warrant a story to be written about them. I suppose it's the same as the Cosby show and the Fresh Prince. Two black families, both incredibly rich, successful and intelligent, with huge houses (one of them even has a butler!). And especially the Fresh Prince - where every episode has an "evil white guy". Okay. I get it. Enough now. Please, please stop. If your basis for a story is some bizarre crusade of justice and equality, I really don't want to hear it.

[Lyra Jean]

If someone thinks that a writer is racist because their minority wasn't put in the work then they are the one with the problem not you. Barring novels as thinly disguised hate speech of course.

Write your story. Give it to betas. Take or leave their advice as you see fit.

[Jamesaritchie]

In the area where I grew up, there were no minorities. Zero. Even the high school had no minority students simply because no minorities lived within twenty miles. Even today, there are pretty much no minorities in those areas. Placing a minority character in a story set there just wouldn't ring true.

[reph]

Vertigo is set in San Francisco in the 1950s, and every face on the screen is white. That's unrealistic. SF had a large Chinese population then, as just one example, which helped make the feel of the city what it was, but you wouldn't know it from the street scenes. I think white viewers' sensibilities have changed. Maybe, in the fifties, people didn't notice that something looked wrong about the human background to the action.

[Celia Cyanide]

Also, my WIP takes place in Cleveland which is only about 45% white. Female characters have always troubled me. The ones I do create are very strong characters but I always wonder if women think in real life how they think in my stories. Fine I'll admit that a lot of the time I don't understand how women think; I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Then I see your dilemma. He perhaps wondered where the black guys were, because he expected to see some in Cleveland. You don't need to put anything in if you don't want to, but if the city you're writing about really is 45% white, a white person from that city might read it and wonder where all the black guys are. That might happen, since this is a mafia story, which usually deals with issues that concern a larger number of people than, say, a story about one married couple. I hope that makes sense.

In your story, whites might make up less than half of the city, but the main characters in your story might all be white. That's fine. But maybe you could set the scene by showing what the city is like? Or, if you want to, you could add a few black characters, and see what your friend thinks of them. He would be a good person to talk to about that.

I wouldn't worry as much about women, personally. I'm a feminist, but I would never read a mafia story and wonder why all the major players are men. That makes sense to me. The only reason you should be concerned is if you do write a female character, and someone (possible a woman) reads it and says, "She sucks."

[AdamH]

I usually refrain from even mentioning the race of a character unless it's important to the story. I like to make the assumption that whether a person is black, white, blue or purple, a person of equal intelligence and character and background should make the same choices. I look at it from a point of view that a person's eye colour doesn't impact their decisions why should skin colour?(other than the obvious impact of discrimination, ect...but if that's relevant to the story and his or her decisions, I'll mention it...see what I mean?)

[Jamesaritchie]

Vertigo is set in San Francisco in the 1950s, and every face on the screen is white. That's unrealistic. SF had a large Chinese population then, as just one example, which helped make the feel of the city what it was, but you wouldn't know it from the street scenes. I think white viewers' sensibilities have changed. Maybe, in the fifties, people didn't notice that something looked wrong about the human background to the action.

I still wouldn't care. I don't watch movies or read books because of faces in the crowd. I read books and watch movie to get the story of the main characters, whatever race they are.

And from my experience, you can still be in certain sections of SF all day long and not notice a Chinese person.

[FolkloreFanatic]

As for Vertigo, I didn't notice the lack of Chinese people because I'm so accustomed to white people writing solely about white people that I expect more of the same. That's one of the few good things about cinema's evolution over the past few decades--every character is no longer automatically a W.A.S.P. or a caricature. Invisible privilege is such a gargantuan task to conquer.

[Celia Cyanide]

I still wouldn't care. I don't watch movies or read books because of faces in the crowd. I read books and watch movie to get the story of the main characters, whatever race they are.

But a lot of people still do want what they feel is an accurate representation of the city. If people are reading a story set in a city in which whites make up less than half the population, they might expect to see people who are not white. The issue here is that if people catch themselves wondering about this, it might take them right out of the story, and they will start to think of it as, "this is what the writer is making happen," when you want them to think, "This is what is really happening."

I usually refrain from even mentioning the race of a character unless it's important to the story. I like to make the assumption that whether a person is black, white, blue or purple, a person of equal intelligence and character and background should make the same choices. I look at it from a point of view that a person's eye colour doesn't impact their decisions why should skin colour?(other than the obvious impact of discrimination, ect...but if that's relevant to the story and his or her decisions, I'll mention it...see what I mean?)

