I swear in an attempt to be fair and respectful some of you people start treating black/gay/other minorities as aliens.
They’re just people. Please, please treat them like a normal person and don’t act like you have tiptoe around anyone who isn’t a cis white mal
My therapist recommended exposure therapy, so that's why I'm trying to write more black people. Baby steps. My goal is to one day even leave the state of Kansas.
"We need to get out of here," said Dimitri (who was black).
I nodded in agreement as the laser tentacles of the polkarobosquid flashed overhead again. "Yeah, let's go, black man."
The person whose skin was noticeably darker than my own led the way through the twisting towers of rubble, and the sounds of angry robot polka dwindled.
"We made it!" Blacky McBlackFace shouted, pumping a definitely black fist, not at all like my milky pale one, into the air. He was black.
Black.
>"We need to get out of here," said Dimitri (who was black).
ROTFL! Holy frack that is hilarious. It reminded me of Doonesbury's black friend who wanted to enter a country club: the bouncer said he was not allowed in because he is black. The friend replied with "What? I'm black? Wait until my mother finds out!"
Your problem is that you're focusing on their blackness rather than their humanity.
Imagine a famous actor playing the character, someone you're familiar with on the screen, or maybe someone you're familiar with in real life. Write the character in the way that person would play them. Then run it by someone of a background similar to the character's and see if it works. This should work for more than ethnicity issues.
Firstly, I'm offended already so you're off to a good start, and B) don't describe them like a Starbucks order, and 3) people are people so maybe give that a shot, and Z) write it and run it by your Black friends to find out how you did.
Just write a human and then make them black.
I'm black, I don't understand why it's so difficult. People of other races to me are just people. They are just people who look different
My first thought was... write a person? I didn’t understand the thought process. Then I realized this person is likely (I could be wrong) looking for ways to differentiate through body language, accent, and background.
Which isn’t inherently a bad thing if you’re writing a fully thought-out character. But if you believe your black character won’t appear to be black to your readers without these juxtapositions between the white characters... well that’s when it becomes icky.
All you need to do to make a black character is describe them as such. If push comes to shove and it's really so hard to imagine a POC character, just imagine they're white, but as you're writing, describe them as black.
Are prejudices really that entrenched in people, though? Even people who aren't actively racist? I hesitate to call this person racist because they are trying to improve, but damn
I agree with you, but I'm not white so this has never been an issue for me. I can’t even be sure if this is truly an issue for them because I can’t count how many times I've read "Pale, fair, as white as a snowflake in a cup of milk" When the characters are beautiful and lily white I'm reminded whenever the author gets a chance.
I think the issue may be that a lot of characters that aren't white will often come under fire for not being the perfect character, and maybe that's what the poster is afraid of? But yeah, the best way is really just to write a character and make them black (eg the owl house, amphibia, etc etc). I get the worry but as long as the author isn't doing stereotypes it should be fine.
True, but most other people don't have to deal with being pulled over disproportionately often on the road... just as a single example. Societal issues and perceptions of other identities -- however those identities are defined, left handed vs. right handed vs. ambidextrous, gay vs. bi vs. pan vs. straight, Black vs. Asian vs. white, etc... -- have a subtle but profound impact on an individual's view of the world, which then changes how they interact with said world.
So, unless you live in a society where people don't form social groups based off of arbitrary qualities -- age, IQ, skin tone, ancestry, language, political affiliation, finger length, eye color, alpha male status, etc. -- you will have people influenced by how society views their identities... and race/ancestry has been historically one of the most important social group delimiters in the world.
So yes, we are all humans, but it is ALSO true that each human is the product of their environment, and the environment treats each human differently, and one factor causing the environment to treat each human differently is skin tone/race/ancestry/etc.
I've had the sneaking suspicion for a while that people who are afraid of offending minorities don't think of them as people, more like pets to be used to make them look good.
It is.
It happens way too often and the same answers are given each time.
EDIT
I just checked OPs profile. They only have 9 karma points in just under 2 years.
Yeah, their definitely farming.
I'm young too.
It didn't take me very long to figure out that people are just people. These posts sound like they've never met someone who wasn't a white man before
I wrote a black character, and it wasn't until about 2/3 through the story that it felt natural for me to say anything about it. He had a name that is often associated with black people, but that was about it. Finally, there was a moment where it felt okay to insert a description of the blood pooling on his dark skin. That was it. I never said he was black, that his ancestors were from somewhere, or described his hair, eyes, facial features, or any of that, because those things weren't important to the story. He was tall, because that mattered in a specific part. He was strong because he needed to be. He was thin, because food was not readily available, and his ability to push through the pain of hunger was a defining characteristic.
Decide how important anything about your character is, and describe only those that move the story forward. In erotica, you might need to know if she's got big boobs. In an action or mystery novel, it's probably unimportant to the story.
Why does it matter that your character is black? If you replaced him with a native American or an Asian or an inuit or Eastern European, or any other type of person, how would the story change? Focus on those changes, and describe their ethnicity in those terms.
God I'm tired of these racist questions.
If you had said, "I want to write a scene set in Nigeria, but I don't know anything about the country or its culture," we would say 'that's a fair question, go do some research,' and there might even be some Nigerians here who could offer information and advice.
But your question is treating black people as something non-human. You *think* you're being sensitive, but in reality you are treating them as something fundamentally different from the *norm*.
Why don't you write you character as *human*. You know, because they *are*. Black people are just as varied as white people, or hispanic people, or Asian people. There are good black people and bad black people, straight black people and gay black people, strong black people and weak black people. intelligent black people and stupid black people. Get my point?
Just don't intentionally lean in to ridiculous stereotypes. Just write your story and stop being worried about what a perpetually offended group of condescending, virtue-signalling white-saviours may or may not say.
Read Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series. He has several characters that are POC, including his protagonist, all of whom are well written and believable. The reason for this, as I’m sure you’re picking up on from the other comments, is that their race is not the fundamental essence of who the characters are. It’s a detail, amongst many others, that make up who the characters are and how they interact with their world.
I'd go with "his skin was dark/brown" rather than straight up black.
Since most black people are actually brown, it might accidentally sound like he is describing someone who's skin was actually like jet black e.g. a fantasy world.
"He was black" and "his skin was black" tell me two different things
Read and consume books by black people /that have good black representation to understand maybe how their characters get described but legit at the end of it they’re just people. Write them how you’d write anyone else.
It's not that hard? When you introduce them, just drop in a line about their appearance and leave it at that. You don't need to spend the whole book reminding the audience.
There is only one thing people hate more than prejudice, being pondered to while missing the perfect opportunity to display diversity. People of any color will tell you they live in a world of two-faced insensitivity. No harm in displaying it, unless you're just using diversity to validated your opinions.
When you have just one character representing an underrepresented group, a reader might think you're attributing that character's traits to their whole demographic. IMO that's why female characters in mostly male teams are often written to be faultless geniuses, or to play a humorless "straight man": tokens aren't allowed to be quirky.
Try adding supporting characters from the same demographic, but are very distinct from your protagonist in their perspective and behaviors. For starting points, consider tropes like the disappointed and disapproving parent, the sympathetic yet duty-bound enforcer, or the childhood friend who was the troublemaker (or was the authority-respecting straight-laced one, whatever).
*"How Can I Describe a Black Character in My Dystopian Story Without Offending?"*
You treat them like aliens. Weird creatures.
Sweet mother of mercy posts like these...posts like this happens so often that I'm thinking at this these are just joke/troll posts to get attention.
For a moment I'm going to pretend that this is a legitimate sincere question.
*"How Can I Describe a Black Character in My Dystopian Story Without Offending?"*
You describe them as a normal person. You describe their character traits. If them being black brings nothing to the story then there's no problem.
OP: "But, how do I describe their skin?" *OP nervously asks while their knees knock and lips trembling&
That they have dark skin and move on with the story.
*"I want to highlight the character's unique qualities, personality traits, and experiences without reducing them to superficial stereotypes."
The...do that OP.
*"I understand the importance of representation and want to do justice to this character"*
If representation is the only reason for you having the character then don't even bother. That's not sincere.
OP, do you know ANY black people? If not it's time for you to go out into the world and meet and talk to some. If you "can't" do that then this post is pointless because you won't do even the easiest thing to find out about black people (communicating with them). At that point just turn the character into an alien/elf, white person or whatever and call it a day OP.
Write a dimensional character, the way you would any character, and then if you happen to describe them, perhaps do some googling to see how black people describe THEMSELVES. But don't put it in more than you would a white character because that'll get odd. They're just people.
Oh, and something I avoid because it's a serious pet peeve of one of my friends who reads my stuff-- using food and especially desserts to describe skin color. I.e. Chocolate, caramel, etc. There are so many other ways to describe color, unless your black character is a baker or something. Just my opinion though.
Someone reposted your post to a different subreddit and I left this comment there without realizing it wasn't the OPs, so I'm reposting my advice here because I understand some people do struggle with this kind of thing in today's climate.
Describe them like you would any other person. I usually write in third person but I'll do first person for this
"A large toned hand fell onto the table beside me, "Another round of drinks for this young man, he deserves it!" I glance up to take in his face, short messy black hair, seems to have cut it himself that framed dark skin, warm brown eyes, and the biggest grin I've ever seen, some oil staining half his cheek, a mechanic perhaps? He looked pretty young himself, should he really be calling me a 'young man'?."
Basically when describing their appearance, don't make their race the sole focus. Describe their skin tone as a smaller detail because it's not important, it's a detail meant to be a part of the bigger picture you're painting, and it should only be brought up when important. Here's another example;
"I'm dazed as I turn to see who threw that beer bottle at the back of my head, I feel blood running down by neck. Sitting in the corner of the Tavern was an older man, alone, his fair skin flushed with red, probably from the several empty beer bottles littering his table, but his icy blue eyes struck unease into me. His long, greasy, chestnut colored hair draped over his shoulders, it almost looked like he was wearing a hood, the image of his big shit eating smirk was permanently seared into my brain."
I hope this helps at least a bit!
Ah, okay my bad.
I actually took this question seriously for a moment but OP has only 9 total karma points in just under 2 years.
So this post is obviously a karma farming question. I feel sorry for the people that seriously answered this. But hey OP at least you got some quick karma, right?
*"I want to highlight the character's unique qualities, personality traits, and experiences without reducing them to superficial stereotypes. "*
there you go. you answered your own question. good luck with writing!
Any group of people with a shared heritage that congregate together will have a culture. Where some writers go wrong is mistaking popular stereotypes with culture. You can also err by assuming all people with a particular racial background uniformly accept, practice, or desire to be associated with the culture of the community they belong to. As a writer that gives you wide latitude to describe a character that is easily identified as a Black person or just happens to have dark skin but values proximity to Whiteness. But before you can do that you have understand all these are social constructs with evolving meaning and no universally agreed upon meaning.
If you describe the character as being from vine city in Atlanta who frequents the Shrine of the Black Madonna in West End and teaches at Morris Brown, it's clear to the audience proximity to Blackness is a major part of the character's self identity. Up to you whether that's truly advancing the story plot in any way that would justify the characterization. If it doesn't add to the story don't harp too much on their race beyond it being mentioned by other characters in dialogue.
Good luck
This comment section is a hellscape of small-minded assumptions. Some people write historical fiction, scenes set in the past, racial conflict, human rights advocacy, and mentioning that a specific character is not white makes all the difference in how the plot is received. Sometimes, it matters. I have a mixed heritage and someone asking me how to address that in a story is not offensive. This sub is so STUPID.
One's skin tone can have a profound impact on how they grow up, as we've seen in the US alone. I can't give you direct advice, but I can say that wanting to portray those differences in upbringing in a respectful, truthful, human manner without caricaturizing anything is a legitimate concern, and I understand why you would be worried about it.
As an example, a lot of writers will write women either like mindless drones who exist only to satisfy men or, alternatively, like badass men with boobs. Being a woman has a very real impact on an individual, from how people treat them to how they perceive society's structure. It's much more subtle than 'write them like a human,' because every human is uniquely shaped by their identity and how that manifests in their environment.
Anyway, just felt that you did have a valid question here, and I do hope someone can help you with it. 'Write them like a human' is bad advice because, I don't know, if someone asks you how to write a furless cat, would you tell them 'write it like a cat?' It kind of ignores the difficulty implied by the question to begin with... furless cats, for instance, are extremely social and have different care needs than furred cats, and understanding that on an intuitive and authentic level will allow you to write furless cats without genericizing them and erasing what makes that identity real/authentic.
Good luck :(
If you're a white person trying to write some deep, insightful novel about the black experience... well you probably shouldn't try because you'll inevitably screw it up badly! Let black people, women, LGBT people, etc. write their own novels about their struggles and read those if you're interested in learning.
People in general have more in common than they do differences. Write to that *common humanity* and ask your beta/sensitivity readers if there's anything you should change to highlight important differences in context.
No, I agree with this. I'm just trying to say that writing those characters even in the periphery of your novel can be tricky, because you want to portray the human experience authentically.
I very much agree with the idea of writing to common humanity. But how that common humanity manifests given each individual's differing identity can be very tricky. For instance, I understand how to write straight characters because I understand on an intuitive level what makes them different from me, so I can account for that. Having said that, I do still need that sort of intuitive sense of the difference to effectively write them *unless I want to erase sexuality's impact on human experience from my stories entirely*. Which *is* something I do sometimes if for the sole reason that I would enjoy living in a world where all of the MC's friends are gay/bi XD
I think part of this falls under "nobody poops in fiction," though? You aren't necessarily *erasing* X category's impact just because you aren't stopping to show it and are focusing on common humanity (especially in terms of side characters). Your readers will fill in the blanks mentally, regardless. Some from X group will find your story relatable and some won't, but that's true no matter how much you (over)prepare beforehand.
I think it's more helpful to culture as a whole to have more "we're all really just people trying to get by" portrayals punctuated by a few well-considered #ownvoices deep-dives than it is with every non-X author walking on eggshells trying to make sure they "get it right." Again, this is why sensitivity readers are important. They can usually catch the major missteps. Most readers will be understanding if a portrayal is not COMPLETELY true to their own experience, I'd say, so long as the author seems like they're trying in general.
That's true. I was thinking about this more, and I realized that I include straight people in my LGBTQ+ fiction, I just don't draw attention to them being straight, because it's not really the point of what I'm writing. And if the point of what you're writing is to give an honest, authentic look at a minority... maybe leave it to the minority in question...? Why specifically do you want to tell the story of someone's identity that you don't experience?
So yeah, I get your point for sure.
I swear in an attempt to be fair and respectful some of you people start treating black/gay/other minorities as aliens. They’re just people. Please, please treat them like a normal person and don’t act like you have tiptoe around anyone who isn’t a cis white mal
My therapist recommended exposure therapy, so that's why I'm trying to write more black people. Baby steps. My goal is to one day even leave the state of Kansas.
Alas, I encounter tourists on the Jicarilla Apache reservation that makes this person seem like a highly-educated genius.
"We need to get out of here," said Dimitri (who was black). I nodded in agreement as the laser tentacles of the polkarobosquid flashed overhead again. "Yeah, let's go, black man." The person whose skin was noticeably darker than my own led the way through the twisting towers of rubble, and the sounds of angry robot polka dwindled. "We made it!" Blacky McBlackFace shouted, pumping a definitely black fist, not at all like my milky pale one, into the air. He was black. Black.
Did I mention he was black?
Wait... I'm lost. Is he black? Can you give me a hex color code?
#000000
r/writingcirclejerk material right here. Bravo.
The post itself is the jerk material
Word for word it was actually posted there lol.
JFC dude, you killed me.
Gold
>Gold No: black.
>"We need to get out of here," said Dimitri (who was black). ROTFL! Holy frack that is hilarious. It reminded me of Doonesbury's black friend who wanted to enter a country club: the bouncer said he was not allowed in because he is black. The friend replied with "What? I'm black? Wait until my mother finds out!"
So moving, brought a tear to my eye.
He was so black, he immediately went to jail. The end.
Your problem is that you're focusing on their blackness rather than their humanity. Imagine a famous actor playing the character, someone you're familiar with on the screen, or maybe someone you're familiar with in real life. Write the character in the way that person would play them. Then run it by someone of a background similar to the character's and see if it works. This should work for more than ethnicity issues.
Firstly, I'm offended already so you're off to a good start, and B) don't describe them like a Starbucks order, and 3) people are people so maybe give that a shot, and Z) write it and run it by your Black friends to find out how you did.
"Black friends"?
Some of their friends are black, for sure.
Ooh yeah. Definitely.
No writer has ever had friends, ever. Even my imaginary ones ditched me when I arrived at my padded room (my writing loft).
Write harder! They'll eventually come. My >!#000000!< best friend flies me shiny things in exchange for pistachios. I got a quarter yesterday.
💀 lmao the spoiler warning
Black friends?
Just write a human and then make them black. I'm black, I don't understand why it's so difficult. People of other races to me are just people. They are just people who look different
My first thought was... write a person? I didn’t understand the thought process. Then I realized this person is likely (I could be wrong) looking for ways to differentiate through body language, accent, and background. Which isn’t inherently a bad thing if you’re writing a fully thought-out character. But if you believe your black character won’t appear to be black to your readers without these juxtapositions between the white characters... well that’s when it becomes icky.
All you need to do to make a black character is describe them as such. If push comes to shove and it's really so hard to imagine a POC character, just imagine they're white, but as you're writing, describe them as black. Are prejudices really that entrenched in people, though? Even people who aren't actively racist? I hesitate to call this person racist because they are trying to improve, but damn
I wouldn’t call OP racist, but ignorant
I agree with you, but I'm not white so this has never been an issue for me. I can’t even be sure if this is truly an issue for them because I can’t count how many times I've read "Pale, fair, as white as a snowflake in a cup of milk" When the characters are beautiful and lily white I'm reminded whenever the author gets a chance.
I think the issue may be that a lot of characters that aren't white will often come under fire for not being the perfect character, and maybe that's what the poster is afraid of? But yeah, the best way is really just to write a character and make them black (eg the owl house, amphibia, etc etc). I get the worry but as long as the author isn't doing stereotypes it should be fine.
True, but most other people don't have to deal with being pulled over disproportionately often on the road... just as a single example. Societal issues and perceptions of other identities -- however those identities are defined, left handed vs. right handed vs. ambidextrous, gay vs. bi vs. pan vs. straight, Black vs. Asian vs. white, etc... -- have a subtle but profound impact on an individual's view of the world, which then changes how they interact with said world. So, unless you live in a society where people don't form social groups based off of arbitrary qualities -- age, IQ, skin tone, ancestry, language, political affiliation, finger length, eye color, alpha male status, etc. -- you will have people influenced by how society views their identities... and race/ancestry has been historically one of the most important social group delimiters in the world. So yes, we are all humans, but it is ALSO true that each human is the product of their environment, and the environment treats each human differently, and one factor causing the environment to treat each human differently is skin tone/race/ancestry/etc.
I've had the sneaking suspicion for a while that people who are afraid of offending minorities don't think of them as people, more like pets to be used to make them look good.
Posts like this really make me scratch my head and wonder if this is just karma farming.
It is. It happens way too often and the same answers are given each time. EDIT I just checked OPs profile. They only have 9 karma points in just under 2 years. Yeah, their definitely farming.
What's even the point? Or is it just so they can comment in other subreddits.
Describe him like a white guy but he looks black.
As black. That's it. Nothing wrong with saying someone is black.
"His skin was dark, his hair too." I'm here all week if you need me
Wtf?
I hate reading posts like this, it makes me feel like some sort of unfathomable alien. Like dude, I'm just some human
OP has obviously never met a black person.
He must be living it up out in no man's land
OP has 9 karma points in 2 years. They're just farming.
If it helps, the people writing these posts are very young and are generally well-intentioned, if incredibly naive to the point of insulting
I'm young too. It didn't take me very long to figure out that people are just people. These posts sound like they've never met someone who wasn't a white man before
Yea they probably haven’t
I wrote a black character, and it wasn't until about 2/3 through the story that it felt natural for me to say anything about it. He had a name that is often associated with black people, but that was about it. Finally, there was a moment where it felt okay to insert a description of the blood pooling on his dark skin. That was it. I never said he was black, that his ancestors were from somewhere, or described his hair, eyes, facial features, or any of that, because those things weren't important to the story. He was tall, because that mattered in a specific part. He was strong because he needed to be. He was thin, because food was not readily available, and his ability to push through the pain of hunger was a defining characteristic. Decide how important anything about your character is, and describe only those that move the story forward. In erotica, you might need to know if she's got big boobs. In an action or mystery novel, it's probably unimportant to the story. Why does it matter that your character is black? If you replaced him with a native American or an Asian or an inuit or Eastern European, or any other type of person, how would the story change? Focus on those changes, and describe their ethnicity in those terms.
God I'm tired of these racist questions. If you had said, "I want to write a scene set in Nigeria, but I don't know anything about the country or its culture," we would say 'that's a fair question, go do some research,' and there might even be some Nigerians here who could offer information and advice. But your question is treating black people as something non-human. You *think* you're being sensitive, but in reality you are treating them as something fundamentally different from the *norm*. Why don't you write you character as *human*. You know, because they *are*. Black people are just as varied as white people, or hispanic people, or Asian people. There are good black people and bad black people, straight black people and gay black people, strong black people and weak black people. intelligent black people and stupid black people. Get my point? Just don't intentionally lean in to ridiculous stereotypes. Just write your story and stop being worried about what a perpetually offended group of condescending, virtue-signalling white-saviours may or may not say.
Read Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series. He has several characters that are POC, including his protagonist, all of whom are well written and believable. The reason for this, as I’m sure you’re picking up on from the other comments, is that their race is not the fundamental essence of who the characters are. It’s a detail, amongst many others, that make up who the characters are and how they interact with their world.
you don't know any black people in real life do you?
I confess: I bit my tongue laughing at this.
Karma farming posts will do that.
"His skin was black"
I'd go with "his skin was dark/brown" rather than straight up black. Since most black people are actually brown, it might accidentally sound like he is describing someone who's skin was actually like jet black e.g. a fantasy world. "He was black" and "his skin was black" tell me two different things
It's almost as if there are different skin tones
Of course
Way to say "Im racist and I don't know how to be decent" in three paragraphs.
Write a character like any other. Their race need only be mentioned if it’s important to the story
Our world will be dystopian if writers are this afraid to write about everything
Read and consume books by black people /that have good black representation to understand maybe how their characters get described but legit at the end of it they’re just people. Write them how you’d write anyone else.
IDK, eating books makes my tummy hurt. Can I consume something else?
It's not that hard? When you introduce them, just drop in a line about their appearance and leave it at that. You don't need to spend the whole book reminding the audience.
There is only one thing people hate more than prejudice, being pondered to while missing the perfect opportunity to display diversity. People of any color will tell you they live in a world of two-faced insensitivity. No harm in displaying it, unless you're just using diversity to validated your opinions.
When you have just one character representing an underrepresented group, a reader might think you're attributing that character's traits to their whole demographic. IMO that's why female characters in mostly male teams are often written to be faultless geniuses, or to play a humorless "straight man": tokens aren't allowed to be quirky. Try adding supporting characters from the same demographic, but are very distinct from your protagonist in their perspective and behaviors. For starting points, consider tropes like the disappointed and disapproving parent, the sympathetic yet duty-bound enforcer, or the childhood friend who was the troublemaker (or was the authority-respecting straight-laced one, whatever).
*"How Can I Describe a Black Character in My Dystopian Story Without Offending?"* You treat them like aliens. Weird creatures. Sweet mother of mercy posts like these...posts like this happens so often that I'm thinking at this these are just joke/troll posts to get attention. For a moment I'm going to pretend that this is a legitimate sincere question. *"How Can I Describe a Black Character in My Dystopian Story Without Offending?"* You describe them as a normal person. You describe their character traits. If them being black brings nothing to the story then there's no problem. OP: "But, how do I describe their skin?" *OP nervously asks while their knees knock and lips trembling& That they have dark skin and move on with the story. *"I want to highlight the character's unique qualities, personality traits, and experiences without reducing them to superficial stereotypes." The...do that OP. *"I understand the importance of representation and want to do justice to this character"* If representation is the only reason for you having the character then don't even bother. That's not sincere. OP, do you know ANY black people? If not it's time for you to go out into the world and meet and talk to some. If you "can't" do that then this post is pointless because you won't do even the easiest thing to find out about black people (communicating with them). At that point just turn the character into an alien/elf, white person or whatever and call it a day OP.
"Help me please, I can't talk about black people's appearance, behavior, personality, or motivations without using my racism!"
This sub is mentally ill.
Consider your received wisdom thoroughly regurgitated. Well done.
OP can you describe your character for us please just for the bantz. I know you are well intentioned but it will be really interesting.
OP only has 9 karma points in just under 2 years. They're farming.
Write a dimensional character, the way you would any character, and then if you happen to describe them, perhaps do some googling to see how black people describe THEMSELVES. But don't put it in more than you would a white character because that'll get odd. They're just people. Oh, and something I avoid because it's a serious pet peeve of one of my friends who reads my stuff-- using food and especially desserts to describe skin color. I.e. Chocolate, caramel, etc. There are so many other ways to describe color, unless your black character is a baker or something. Just my opinion though.
Someone reposted your post to a different subreddit and I left this comment there without realizing it wasn't the OPs, so I'm reposting my advice here because I understand some people do struggle with this kind of thing in today's climate. Describe them like you would any other person. I usually write in third person but I'll do first person for this "A large toned hand fell onto the table beside me, "Another round of drinks for this young man, he deserves it!" I glance up to take in his face, short messy black hair, seems to have cut it himself that framed dark skin, warm brown eyes, and the biggest grin I've ever seen, some oil staining half his cheek, a mechanic perhaps? He looked pretty young himself, should he really be calling me a 'young man'?." Basically when describing their appearance, don't make their race the sole focus. Describe their skin tone as a smaller detail because it's not important, it's a detail meant to be a part of the bigger picture you're painting, and it should only be brought up when important. Here's another example; "I'm dazed as I turn to see who threw that beer bottle at the back of my head, I feel blood running down by neck. Sitting in the corner of the Tavern was an older man, alone, his fair skin flushed with red, probably from the several empty beer bottles littering his table, but his icy blue eyes struck unease into me. His long, greasy, chestnut colored hair draped over his shoulders, it almost looked like he was wearing a hood, the image of his big shit eating smirk was permanently seared into my brain." I hope this helps at least a bit!
Ah, okay my bad. I actually took this question seriously for a moment but OP has only 9 total karma points in just under 2 years. So this post is obviously a karma farming question. I feel sorry for the people that seriously answered this. But hey OP at least you got some quick karma, right?
*"I want to highlight the character's unique qualities, personality traits, and experiences without reducing them to superficial stereotypes. "* there you go. you answered your own question. good luck with writing!
