Races in urban fantasyland

[Saffy]

So far in my project I have witches, humans and other critters probably not due to show up in this actual project. The trouble is, I know these people wont always get along. How do I show the racism some will feel towards others without going over the top?

Any ideas would be appreaciated

 

[ctg]

Show it via action and tie to the dialogue. Its the only way to convey the message to the reader.

 

[BookStop]

Establish a heiarchy beofre you write and catagorize your characters. Give them human traits that the readers can identify with. a werewolf might be a real mans man, and a witch might be like a coutry club member. A wolf might attack you for an insult whereas a witch perhaps hold a grudge and treat you like filth...Just loose examples, but the idea is to keep the characters within thier general personality type. Obviously the protagonist might be different and might exhibit traits that cross boundreis and make them special.

 

[ctg]

Just to clarify the issue. You are talking about racism as an extreme hatred towards another race, are you not?

 

[Aes]

Honestly, the best way is to look at how racist people react to the ethnic groups they don't like in the real world. Some only embed their dislike in snide remarks and never anything more, while others are outright violent towards the group in question. Other than that, go with Bookstop's advice, and give your various races minor quirks and mannerisms that the other (racist) folks will use to mock, or even hate them over.

Having a human (for example) say something like, "I hate witches and kill them on sight. They piss me off that much!" is makes it seem rather hollow, whereas "That's so typical of filthy little goblins. No matter where they live in the world and what they do, they're always stealing crap." is much more believable.

 

[Saffy]

Hmm.... I'm afraid I might not be being clear here

Just to clarify the issue. You are talking about racism as an extreme hatred towards another race, are you not?

Well yes and no. I want to show the extremes, such as humans having a "different=bad kill it!" response to all non humans, and the (usually bad) consequences of their actions.

But, I also want to show the everyday people who are not thugs and don't want to seem racist for the most part, but are nevertheless slightly prejudiced towards vampires and witches and so on. They might get freaked out by it, or discourage their daughters from marrying werewolves and so on.

Political correctness also has it's part, maybe also "positive racism"

Am I making any sense?

Edit

You put it better than I did Aes, this stuff is so complicated!

 

[Saeltari]

I think Aes gave a great example, but I do think that you may want to rethink your generalization of Humans hate all non humans as that tends to be a bit of a cliche if it is taken to the extreme. Some groups of humans are that way and some groups are not, even if the ones in power are that way there will be ones who disagree.

I don't know if you were just stating an example but I just wanted to point out that if I read where a race is all lumped together as one type (unless it is a characters opinion that says all non humans suck) I tend to put the story down. Races are a coverall but individuals are different.

For example:

Not good:
Narrator or writer states somewhere, "All non humans suck!"

Good:
Character states somewhere, maybe repeatedly, "All non humans suck!" (again Aes example is better for this one)

 

[ctg]

Well, Aes gives a great example on how the dialogue so progress, but you shouldn't stop there. You need to carry that hatred in the action and finally tie it to the scenes, just to show that it's not nice to be part of the minority. But in same time you have to also remember that every action has a equal and opposite reaction. That doesn't has to be one of the normal sequences, as you can alternatively grow that hatred from your own racist that among the group of the minorites. In a way of showing us that not everyone is a perfect. Not even if you're a witch or a werewolf.

 

[QSR Joshua]

I would suggest doing some reading that accepts racism as the norm and see how it worked in those stories. Mark Twain is a wonderful writer, and was able to portray the everyday racism of his era so simply that I can feel it when I read his stories. (BTW, I fall into the camp that he was satirizing society, not condoning it. Why would a person who was well raised and educated with all the benefits of southern society suddenly lose all that when he discovered he was switched at birth with a black child?)

Remember, racism is rarely blatant. It is much more likely to be a simple belief that "they" are worse than "we" are. The lynchings of the south were bad, but the quiet racism of the north was worse in many ways. At least people did not pretend to befriend a black in the south. "Some of my best friends are black," does not prove you are not a racist, it proves just the opposite.

 

[Saffy]

Saeltari, I wasn't really trying to generalise with the humans vs non humans thing, It was just the best example I could think of in the very little time I had when writing (just before class), I was not thinking in terms of all humans, just the odd few.

But, I do feel that I need to be able to show the extreem stuff occasionally, maybe not in this project but in the future. Hmmm, Now i'm not even sure I'm making sense to myself

Anyway, I'm definately going to steer clear of lumping all of my races together don't you worry! But that's not going to be a problem for me anyway.

 

[Saffy]

Hey again geys, I think I have a better understanding of this now (been doing some research)

Thanks for all the advice, I'm off to do some homework

 

[Stephen Aryan]

My two pence worth....

Start in the middle of the story. Build it all in your head, or write it down on the page so you know who hates who and why, what it all means in the structure of the world you're creating.

I'm guilty of not doing this sometimes myself, but then drop us into the story with common curses, or turn of phrase that indicate racism, rather than Basil Exposition to establish why, which will probably come out in the story. I've seen this in other novels, where at first you wonder why someone is acting in a particular way towards a person, or race, or even person of a certain religion, and at first you assume it's just them, their character, but then it's revealed in small pieces that build nicely into the story.

I hope some of that makes sense!

 

[Alcatraz]

What I have done is create derogatory racial terms to show the animosity between the species involved..

For example, in my WIP, most supernatural beings refer to humans by the (in the context of my story) racist name, 'Simon', which is a play on the word Simian (Ape).

For example:

"Whatcha want here, Simon?" growled the badly disguised Goblin guarding the manhole cover , which I suspected was an unauthorised entry into Twilight.

 

[Saffy]

Hi, I cheers for the advice, I never thought anyone would be so interested

 

[Saffy]

Hey again geys, I think I have a better understanding of this now (been doing some research)

Thanks for all the advice, I'm off to do some homework

Grr I hate typos! and double posts, I should just start coming here when fully awake

Oh well. Nice to see people getting into this

 

[Dragonlady]

Have you read any robin hobb books? The unconscious prejudice of ordinary people who would consider themselves unprejudiced and just is done very well- I've just finished reading 'the golden fool' which contains some very clever scenes of this type. As prejudiced language, eg sexist, or racist- how many more terms of a buse are there for women than men- and ways of speaking are a good way to convey social inequality.

 

[Saffy]

I havn't read those, but I'll be sure to give it a try, cheers