I agree. A lot of the time, a person's ethnicity doesn't have anything to do with the story. But I think that if you are describing the city, it helps a lot to describe what kind of people you see there. Are certain neighborhoods "white" or "black neighborhoods"? Or is it very integrated? Are there immigrants? Non-English speakers? It's not necessary, of course, but just mentioning it shows a lot about the setting the characters live in, IMO.

[LightShadow]

My characters can be any race by the way they're written. I only use ethnicity if it directly pertains to the story...not that I was trying to reiterate what the last post said.

[cwilliard]

Cwillard, I know that the Mafia is extremely racist and sexist...did you touch on that at all? Just curious.

Not as racist or sexist as you might think. While I'm not really trying to defend criminals, there are a lot of misconceptions about them. While the majority of wiseguys cheat of their wives, they generally do love them. They rarely hit their wives or even curse in front of them. In the Mafia you're looked down on if you can't control yourself around your wife.



In a few parts of the country Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, for instance the Mafia is very ethically mixed. A lot of criminals would much rather make money than worry about race.

[fallenangelwriter]

It's probably true that race, in itself, doesn't matter. two characters with the same life experience and same personalities will make the same choices. on the other hand, what's the chance of a chinese american and a white american having the same life experiences? I know a family of koreans quite well. where i live, i'm not aware of any prejudice against koreans. this particular family boasts a father who does much the same work as my father, a daughter who has much the same educational environment (we're both ghomeschooled) etc. one of the parents is an immigrant, but thye all speak fluent english and the kids were born here.

even so, they aren't quite the same as your average american. they do keep up a numbe rof korean traditions, their heritage led to a number of thier children's interests. (the daughter studies korean and japanese, and is studying many styles of asian animation)

I think we're a long way form being homogenized enough that a characters race doesn't matter.

[Celia Cyanide]

Not as racist or sexist as you might think. While I'm not really trying to defend criminals, there are a lot of misconceptions about them. While the majority of wiseguys cheat of their wives, they generally do love them. They rarely hit their wives or even curse in front of them.

Not to be picky, but I wouldn't say that means they aren't sexist. It means they aren't as misogynist as people might believe. Misogyny is hating women, sexism is not seeing women as equals. You can be sexist and still love your wife.

I don't really think a man is a sexist if he cusses around me. I think he's sexist if he doesn't cuss around me, specifically because he thinks I'm not an adult and can't handle it, when he would cuss around male adults.

[loquax]

I don't really think a man is a sexist if he cusses around me. I think he's sexist if he doesn't cuss around me, specifically because he thinks I'm not an adult and can't handle it, when he would cuss around male adults.Just like those sexist bastards on board the Titanic. Women and children first? You think women can't handle themselves? A pox on thee! Every man for himself! (treating children differently is agism)

[Celia Cyanide]

(treating children differently is agism)

Treating women like children is sexism. The Titanic was a long time ago, and standards have changed.

[WVWriterGirl]

My biggest problem is not race, but sex. I am female, and therefore, have a much greater insight into the female psyche. In my first MS, my main character is female and spends the majority of the time in the book with her "companions", which includes three females and two males and one "drakeling" which is also male. After one of my beta readers got done with it, he told me, "It's good, I liked it. I hope the next one has the guys doing more stuff...they just gathered firewood in this one."

I was floored. I didn't even realize it. The first book is mostly a journey across the countryside, and the only "battle" is between the main character and the antagonist, with the others not really involved. In the second book, I've decided to split the companions up into two groups. I think this'll help me more fully develop the male characters, and have them do more than "gather firewood". I've also got a second WIP in which the main character is a male. It's not only the way the story must be written, but it's helping me to develop male characterization.

[Julie Worth]

In the interest of racial harmony and political correctness, I often kill everyone off in the end.

[johnnysannie]

Just like those sexist bastards on board the Titanic. Women and children first? You think women can't handle themselves? A pox on thee! Every man for himself! (treating children differently is agism)

It may be a minor point but they were socially concious as well as sexist aboard the ill-fated Titanic since it was only the more wealthy women and children that the menfolk cared about. Women in steerage class died beside the men - equal because of their social station.

