Minorities

I know that some people get mad when there aren't members of minorities (black, GLBT, etc.) in stories. I personally think that having them and stereotyping them to death or having them all be terrible people is far worse, but all right.

Two questions.

1. How do you mention that a character is black or Asian or Native American? From the POV of a character who doesn't think much of different skin color, it seems odd to say, "He had dark skin" or what have you.

2. Why even mention things like sexual orientation if they never play a role in the story? I mean, if a guy is gay or asexual, you could show that by having him ignore advances and such, and maybe readers could pick it up, but seriously... why?

I personally think its stupid to hate a story for not having minorities in in, especially if the setting wouldn't tolerate it. I'm pretty sure that everyone would be white if you're writing historical fiction set in Viking Norway. But that's just me. And lil' ol' me could rant for a while on this, but these 1048 characters are enough.

As someone dearly fascinated by such issues (especially the intersection of pop culture and real life issues--nothing is truly escapist), this kind of discussion intrigues me. Alas, I haven't had much success discussing it before in fantasy forums. >_> It's a thorny issue and I'm nowhere near intelligent or mature enough to discuss it as deeply as I'd like; I find the blog "Racialicious" to have some very good, nuanced discussion of the issue, especially in terms of characters in comic books and TV shows.

I agree that in a setting that's historically white, it doesn't make sense to include minority characters, and would smack of poor research and/or bad writing. In terms of general fiction I don't think underrepresentation is an issue at all; just look at the success of minority writers like Amy Tan and Sandra Cisneros and so on. I'm more interested in looking at the issue as it pertains to fantasy and sci fi. If your setting is based on medieval Europe, then I guess it's okay to have only white characters. But, that brings up a thornier issue--why is so much fantasy based on Europe? If it's fantasy, then you can do pretty much whatever you want with your world, can't you? There are plenty of other cultures in the world which you can base your fantasy story off of. Yet so much fantasy I see and read is centered on a white/European land and culure. Which doesn't make any sense to me because the world is overwhelmingly non-white (something I think Ursula K. LeGuin noticed and deliberately avoided? Correct me if I'm wrong).

I've acquired more an interest in creating fantasy lands based on Asia and the Middle East, and making a conscious effort of not havng white protagonists (I'm not white myself; I try to write from a variety of perspectives). In many of my worlds white people are the minority, so they're more or less the ones I have to shoehorn in to balance out the cast, not vice versa. =/

I don't explicity bring up the issue of race unless it's important to the story, but I think it's worth examining why these issues arise in the first place (especially in whitebread fantasy). Creating a majority non-white cast is a good way to balance out ethnicities without looking like you're shoving in minorities just to be minorities.

As for sexual orientaion, that doesn't matter unless the story does contain romances on a prominent level. I usually like to see at least one not-straight couple (not for token reasons, but just that's the way the real world is). Okay, I'll confess some Author Appeal to, but at the end of it, even after considering weighty real-world matters, we really do write to entertain ourselves. XD

(Not sure if I addresed your original concerns; I kind of went on a tangent, but this is an issue that's dear to me and has bothered me for a while. Plus, I'm reading Invisible Man right now so these thoughts have been driven to the forefront of my mind. Gahh this book is so good~)

Sorry for the double post, but apparently I was braindead last night and I neglected to mention something very important.

Namely, this:

1. How do you mention that a character is black or Asian or Native American? From the POV of a character who doesn't think much of different skin color, it seems odd to say, "He had dark skin" or what have you.

It's simple. You DO mention it.

Race is not something inherently shameful. It's just a part of who you are. I'd mention the skin color of a person when I'm describing them just as much as I'd mention their hair color and build. I do it for my white characters and Asian characters and my not-based-on-a-real-ethnicity fantasy characters.

Since childhood we've all been fed this "color blindness" nonsense which teaches us that it's impolite, even racist, to point out race. That is NOT true. Pointing out that race exists is not racist. In fact, it's very anti-racist because you're not going by the assumption that white = default (if you do the same for your white characters, that is; it's problematic if you only mention the skin colors of non-white characters). Racism is believing that one race/ethnicity is inherently better than the other. However, pointing out that yes indeed some people have different skin colors and physiologies does not amount to believing that one race/ethnicity is superior.

*deep breath* Whew, sorry, seems like I ranted again. I just feel very strongly about this subject (to the point where I'm posting this on a school computer because I'm too impatient to wait until I get home).

Another question. How does one avoid the "token" minority in a story?

It's as I said before. Don't make a cast that's majority white. White =/= default.

A minority really only seems token if you make their minority aspect the centrepoint of their character. If you have a heterosexual character, you don't base their personalities and actions around their heterosexuality, it's just soemthing that's there, out of sight out of mind while they go about whatever it is they're doing.

Homosexual characters might come of as token when the author links everything back to their sexuality, or focuses on sexuality more than if it were a heterosexual character, as if to say it's not normal so it therefore requires more explanation. The same goes for any other minority.

I think it would also seem token if there's an unusual bias towards the majority group. If you had a cast of say 30, then statistically 3 or 4 would be gay. If you were to make only 1 of them gay, then it would seem like you're just throwing them in for token reasons, rather than to reflect a realistic population.

It's also token if you make the minor characters black/gay/deformed etc. Make them a major character so that you can explore their whole personality rather than rely on stereotypes.

I think it's wrong to circumvent the whole issue of minorities by making everyone a white, middle class, heterosexual, because that's just reinforcing the bigoted view of the majority. Of course, if there's a logical reason that there should be an unusual bias towards one sort of people (such as your Scandinavian Vikings example) then it's fine. Otherwise, deliberately avoiding minority groups stinks of authorial cowardice.

In my opinion, minorities just complicate things. If someone in your story is black, call them black, if they're white, call them white. Though when it comes to people who are gay, I prefer the term homosexual. Gay means happy, not 'attracted to same sex.' If you must include "minorities, write about them the way you want. If you prefer calling a black person African American, go ahead. If you prefer calling a white person Caucasian or European American, go ahead. Trying to conform and making everything politically correct is wrong. It's called freedom of speech for a reason. This may be off topic, but try reading Fahrenheit 451, it'll give you some insight on what I'm trying to say. On a side note, I don't believe in "minorities", I believe in people.

Merlin34 wrote:Another question. How does one avoid the "token" minority in a story?

The same way you avoid any token characters... develop them properly.

Snoink, your answer is beautiful in its simplicity.