How to Describe Nonwhite Characters Sans Fail

[cathschaffstump]

The rough draft for the as yet nameless watermelon story is in the bag, cooling off until a look tomorrow. It's...strangely sensual for a watermelon story, so I guess I'll play that up a bit.

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But you're here for some more panel reporting. Here's a write up of How to Describe Nonwhite Characters Sans Fail.

The Cast:
Mary Doria Russell: Moderator, Tiptree Winner.

K. Tempest Bradford: Clarion participant, technical journalist.

Moondancer Drake: A multicultural LGBTQ paranormal novelist.

Amal El-Mohtar: Nebula nominee and poet.

Sumana Harihareswara: Editor, software specialist.

Snapshots of the Panel

The panelists suggested here is a good place to begin this discussion.

The panelists began discussing the following description. "Her skin was the color of a delicious Coca-Cola."

And...we discovered that foods are often used to describe characters who are not white. After discussing food and Weird Al, it was decided that food was an easy describer for artists.

Characters in books are often imagined as white, as that has permeated the culture as standard, unless deviance is stated otherwise. This is uncomfortable and problematic.

Mary Doria Russell wrote a piece to demonstrate focusing on other descriptive traits than skin color for an example.

Some discussion occurred that juxtaposing elements both positive and negative, and using a wide variety of details beyond the superficial of appearance might be a good way to dig a little deeper.

It is important to be aware of the cultural assumptions, both positive and negative, of the things you write.

Having readers was described as important. Not having one token reader was also described as important--maybe having one black friend look at your book that has a black character in it isn't a good enough strategy.

Writers should do the work and the research to make the best representation that they can, in tandem with those who know.

Some discussion was also given to dialogue and character action regarding the portrayal of POC.

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As with the workshop on Mary Sue, there was a common theme that writers could dig a little deeper and make their writing more complex. This would solve a lot of the troubles. I begin to see this as the overall theme of the convention.

Mirrored from Writer Tamago.