[loquax]

"Seek and ye shall find"

True of anything. If you look for sexism or racism, you will find it. Celia - your example was golden. You wrote that men don't cuss in front of you because they view you as a child. Well, that kind of assumption is only possible if you are already in the mindset of "men are sexist". To think that the reason men don't cuss in front of children is the same as the reason they don't cuss in front of women is, in my opinion, close-minded, and slightly sexist/prejudiced in itself.

I think the same can be applied to literature. Anything is un-PC if you want it to be. If there are no men in your book, people will complain. If there are no african-americans, people will complain. Heck - people complained that J.K Rowling doesn't mention American wizards in her books. Personally I would just let it go. If your beta readers have to scrape the barrel so much as to start complaining about equality, I would take that as an incredibly good sign!

[Vomaxx]

In a few parts of the country Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, for instance the Mafia is very ethically mixed.

It is very cheering to know that organized crime is an equal opportunity employer. :) But surely the Mafia will not attain true respectablility until some family is led, not by a Don Roberto, but by a Dona Roberta?

[Celia Cyanide]

"Seek and ye shall find"

True of anything. If you look for sexism or racism, you will find it. Celia - your example was golden. You wrote that men don't cuss in front of you because they view you as a child. Well, that kind of assumption is only possible if you are already in the mindset of "men are sexist". To think that the reason men don't cuss in front of children is the same as the reason they don't cuss in front of women is, in my opinion, close-minded, and slightly sexist/prejudiced in itself.

That isn't what I said at all.

I said that if the reason is "specifically because he thinks I'm not an adult and can't handle it." Of course that's not always the reason. But when that is the reason, then it's sexist.

The reason I brought this up was merely to point out that sexism exists in other areas besides beating and disrespecting your wife. I'm sorry you misunderstood, but that is not what I meant to say.

[Mistook]

Most of the women I've known curse as much or more than I do, and to tell the truth, I like that. :)

[Mistook]

Celina, this is way off topic, but I'm looking at your avitar and... is that Princess from Battle of the Planets?

[SeanDSchaffer]

I think a writer needs to write. If minority characters belong in teh story, put them in. If they don't, leave them out. Putting them in for the sake of political correctness is what's wrong with half the TV shows these days.


Minority characters only belong in a story if they belong in a story, and there's no reason at all to add a single minority character unless the writer is telling a story that demands such a character for whatever reason.

Get enough beta readers from enough minorities, all of who ask where their particular minority is, and then what do you do? Of course, if you skip several minorites as beta readers, well, that's a problem, too, isn't it?

You can't, and shouldn't, stick minority characters in like raisins in a cookie. And you can't stick them in for political correctness, or because someone might call you racist if you leave them out.

I think the best answer to "Where are the black guys?" is "They're in the story you're going to write."


My feeling exactly! If the story demands it, put it in. If not, leave it out. What matters is the story and what you as the author knows should go in it. Not what someone else thinks should go in the work.

Like James said in the bottom line quoted, "The best answer to 'Where are the black guys?' is 'They're in the story you're going to write.'" You simply cannot please everyone. It is humanly impossible.

If you're busy trying to please everyone else, are you going to be able to please yourself at the same time? Personally, I wouldn't be able to.

[PeeDee]

I think a writer needs to write. If minority characters belong in teh story, put them in. If they don't, leave them out. Putting them in for the sake of political correctness is what's wrong with half the TV shows these days.


Minority characters only belong in a story if they belong in a story, and there's no reason at all to add a single minority character unless the writer is telling a story that demands such a character for whatever reason.

Get enough beta readers from enough minorities, all of who ask where their particular minority is, and then what do you do? Of course, if you skip several minorites as beta readers, well, that's a problem, too, isn't it?

You can't, and shouldn't, stick minority characters in like raisins in a cookie. And you can't stick them in for political correctness, or because someone might call you racist if you leave them out.

I think the best answer to "Where are the black guys?" is "They're in the story you're going to write."


Well, to be fair, i dont' see why they shouldn't be in there. Just don't call any particular attention to it unless it relates to the story. I mean, in real life (yes, I know, stories aren't real life, of course) a black guy could still be around, even if it wasn't because "the situation called for a black man." He just happens to be there, just like the white guy, the asian guy.

A good reference is American Gods, by Neil Gaiman. It's not until the second or third read-through, when you're really noticing details, that you pick up from the way he talks and the way people refer to him that the main character is, in fact, black. I think that's fine.

