In any case, my initial intent was to have the mother be black (insert latest politically correct term if this term offends you), in order to portray a more racially accurate diversity for New York City. Later when I hit upon the idea of the mother being addicted to drugs, which in turn caused the neglect, I waffled. Immediately I was concerned that it would evoke racist overtones, so I backed off from that plot point, to avoid diverting attention away from the story. In its first draft I left out the joke entirely, leaving the reason the mother was out at the time of the fire indeterminate.
Eventually I decided to restore the joke, and simply make the mother "white trash" instead. The issue of race was completely unnecessary to the joke, but because of my initial desire to reflect an accurate diversity I almost left the joke out entirely simply to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. (It would have been even worse if I'd gone with my very first draft, in which Blake actually accused her of causing the fire with her crack pipe)
So let's discuss this. Has anyone had a similar situation? Have you backed away from an idea believing it to be too sensitive, or out of fear that it may be misinterpreted?
Comments
12:31 Fri Jul 25th, 2008
The general rule of "write what you know" keeps me away from racial issues most of the time, seeing as I'm white and middle-class. If everything else fails, though, I could always go the Life on Mars route and nullify a bit of prejudiced dialogue by having the more "modern" character tut and roll their eyes.
13:06 Fri Jul 25th, 2008
Agreed, that's a handy scapegoat. Unfortunately in my case, I don't think there's anyone who has fewer inhibitions than Blake, so he's not going to come off well in the situation. ;)
P.S. DCI Gene Hunt is a god.
13:30 Fri Jul 25th, 2008
I have an entire pitch/story idea that I backed off because of racial issues. Essentially, there was a non-caucaision(spellcheck) character who was supposed to inherit some powers, but his powers go to a white guy. The non-white guy becomes the villian. So on surface seems very white. But the intention was that the non-white guy's sister would eventually end up with the powers(thus fighting her own brother) and that it went to the white guy initially to address things like, spirit wise(no I am not religious) we are all the same. Kind of like on Babylon 5 when the alien race had been at war with humans for hundreds of years and then learned that humans were reincarnated from the same well of souls as them so they stopped the war. Anyway, fear of offending the non-white culture through my appropriation of their culture and fiction mythology made me abandon the idea.
13:32 Fri Jul 25th, 2008
I may retool it as a scifi alien culture, but for now it is just abandoned.
14:07 Fri Jul 25th, 2008
Wait, so you're not asking if I've ever burned down a house with a crackpipe or anything? That's a relief.
I do think many writers back off from this issue not because they necessarily are afraid of cause offense, but also because they may not be able to do it justice. It's very easy to get daunted, especially in the shadows of comics like "100 Bullets", which synthesize the language of the streets so well. It's also very easy to get daunted when yo use books crash and burn - I remember before Firestorm had Dwayne McDuffie, Dan Jolley would practically butcher the dialogue. I know he was doing his best, but it just didn't sound convincing, and that might be a reason a lot of writers back away from the material - for fear of failing.
I think unless you a) have a great knack for dialogue and b) are submersed in the target culture 24/7, there's a fear the attempt may come off as phony or over-the-top. It's like Luke Cage in the late-70's/early-80's - JIVE TURKEYS!
21:03 Fri Jul 25th, 2008
I am about as cautious about writing black characters as I am about writing any other kind of character. I'm not going to let fear of offending people stifle my writing. I know I'm not racist, and I trust myself enough to include black characters in my stories if it occurs to me.
21:33 Fri Jul 25th, 2008
CW-I include other races in my stories as well but what Jason is looking at here is what could be percieved as playing a stereotype.
22:08 Fri Jul 25th, 2008
I guess I think it's just as racist to make a crack dealer not black for fear of offending people.
22:46 Fri Jul 25th, 2008
I can't disagree with Crackwalker. Censorship is, by far, one of the biggest problems today. By censoring ourselves when it comes to racism, we're giving it power. If we embrace it (like I do in private with my friends through racial jokes at one another) the ideas lose their power and are no longer shocking.
However, my fear of using racism is not that I have a problem with being labeled as a racist, really, as much as it is I don't know how to successfully pull it off unless the circumstances are right for it. Take a look at my pitch on here called "Central City Shorts". Two of them could easily be looked at as racist, but it doesn't matter, because it fit. I just don't want people to see things as being forced.
22:59 Fri Jul 25th, 2008
"The dealers are all so scared we're more likely to get Helen Keller to talk. The Paki in a coma's about as lively as Liberace's dick when he's looking at a naked woman, all in all this investigation's going at the speed of a spastic in a magnet factory."
"Think you might have missed out the Jews."
03:33 Sat Jul 26th, 2008
Maim, it's a great point you have raised here. I have always believed in fiction, as in real life, people are people. No matter the race, color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, plastic surgery or whatever. Everyone is an individual and each person needs to be judged and treated accordingly.
Will this offend some people when one of "them" is profiled in a way they consider negative or stereotypical?
Undoubtedly.
Would this cause me to back off a story or plot idea?
I sincerely hope not.
At least it hasn't happened to me yet.
Look for my upcoming webcomic Minus One (coming soon to a website near you!) for an illustration of this.
I can say with confidence that I have the most diverse cast of the 12 CCCN books being published. I have four Asian men either mentioned or appearing in the book and all of them are gangsters. Does this mean that all Asian men are gangsters? Please!
Does this mean I think all Asian men are gangsters? Again, get serious!
Does this mean all Asian men who appear in my ongoing story (bang the drum people, make it happen!) are going to be gangsters? Not a chance.
They are characters, just as all the others appearing in my story are.
Everyone has the potential for good and bad in them.
Our background does point us in certain directions, but it never means we can't rise above it.
03:56 Sat Jul 26th, 2008
I've never backed off from writing a character how I felt like writing them. Of course, I play it safe in a sense because I generally make up my settings (like a general North American "big city") so that I can get away with whatever I want. I might not be able to pull off how people living in certain demographics talk and act, but no one can tell me that my characters, with the background and setting I've given them, don't talk or act the way I say they do.
09:45 Sat Jul 26th, 2008
I suppose I've been influenced the other way to a certain degree. I want to write stories that appeal to a wide audience, so I will try and trick myself, to get away from my own assumptions and tendencies. When I came up with my list of characters of Hero High, there were 10 kids, and I had based them all on archetypes; the teacher's pet, the rebel... etc. At some point I thought that they were all too cliché so I reversed all the genders - the male characters were re-cast as female, and the girls were now boys.
It helped me re-connect with the story, made it seem fresher. I've done that with other stories, and with other character traits, like skin colour. (I avoid using the word 'race' because I think there's only one race, and it's called 'human' - other races are vulcan, klingon, orc, hobbit ...etc)
18:12 Sat Jul 26th, 2008
Offending people wasn't really my concern so much as I didn't want it to distract people away from the plot points that were important with the issue of race.
If it had been important to the plot, or if I'd intended to attract controversy for free advertisement, I would have stuck with it.
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Steven Menszer
09:13 Fri Jul 25th, 2008
I can't tell you how many times I've had to insert or exclude race just to come off as an equal-opportunist (which I am; I describe myself as a "wet-the-bed" liberal). I truly don't care who it offends, but the fear is how the publisher will react to it.
Honestly, with all the P.C. bullshit that goes around, I feel a little iffy about even mentioning skin-color within a script. It's a completely insane fear with fact to back it. P.C. is retarded. That statement isn't P.C.
I'd go into more detail, as you probably know, but I just woke up.