The Skellingcorner

[writingwithcolor]

How to research your racially/ethnically diverse characters

chiminey-cricket asked:

Do any of you have any tips for doing independent research for PoC characters?

This question is super broad, but I’m going to see if I can give it a crack!

First of all, consume media by the group in question. If you want to write a story with a Chinese-American protagonist, read some blogs by Chinese-Americans, read books by Chinese-Americans – both fiction and nonfiction – lurk on places like thisisnotchina so you can get a feel for what pisses Chinese and Chinese diaspora people off about their portrayal in the media, google for stereotypes about Chinese people and try to make sure you’re not doing those (even positive ones), go more general (East-Asian all-of-the-above in general since in many cases the harmful tropes overlap), go more specific (if your protagonist is female, look specifically for blog posts featuring the opiniosn of Chinese-American and other Asian/Asian diapora women; same if your protagonist is attracted to the same sex, is transgender, or deals with any other form of oppression besides anti-Chinese racism.) All of the above applies to Latinxs, Native Americans/Canadian First Nations, African/African diaspora people, Jews, Muslims, etc. Find out what we’re saying about ourselves.

Lots of things are available just from Google. “I have a Black character and I want to know what kind of hairstyles are available for her!” We have a Black hair tag, but apart from that, googling “Black hairstyles” will probably bring up some articles that can at least give you a good starting point to learn some vocabulary to add to your next Google search, like “natural” and “twists” and “dreadlocks.”

Next, you can talk to people in the group, but before you do this, be sure to have some specific questions in mind. “How do I write a Jewish character?” is not a specific question. “Do I have to make my Jewish character follow kosher laws if I’ve made her religious in other ways, or can she go to shul but not keep kosher?” or “What’s a term of endearment a parent might use for a child in Yiddish?” is much more specific. Remember, if you’re talking to someone they’re answering you back with their free time, so expecting them to do most of the work of figuring out what’s most important for you to know is a little entitled.

Besides, a more specific question will give you a more helpful answer. If someone asks me “how do I write a Jewish character” one of the first things out of my mouth will be a list of personality stereotypes to avoid, which isn’t going to be very helpful if what you really need for your fic was whether or not you have to write your character as following strict kosher laws.

If you’re sending a question in to a writing blog or one of those race blogs like thisisnot[whoever], please read through their tags and FAQ to see if they’ve already answered it. Longtime followers of a blog would get very bored if all the blog’s content was nothing but “We answered that here last week at this helpful link!” Those who participate in answering these blogs are usually unpaid volunteers who provide a resource that’s already there to help people; help repay them for what they do by looking through the material on your own first.

How to tell if a source from outside the group is biased and bigoted: obviously, you’re not going to want to listen to Stormfront about Jews, or the KKK about, well, anything. If you’re not on a source created by the group in question, look for dry and academic language as opposed to emotional, informal, or inflammatory words – although dispassionate and technical language is no guarantee it won’t be racist, colonialist, or inaccurate. If you read enough books and blogs from the inside, though, you’ll probably see some of the myths from those other sources debunked before you even encounter them.

Lastly, don’t assume that all people who are Asian, African-American Christians, religious Jews, or Muslims are from cultures more oppressive, more conservative, more patriarchal, more homophobic, more sexist, or more controlling than the one in which you were raised. If your plot calls for homophobic parents or a repressive culture, that shouldn’t be the reason you make your character one of the groups listed. There is plenty of oppressive, anti-woman, and anti-queer thought in white American Christian/Christian-cultured society and personally, I believe such criticisms of the marginalized diaspora peoples I listed above belong in the voices of the cultures themselves.

–mod Shira

I’d not leave looking for dry and clinical information as the ONLY means to distinguish that a work is biased.

While yes it is pragmatic to say “look for academically toned wording,” … in addition to that, these folks really need to look into who the author is. Definitely look into the author. And the year the thing was published (because man if it’s from like the 60s or earlier, 9 times out of 10, throw that shit out).

Because people can disguise hatred and racism in careful diction so that it looks reasonable and polite. A shining example is physiognomy studies from Nazis and anti-Semite eugenecists. And the sad thing is, you really can’t trust people to read it and make the judgement call that this hate-in-disguise they’re reading is hate.  

Somehow, when someone says, “The people of the Levant express features such as […] which, at the risk of sounding untoward, suggest a very rodent-like persuasion,” people are like, “Oh, well, that was worded fancily and there was no angry or profane language, I suppose they’re right,” not stopping to think even for a moment that they just accepted that this book just said to them that Jews look like rats. I saw it happen in my Nazi Germany class when we were given reading material. It was fucking nuts.

So definitely, definitely look every outsider author in the mouth and cross-check any and everything that person says. 