So says me. :)

[zeprosnepsid]

I think it's funny to be talking about the lack of Chinese people in Vertigo. It just wasn't done at the time. That movie came out in 1958. In 1961, in Breakfast at Tiffany's, a stereotypical Chinese landlord is played by Mickey Rooney. People just weren't that progressive at the time.

I think people who don't understand minority culture who try to represent it can actually come off as more racist. I'm writing a comedy screenplay with African-American characters and oftentimes I need to stop and go -- am I going to far? Is having them say this just stereotyping?

If you don't do it at all, people might notice but a lot of people won't care. If you do it wrong, it'll be a much bigger deal. Doing what your comfortable with is probably for the best.

[Sage]

It was funny being on the Serenity site & seeing a thread about the lack of Asian people in the film. The world of Firefly/Serenity is heavily Chinese-influenced, which is why it came up. However, Asians are all over the film, in speaking parts, non-speaking parts, background. If you're not looking for them, though, you'll come out & later think, "You know, where were the Chinese people?" But as none of the main characters were Chinese (established in Firefly), they tended to be more background than anything else. That was realistic for that world. But it was amazing how little impact it made on the fans, & that they were quick to forget & say "Hey, where were the Chinese?"

[Aconite]

Sage, are you sure they were talking about the film and not the series? That was a common criticism of the series: that for all the supposed Chinese influence on the culture the characters lived in, the majority of characters were not Chinese. As for it being realistic for that world that none of the main characters were Chinese: why?

[tab]

I think it's funny to be talking about the lack of Chinese people in Vertigo. It just wasn't done at the time. That movie came out in 1958. In 1961, in Breakfast at Tiffany's, a stereotypical Chinese landlord is played by Mickey Rooney. People just weren't that progressive at the time.

I think people who don't understand minority culture who try to represent it can actually come off as more racist. I'm writing a comedy screenplay with African-American characters and oftentimes I need to stop and go -- am I going to far? Is having them say this just stereotyping?

If you don't do it at all, people might notice but a lot of people won't care. If you do it wrong, it'll be a much bigger deal. Doing what your comfortable with is probably for the best.

By that logic I should never have any "white" characters in my stories. http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/images/smilies/EmoteShrug.gif

[Sage]

Sage, are you sure they were talking about the film and not the series? That was a common criticism of the series: that for all the supposed Chinese influence on the culture the characters lived in, the majority of characters were not Chinese.

Nope, it was definitely the movie. I had many a discussion about the subject, which did initially come up because the topic had been discussed many times about the series.

As for it being realistic for that world that none of the main characters were Chinese: why?

Not realistic, except in a manner of speaking. What I said was that it had already been established who the main characters were (with the except of the Operative), so it couldn't be helped IN THE MOVIE that none of them were Chinese. As both you & I agree, that was something that was overlooked in the television show & is something that's criticized about it. But if you have a crew already set up, short of adding a new character just for the sake of having a Chinese member of the crew (which would be obvious & dumb), you can't do anything about it. That's why it's understandable why there would be no Chinese in the main cast.

[badducky]

Whenever possible, and whenever I'm looking for characters, I go to the local coffee shop out here in Fundamentalist-Land, Texas, and just watch the different people enter and leave. I like to see who talks with who, what they look like, and the way that people move.

Anyway, the surprising thing is even out here in the whitest of landscapes, where there are quite possibly MANY redneck-types spouting hate-speech, we also have a large number of diverse ethnic minorities.

As corny as it seems to tack on a token minority... In my coffee shop in Fundie-Land, where the nearest liquor store is a good hour away, and churches outnumber restaurants (Very few of these churches are nationally affiliated in any real way, either...) there doesn't seem to be any racism, and friendships cross cultural boundaries.

Heck, one of my friends is a Biologist from Turkey who is hanging out locally to finish his book. His English is getting better, but it's still very bad. Were you driving through my town, it would probably never occur to you to think a Turkish Biologist was writing a book in this backwards backside of an airport.

We live in a diverse world. Ignoring that in our books is a bad idea.

Even the Italian Mafia would hire a Black Female Jewish Financial Advisor, if she had the knowledge-base to truly game the system. They may not let her gain "rank", but they'll earn money they can.

[Aconite]

But if you have a crew already set up, short of adding a new character just for the sake of having a Chinese member of the crew (which would be obvious & dumb), you can't do anything about it. That's why it's understandable why there would be no Chinese in the main cast.
Okay, gotcha. Now I understand what you meant. Thanks for explaining.