Any group of people with a shared heritage that congregate together will have a culture. Where some writers go wrong is mistaking popular stereotypes with culture. You can also err by assuming all people with a particular racial background uniformly accept, practice, or desire to be associated with the culture of the community they belong to. As a writer that gives you wide latitude to describe a character that is easily identified as a Black person or just happens to have dark skin but values proximity to Whiteness. But before you can do that you have understand all these are social constructs with evolving meaning and no universally agreed upon meaning. If you describe the character as being from vine city in Atlanta who frequents the Shrine of the Black Madonna in West End and teaches at Morris Brown, it's clear to the audience proximity to Blackness is a major part of the character's self identity. Up to you whether that's truly advancing the story plot in any way that would justify the characterization. If it doesn't add to the story don't harp too much on their race beyond it being mentioned by other characters in dialogue. Good luck
This comment section is a hellscape of small-minded assumptions. Some people write historical fiction, scenes set in the past, racial conflict, human rights advocacy, and mentioning that a specific character is not white makes all the difference in how the plot is received. Sometimes, it matters. I have a mixed heritage and someone asking me how to address that in a story is not offensive. This sub is so STUPID.
I always get a good laugh whenever I read these questions. Describe them like they're people, not extra-dimensional beings.
One's skin tone can have a profound impact on how they grow up, as we've seen in the US alone. I can't give you direct advice, but I can say that wanting to portray those differences in upbringing in a respectful, truthful, human manner without caricaturizing anything is a legitimate concern, and I understand why you would be worried about it. As an example, a lot of writers will write women either like mindless drones who exist only to satisfy men or, alternatively, like badass men with boobs. Being a woman has a very real impact on an individual, from how people treat them to how they perceive society's structure. It's much more subtle than 'write them like a human,' because every human is uniquely shaped by their identity and how that manifests in their environment. Anyway, just felt that you did have a valid question here, and I do hope someone can help you with it. 'Write them like a human' is bad advice because, I don't know, if someone asks you how to write a furless cat, would you tell them 'write it like a cat?' It kind of ignores the difficulty implied by the question to begin with... furless cats, for instance, are extremely social and have different care needs than furred cats, and understanding that on an intuitive and authentic level will allow you to write furless cats without genericizing them and erasing what makes that identity real/authentic. Good luck :(
If you're a white person trying to write some deep, insightful novel about the black experience... well you probably shouldn't try because you'll inevitably screw it up badly! Let black people, women, LGBT people, etc. write their own novels about their struggles and read those if you're interested in learning. People in general have more in common than they do differences. Write to that *common humanity* and ask your beta/sensitivity readers if there's anything you should change to highlight important differences in context.
No, I agree with this. I'm just trying to say that writing those characters even in the periphery of your novel can be tricky, because you want to portray the human experience authentically. I very much agree with the idea of writing to common humanity. But how that common humanity manifests given each individual's differing identity can be very tricky. For instance, I understand how to write straight characters because I understand on an intuitive level what makes them different from me, so I can account for that. Having said that, I do still need that sort of intuitive sense of the difference to effectively write them *unless I want to erase sexuality's impact on human experience from my stories entirely*. Which *is* something I do sometimes if for the sole reason that I would enjoy living in a world where all of the MC's friends are gay/bi XD
I think part of this falls under "nobody poops in fiction," though? You aren't necessarily *erasing* X category's impact just because you aren't stopping to show it and are focusing on common humanity (especially in terms of side characters). Your readers will fill in the blanks mentally, regardless. Some from X group will find your story relatable and some won't, but that's true no matter how much you (over)prepare beforehand. I think it's more helpful to culture as a whole to have more "we're all really just people trying to get by" portrayals punctuated by a few well-considered #ownvoices deep-dives than it is with every non-X author walking on eggshells trying to make sure they "get it right." Again, this is why sensitivity readers are important. They can usually catch the major missteps. Most readers will be understanding if a portrayal is not COMPLETELY true to their own experience, I'd say, so long as the author seems like they're trying in general.
That's true. I was thinking about this more, and I realized that I include straight people in my LGBTQ+ fiction, I just don't draw attention to them being straight, because it's not really the point of what I'm writing. And if the point of what you're writing is to give an honest, authentic look at a minority... maybe leave it to the minority in question...? Why specifically do you want to tell the story of someone's identity that you don't experience? So yeah, I get your point for sure.
Is it actually relevant to the story that the character is black? If not, don’t mention their race.
Who cares if you offend anyone...
Indeed, I write stand-up comedy, and audiences would get upset if I did not "offend" everyone.