–mod Elaney

Shira again: Elaney is right that you will want to be critical of outside sources, especially older ones. Also, be suspicious of blanket statements about a group such as “X group are” instead of discussing forces in X culture. For example. Because there’s going to be diversity within any group and it’s likely what’s being said isn’t inherently biologically linked to being in X group.

–mod Shira

[caffinatedstory]

[caffinatedstory]

I was gonna explain how the butter crisis happened.
but then I noticed your fucking /hilarious/ attempt at writing “we’ve run out of butter”

I’m not sure if you know
but you just basically wrote:
“We drove out of the lubrication”

[solarpunkarchivist]

[taliabobalia]

when millennials were first heading into high school and college there was a huge trend in news stories about how stressed out our kids are, how their backs are getting messed up from carrying so many books, how they’re sleeping less and doing more school work, and how we should do more to help our kids have the childhoods we had because our kids are falling apart from stress and being forced to be more productive than kids should be. but then once millennials started hitting the workforce all the news was about how millennials are lazy and narcissistic and entitled lmao you were real concerned about us until you found out a 23 year old is more qualified to do your job than you

[quasi-normalcy]

That’s because at some point in the middle we stopped being “their children” and became a bloc of terrifying outsiders with foreign values and little regard for what had been their established cultural norms.

[solarpunkarchivist]

I’d forgotten this but you’re right. I think it started earlier though, it started when we started out performing them on exams. Then suddenly all our schoolwork was easy and we were being rewarded for just showing up.

[thewinterotter]

[auspisstice]

science side of tumblr why do all of us mentally ill ppl like storms so much

[auspisstice]

@revelationed said:
Rain/moving water has negative ions which cause a biochemical reaction that reduces stress. It’s the same reason people feel more at peace on beaches or by waterfalls. We spend most of our lives surrounded by positive ions created by electronics and recirculated air. A study by Columbia University showed that negative ions can have the same affect as antidepressants.

thank u science side of tumblr

[thewinterotter]

ARE YOU SHITTING ME RIGHT NOW

[writingwithcolor]

[ciswashed]

Here’s to the parents that never taught us their native language because they wanted us to fit in, who told us to go by names that were easier for Western consumption, who made us white food and gave up their own cooking to teach us how to taste in a “normal” way, who cut ties with a life they otherwise succeeded in completely. Here’s to the parents that gave up every part of themselves so that we could have a chance.

[creativeprompts]

How to Make Our Story Feel Meaningful

We’ve talked before about how story is different from plot. As I mentioned in that post, a story’s plot—the obstacles encountered—is just a tool to reveal a character or a struggle.

The real key to a story is seeing a character change (or potentially, choose not to change, like in some literary fiction) or seeing their struggle to overcome the obstacles (whether they succeed or not).

But sometimes we can have lots of plot ideas, and we might not be sure if—or how—we can pull those together into something that feels like a story. Let’s take a look at how to fix that issue…

What Do We Mean by “Feels Like a Story”?

What makes a story feel like a story? If we took a survey, we’d probably each come up with a different answer. *smile*

Despite that, I’m going to try to identify several “big ideas” behind those potential answers. (Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments too!)

A story will feel like a story if it seems to have meaning.

A sense of meaning can come from any of the following:

• events lead to something climactic
• situations or characters change/resolve over the course of a story
• insights are revealed about deeper social messages or themes
• events, situations, or characters resonate with us on a deeper level

That last bullet item above is more individual and subjective than the rest because every reader brings different experiences to a story, and what might resonate with one reader won’t necessarily resonate with another. So let’s focus on the first three bullets instead, as those might represent easier tips for us to follow.

Read the full article by Jami Gold

[politeandnotgay]

Tom Cavanagh and his blue, blue eyes in Van Helsing 1x10

[weneeddiversebooks]

publishersweekly.com

Overcoming Bias: Authors and Editors Discuss Sensitivity Readers

Publishing experts gathered for a CBC Diversity panel titled “A Second Opinion: Utilizing Sensitivity Readers” on February 16 in the Scholastic Auditorium.

“Publishing experts gathered for a CBC Diversity panel titled “A Second Opinion: Utilizing Sensitivity Readers” on February 16 in the Scholastic Auditorium. The speakers were author Kate Milford (Greenglass House); Jordan Brown, executive editor, HarperCollins; and Jennifer Baker, editor and sensitivity reader. Justina Ireland, author and owner of Writing in the Margins, an organization devoted to promoting and mentoring writers from traditionally marginalized groups (and which also connects authors with sensitivity readers), moderated.”

[writeworld-blog]

goodreads.com

Bad Writing – Head Injuries

[ADMIN NOTE: “Bad Writing” is subjective. Understand that the title of this post reflects only Michael Bradley’s opinion on writing. This post is not an edict from on high; it is a resource from which to learn (or not).]

by Michael Bradley

Neck breaking – If I had a dollar for every time I see a movie or read a book or watch TV and someone with their arms or legs snaps the neck of a bad guy and kills them…  Sometimes they just put a hand on either side of their head and jerk and you hear a chiropractic snapping sound and the person falls limp and dead.  We would all be dropping dead regularly if it were so easy to break our necks.

In reality, a broken neck is much harder to achieve as the neck can flex easily.  Even crushed vertebrae would not be an instant kill.  If you lift and rotate the Atlas joint you can damage the spinal cord through spiral tear or at worst sever it, very difficult the latter.  Still, the victim would most likely be paralyzed but not die immediately.  Even severing an artery will cause death only after a few minutes.

It is unlikely even the strongest man can snap the neck of a bad guy and kill them instantly.

Knocking Someone Out – Even people with a “glass jaw” can rarely be knocked unconscious with a single punch or blow to the head.  Look at boxers.  After a long fight, they often succumb to a rain of blows.  A kick to the head on the other hand, may do the trick.  However, the heroes punching a guy in the jaw, not likely to do the trick.

Recovery from Being Knocked Out – If you are knocked unconscious from a blow to the head, most likely you have suffered at least a concussion if not a traumatic brain injury.  You do not get up, rub your head, and then act functional and remember what happened.  When knocked out, you lose the last thirty seconds to few minutes of memory.  If you were knocked out quickly, you would wake up not even knowing why.  You would also experience headache, vision issues, and nausea.  This state would continue for some time and you would need medical assistance.  If you had bleeding on the brain, cerebral swelling, or organic brain injury, simply ignoring it will cause the damage to be permanent, worse, and perhaps fatal.

If your hero is good, and does not kill anyone, they simply knock them out.  In reality, there is a good chance that hitting them over the head hard enough to cause loss of consciousness will not only cause severe damage but maybe death as well.

Sleeper Hold – The good hero often does the sleeper hold.  This again is easy, simply holding them gently with an arm until they pass out.  In reality, this can often damage the trachea and cause suffocation and heart attack, even in trained professionals.  How many times have law enforcement been sued over choke hold related deaths?  Also, it takes a long time to make someone pass out, in which they turn blue, eyes bulge, and they fight like hell to stop you.  I get so tired of “don’t fight it” being said during a choke hold to make it easy.  The truth is that when you are suffocating, you WILL fight it whether you want to or not.  It is a primal instinct.  These scenes would result in about four minutes of horrible struggling, blood vessels popping in the eyes, mucous forced from the nose, and not very heroic for our good hero.

Temporary Amnesia Caused by Blow to the Head – If you have physical trauma induced amnesia, it is likely permanent due to the severe damage to your brain needed to induce memory loss.  Psychological trauma, such as PTSD can result in temporary suppression of memory or memory loss.  Sometimes these memories can be regained.  However, a physically damaged brain causing memory loss is unlikely to recover.

Regaining Memory from Another Blow to the Head – In Three Stooges tradition, you lose your memory from a head injury, then you regain it from another blow to the head.  Each time you get hit, your brain will take more damage.  All brain surgeons know the best way to heal damaged neurons is to smash them with a blunt instrument – NOT!  And yet this mythos endures, even on famous shows.

Psychological Trauma – The hero’s base is attacked and half the people die.  They fight back, overcome and end up defeating the enemies.  They have a tearful funeral, talk to the family of the dead, and get drunk.  Next week they are all back at work as if nothing happened.  In what world does your office place have several long time members killed, you kill others, then you return to work for more.  Likely that whole unit would be faced with 90% absentees due to leaves of absence, transfer requests and people quitting.  Even in the military no unit in wartime withstands 50% casualties and continues to function after that.  Even with ten percent casualties, the unit would have severe personality changes and replacements would be viewed as outsiders for not having shared the trauma.

Capillary Bleeding – The head bleeds like the dickens.  In the military we are trained to avoid people going into shock.  Scalp capillaries will cover the entire head and face with blood very quickly from even a minor scratch.  The injured will often think their entire head has been blown apart.  A tire iron to the head or a grazed bullet to the scalp does not produce a smudge of blood in the hair that one puts their fingers to and shrugs off.  They would instead be unable to see for blood in their eyes and if they clear them to look in a reflective service they would see themselves covered in blood and usually freak out.  In these situations, the brain often sends them into shock, shutting down their ability to function and possibly causing death as it shuts down thinking it must preserve blood.

For more on literary wound descriptions, see my earlier post –http://mbtimetraveler.com/2013/05/18/writing-realistic-injuries-warning-graphic-images/ 
(WARNING: THIS LINK CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES)