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Black Lives Matter. Martin Luther King’s Birthday observed. Race is a biological fiction but an ever-changing social reality. Shifts in culture, not DNA, transformed Jewish-Americans and Italian-Americans from non-white a century ago to white today.
How do we speak of race in our writing? Click here for helpful suggestions. There’s a slowly growing discomfort with assuming people are white unless otherwise stated. Workable alternatives can be tricky. Fantasy: Cinderella or Santa Claus can be any color or none. Martians can be green. Journalism: Associated Press style is to specify race or ethnicity only when pertinent, as in a racially motivated crime. Race could be part of a fuller description to identify a missing person or a suspect at large, but it’s meaningless without more detail. History: Public figures in non-race-related U.S. history have been so consistently white that when they aren’t, race is part of the story. Stating that Barack Obama is African American doesn’t oblige you to specify that Millard Fillmore was white. Fiction: Context and context clues--dreadlocks, igloos, or tortillas—may be all you need. Race may be irrelevant to your story. To clarify interracial interactions, provide indicators for everyone involved. Another way besides physical description is to put words in another character’s mouth: “What’s a nice Irish girl like you . . .?”
4 Comments
Matt
1/16/2017 10:14:19 am
Dreadlocks have become much more common on whites in recent decades, making them less of a race cue. And speaking of tortillas, being Hispanic is compatible with any race. In writing, it can be nice to leave it up to the reader to imagine what they want, if it doesn't matter for the story.
True about dreadlocks, plus lots of Blacks don't wear them. Race clues - where race is relevant to the story - are challenging. The Writing with Color site (link in second paragraph of my blog post) raises interesting objections to comparing African Americans to coffee, cocoa, and chocolate.
Kate Lindsay
1/16/2017 11:25:09 pm
Being very literal-minded affords me lots of private amusement. The tumbler link in your second paragraph, and being a daughter of an artist, this whole discussion is so fun to see/hear other folks wrestling with this. Generational background can also play a part in confusing this further. Older African Americans often prefer to be called black. (Personally, I like that because it's short and easy, and the most respectful term back when.) Then, Black Panthers and Afro-American, then the more intellectual African American. Now, I ask each individual whether she or he prefers Black or African American. Then I know biracial and triracialfolks with American Indian heritage who prefer Indigenous people, usually Cherokee. They usually identify as black, though if asked, go into more interesting detail. When I was in my teens, my friends either wore natural' 'fro's or struggled with in-between hair texture. Cornrows can be beautifully crafted works of art, or simply convenience. Wigs and extensions may look fine (a word often used with differing intonation and quite different meaning, depending on social context...,). Makes me kind of sad that straight, even light hair seems more desirable. Fashion choices like hair are best admired and appreciated, or at least respected. Some black folk have neither the money to be fashionable nor is it a priority. My phone is dim, I am fatigued, but thanks for this fertile field for How do we describe racial variations amongst members of the specie Homo sapiens. Complicated, isn't it? Thank you for these examples, Kate. When I was a child, "Negro" was the respectful term and the one MLK used. "People of color" is used now but not "colored people," used when the NAACP chose its name. When the children of the Ho-Chunk School visited the Wisconsin Historical Museum, they unanimously preferred "Indian" over "Native American." It is hard to keep up. Agreed, asking is best, and won't bring the same answer every time. In writing, I still struggle with how to avoid falling into the assume-white-unless-stated-otherwise default. Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI'm a historian who writes novels and literary nonfiction. My home base is Madison, Wisconsin.
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