Resources/Further Reading

MacAllister

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backslashbaby

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Here is a set that I recommend. At least make time for the first one, even though it's a fairly long video.

The beautiful speech that had so much impact on so many people:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg
Uploaded by TEDtalksDirector on Oct 7, 2009
http://www.ted.com Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes....

And a response by Nnorom Azuonye that I found interesting:

http://www.africaresource.com/index...-a-single-story&catid=137:literary&Itemid=349
 

Sophia

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My recommendation is a book, Writing the Other: A Practical Approach by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward. It's a small book aimed specifically at writers and shows what to think about when writing characters who are "other" to you (not just other races, but another age, sex, sexual orientation, religion and physical ability).

From the description:

During the 1992 Clarion West Writers Workshop attended by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward, one of the students expressed the opinion that it is a mistake to write about people of ethnic backgrounds different from your own because you might get it wrong—horribly, offensively wrong—and so it is better not even to try.

This opinion, commonplace among published as well as aspiring writers, struck Nisi as taking the easy way out and spurred her to write an essay addressing the problem of how to write about characters marked by racial and ethnic differences. In the course of writing the essay, however, she realized that similar problems arise when writers try to create characters whose gender, sexual preference, and age differ significantly from their own.

Nisi and Cynthia collaborated to develop a workshop that addresses these problems with the aim of both increasing writers’ skill and sensitivity in portraying difference in their fiction as well as allaying their anxieties about "getting it wrong." Writing the Other: A Practical Approach is the manual that grew out of their workshop. It discusses basic aspects of characterization and offers elementary techniques, practical exercises, and examples for helping writers create richer and more accurate characters with "differences.
 

MacAllister

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Where the conversation is ongoing, online:
Racism 101
Racismtoday.net
The Racism 101 LJ community (I recommend lurking and reading back, thoroughly - remember, no one owes you an explanation or a conversation, even)
Racialicious, Beyond Bingo Cards
Why so-called Color-blindness is problematic

You're not going to agree with everything you read. You might find yourself feeling defensive, or even angry. I highly recommend before posting on any of the above sites or in the communities or threads linked here, do some serious self-examination, and listen honestly and openly.

And finally - an excerpt from Pam Noles' well-known essay, Shame, because I think every writer needs to take this essay to heart:
But I remember Dad saying, how come you never see anybody like that in the stories you like? And I remember answering, maybe they didn't have black people back then. He said there's always been black people. I said but black people can't be wizards and space people and they can't fight evil, so they can't be in the story. When he didn't say anything back I turned around. He was in full recline mode in his chair and he was very still, looking at me. He didn't say anything else.
 

missesdash

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In the same vein as the LJ page, here's a tumblr page that's pretty discussion oriented:

http://stfuracists.tumblr.com/

This page uses the power+prejudice definition of racism, which is very touchy for a lot of people. So keep that in mind as you scroll through.
 

Kitty Pryde

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Wanted to toss up another link here, "Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is", an essay by John Scalzi, a straight white male trying to explain the concept of privilege to straight white men and others who have trouble understanding it. He uses a video game metaphor and I think he gets the point across pretty clearly. Apparently this essay made the internets very angry? Anyway, I liked it.

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/15/straight-white-male-the-lowest-difficulty-setting-there-is/

A tidbit:

Dudes. Imagine life here in the US — or indeed, pretty much anywhere in the Western world — is a massive role playing game, like World of Warcraft except appallingly mundane, where most quests involve the acquisition of money, cell phones and donuts, although not always at the same time. Let’s call it The Real World. You have installed The Real World on your computer and are about to start playing, but first you go to the settings tab to bind your keys, fiddle with your defaults, and choose the difficulty setting for the game. Got it?

Okay: In the role playing game known as The Real World, “Straight White Male” is the lowest difficulty setting there is.
This means that the default behaviors for almost all the non-player characters in the game are easier on you than they would be otherwise. The default barriers for completions of quests are lower. Your leveling-up thresholds come more quickly. You automatically gain entry to some parts of the map that others have to work for. The game is easier to play, automatically, and when you need help, by default it’s easier to get.
 

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From Different Shores by Ronald Takaki.

Discusses a lot of races, some emphasis on Asians as well. (He's a good resource in general as well, since he also started the campaign towards Ethnic Classes--IIRC, he's the one that started the first one at Berkeley.)

I'll throw this one out there too: Racebending.com

Though they often do activism, they also occasionally have articles on race too.

The Myth of the Model Minority: Asian Americans Facing Racism by Rosalind Chou and Joe R Feagin.
Desconstructs the myth of the model minority and shows how it's not true. Also goes over racism that's unique to Asians. And also goes over how the myth of the model minority hurts other racial groups besides Asians. Has a lot of first hand accounts as well, which helps contextualize it.

BTW, anyone have a History of Racism 101 for the US? I was taught well, so I have a good timeline in my head, but I'm guessing that many people with crappier History lessons that skipped over Black History Month (and the other countries of the world when it came to world History) don't. Ya know, covering slavery, genocide of the Native Americans/First Peoples, Chinese Railroad workers, Japanese concentration camps (I call the Jewish ones Death camps. I don't mince words), Mexicans being disenfranchised of land for slavery's sake, the border fence with Mexico, etc? Also, probably something on the white minority groups (Olive intra-group racism) until it was overturned later (though some of it still exists). Or the White Chicken Stew known as the US.
 
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Rachel Udin

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I am Bruce Lee, the Film, is a good discussion, not only about Bruce Lee, but the history of racism against Asian Americans in Hollywood. Also a great discussion of race in general, I think.
 

jtrylch13

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Carissa Taylor recently posted this. It is sort of a resource guide for white writers thinking of writing POC. Basically, it's a huge list of links. I ahven't checked all of them yet, but many are very good resources to use.
 

LadyJil25

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Ok. I have literally read a ton of these in the past hour and I have a lot of questions, hypotheticals, and what-ifs...if you'll indulge me.

So the basis for my book is this: Thousands of Years ago, the Almighty Elements decided to cast pieces of themselves to Earth in human form. There is a masculine and feminine form to each Element (fire, water, air, earth, etc.). Mind you, I do have one character who is transgender (f to m) so the rulings on "Masculine" and "Feminine" are easily bent. I decided to add this because out of nearly 20 people, odds are someone is going to be LGBTQ. Its just realistic. That said, if the Elementals have put two souls each on Earth, there is NO way that they would all be in America. Granted, yes, there are 3 so far that are (two of whom are the main-est main characters simply because they are parts of me. They represent two sides of my coin and they were my first characters. I can't forsake them like that when they're really the only two white Americans that I created...), but there's plenty more. I chose these people (I thought) carefully. There is someone from Mexico, someone from England, one from Scotland, one from Africa, one that had passed before the story began who was from India, one from Japan, one from Russia, one from Switzerland, etc! They are chosen carefully, yet also randomly by the Elementals as well. This is part of the story. This has to be fact that these people are actually from all over the world. That is a plot point.
My query is how am I expected to NOT describe their appearances when who they are and where they come from is so important? I'm so lost.
 

Coddiwomple

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Hi Jil, not trying to complicate things, but if your elementals are truly random, there would be a LOT more Asians... here's a tool that might be helpful to you. If the world were a hundred people: www.100people.org
 

Ari Meermans

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The link in the post just above yours to "Writing With Color" is really quite good, as is "So you want to describe a POC character".

No one person speaks for an entire race or culture, so keep that in mind when checking out resources. But do avoid descriptors that are dehumanizing such as comparing your characters' skin colors to things. English has a boatload of words for shades of brown without using a food reference to evoke a skin color, for instance. (Some people might not mind it, others will so do try hard to avoid it.)
 

cornflake

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Ok. I have literally read a ton of these in the past hour and I have a lot of questions, hypotheticals, and what-ifs...if you'll indulge me.

So the basis for my book is this: Thousands of Years ago, the Almighty Elements decided to cast pieces of themselves to Earth in human form. There is a masculine and feminine form to each Element (fire, water, air, earth, etc.). Mind you, I do have one character who is transgender (f to m) so the rulings on "Masculine" and "Feminine" are easily bent. I decided to add this because out of nearly 20 people, odds are someone is going to be LGBTQ. Its just realistic. That said, if the Elementals have put two souls each on Earth, there is NO way that they would all be in America. Granted, yes, there are 3 so far that are (two of whom are the main-est main characters simply because they are parts of me. They represent two sides of my coin and they were my first characters. I can't forsake them like that when they're really the only two white Americans that I created...), but there's plenty more. I chose these people (I thought) carefully. There is someone from Mexico, someone from England, one from Scotland, one from Africa, one that had passed before the story began who was from India, one from Japan, one from Russia, one from Switzerland, etc! They are chosen carefully, yet also randomly by the Elementals as well. This is part of the story. This has to be fact that these people are actually from all over the world. That is a plot point.
My query is how am I expected to NOT describe their appearances when who they are and where they come from is so important? I'm so lost.

Who said you aren't expected to describe who your characters are, or their appearance or etc.? That's not a thing.
 

LadyJil25

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No, You're right, Coddiwomple. I had always intended to add more Asian people, but I was hoping that as I broadened, my book would become a series. The link you posted is utterly fascinating. I had planned for the sequel to add 2 more extremely powerful Elements (something like Plasma and Space or something) that I had always intended to be from two different places in Asia. I do have a male character who is Japanese, but upon tearing my own sh** apart, I realize that having him as the Male of Electricity is somehow stereotyped. Japan? Electronics? I didn't even think about it. I just pictured that a young man named 'Blitz' who could create and control electricity would be a cool Japanese guy. You've seen me on the Water Cooler for like...hours now. My brain hurts but I can't stop. My book is at a stand still until I make things right.
 

LadyJil25

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The link in the post just above yours to "Writing With Color" is really quite good, as is "So you want to describe a POC character".

No one person speaks for an entire race or culture, so keep that in mind when checking out resources. But do avoid descriptors that are dehumanizing such as comparing your characters' skin colors to things. English has a boatload of words for shades of brown without using a food reference to evoke a skin color, for instance. (Some people might not mind it, others will so do try hard to avoid it.)

DANGIT...because I literally didn't realize this. I had (what I thought) was a beautiful descriptor for my female black character. I wanted to describe her hue as "Chai" because I thought it sounded elegant. I didn't want to just come out and be like "Oh shes a pretty black girl". That doesn't feel right to me.. Damn, I'm an amateur :cry: