Possible culture and character colour appropriation

[anthorn]

As you know, we live in a hyper sensitive world these days so we've got to be extra careful when we write, talk, walk, look.

So, I am reviewing my manuscript and certain scenarios to make sure things don't come across as tokenism in regards to characters and culture appropriations.

I have a certain group of characters living in what I would describe as a vague analogue of Africa in sense of tribal areas and geography. This scenario is based in the early 20th century of that world. 1899-1900 sort of era, and in a coastal city that is slowly being updated to be more western due to the wealthy living there. One such family is responsible for most of the industrialisation and would be considered one of the 5 wealthiest families in the world. They adopt two children from an orphanage. One is given a western sounding name and the other a more localised name. So essentially, you have two POC adopted by a white family and given the life of luxury. The two are sent to the best of schools in other countries and the eldest, the one with the western sounding name is groomed to take over the father's place in his company. The other was kidnapped in another country. She rebels at this when she is old enough and attempts to fit in with the more tribal aspects of her culture, which involves a coming of age ceremony. This doesn't go down well with the others and she is mocked and bullied for her attempts, leaving her no choice but to embrace what her adoptive father wants.

When her father dies she inherits half his fortune but is cheated out of it by the father's only true born child, who hates her and wants her gone. She is allowed to leave with dignity on a pretend mission to another country (basically cutting the tape on a new railway) but expected to disappear after that. She hires an elite soldier who is white to protect her on the journey there as she suspects going by herself would put her in danger of kidnap or assassins. On the journey she struggles with her situation and is torn between seducing the man in order to gain more safety or not. She has no plan going forward and shows no initiative to get her fortune or former life back. I have made some reference to her being a bit wishy washy in regards to her life, easily moulded to be whatever people wanted her to be and how she wishes to change that, but I just wonder if I am wandering into dangerous territory. She never shows any interest in wanting to go back to her former life. She is a POC woman who is content to be escorted and led by white man. She thinks to seduce this man because that was what her sister would've done before she was kidnapped.

Now, is it just me or does there sound like a problem with that characterisation. Do I run the risk of culture and character tokenism even though there are other characters who are POC in the story.

Does she run the danger of being a character defined by her relationship with men. I'm just curious on peoples opinions.

 

[Ihe]

Out of curiosity, if the main character is a POC in this pseudo-Africa and was adopted from an orphanage, wouldn't she already have a name, possibly pseudo-African?

The only thing of note I see here is that your main character, despite being a local, sounds like she's practically a westerner (in education and in name, living in a westernized city, with westernized rich parents). Some could see this as the western writer taking over a local MC's cultural identity, I guess. but it shouldn't be an issue if relevant to the plot and character development.

I'm not seeing any particular problem with what the general outline you've described so far. Then again, any oversights will not be visible from the eagle eye view, but int he cultural micro-transactions within the story.

 

[anthorn]

Out of curiosity, if the main character is a POC in this pseudo-Africa and was adopted from an orphanage, wouldn't she already have a name, possibly pseudo-African?

The only thing of note I see here is that your main character, despite being a local, sounds like she's practically a westerner (in education and in name, living in a westernized city, with westernized rich parents). Some could see this as the western writer taking over a local MC's cultural identity, I guess. but it shouldn't be an issue if relevant to the plot and character development.

I'm not seeing any particular problem with what the general outline you've described so far. Then again, any oversights will not be visible from the eagle eye view, but int he cultural micro-transactions within the story.

Sometimes they would and sometimes they wouldn't. In China, some orphanages don't name children they just number them. It can be seen as a transaction. You pay for the child you get to name them.

Yeah, that was one of the points I was going for originally, and what gives me some concern too. She's native to the country, but raised by rich and wealthy adoptive parents who are more concerned with updating the country with railways and Churches rather than Temples. After being separated from that side of her heritage for years, when she has the opportunity to attempt to reclaim it, she does so, but it ostracised from doing so, and is bullied for having a western sounding name, leaving her resigned to doing what her adoptive father wants of her which is to learn how his business works. This annoys her father's actual blood daughter, who refers to the girl as her father's pet native.

 

[Brian G Turner]

analogue of Africa

Which part of Africa? You're talking about the most diverse continent on Earth when it comes to genetics, languages, and cultures.

 

[sknox]

I also don't see why color or place are even relevant. Why not just make them two orphans? Why not put them on a made-up continent with no explicit parallels to Africa? To me, it sounds like you are trying to make a point about color and maybe colonialism and maybe gender roles, without wanting to be seen as addressing any of that directly, in case you put a foot wrong.

A novel about real Africa, actually set circa 1900, would let you address these matters directly. I'm not seeing the SFF angle to all this, but maybe that got dropped in the summary.

Also, why do the parents deliberately Westernize one but not the other? Sounds exceptionally cold-hearted for a couple who wanted children so badly they were willing to adopt.

 

[anthorn]

Which part of Africa? You're talking about the most diverse continent on Earth when it comes to genetics, languages, and cultures.

I would say it would be closer in our world towards the bottom end of the northern part.

 

[anthorn]

I also don't see why color or place are even relevant. Why not just make them two orphans? Why not put them on a made-up continent with no explicit parallels to Africa? To me, it sounds like you are trying to make a point about color and maybe colonialism and maybe gender roles, without wanting to be seen as addressing any of that directly, in case you put a foot wrong.

A novel about real Africa, actually set circa 1900, would let you address these matters directly. I'm not seeing the SFF angle to all this, but maybe that got dropped in the summary.

Also, why do the parents deliberately Westernize one but not the other? Sounds exceptionally cold-hearted for a couple who wanted children so badly they were willing to adopt.

The other one was westernised, but disappeared in another continent, and as wasn't as smart as the westernised one. But it's not a nice family, even though the father does love his children.

 

[Ihe]

The other one was westernised, but disappeared in another continent, and as wasn't as smart as the westernised one

Some finicky readers might ask what plot-specific reasons you had to make the westernized child "smarter" than the other one (am I getting it right? I thought the westernized one was the main character? And wouldn't both of them have had western education? This is getting confusing ).

 

[anthorn]

Some finicky readers might ask what plot-specific reasons you had to make the westernized child "smarter" than the other one (am I getting it right? I thought the westernized one was the main character? And wouldn't both of them have had western education? This is getting confusing ).

They were both westernised, both had same educations. Just one has a hire aptitude for numbers.

 

[tinkerdan]

I'm not sure I see an issue of appropriation or misappropriation or even tokenism.
However if I were to pick it might be closer to tokenism.
I think the real struggle would be to choose what the character does represent in your story and then trying to keep that as true to itself and as real as possible. I think that the readers object to seeing what looks more like character tropes or even cliche's that hover in that area that comes from those who don't know those people and then the fact that those are placed there in a token manner that not only rings false, but diminishes the character.

So, forge ahead with the notion that you need to be consistent with the character in whatever manner you have begun and that what it is that makes them what they are is a strong influence that makes sense within the story and within the character and forget about trying to be politically correct unless you truly are stomping around on peoples feet with no idea of what you are doing because you thought it would be cool to have a POC character in your fiction.

 

[Brian G Turner]

There are so many problems with this, not least:

Which part of Africa? You're talking about the most diverse continent on Earth when it comes to genetics, languages, and cultures.

I would say it would be closer in our world towards the bottom end of the northern part.

wasn't as smart as the westernised one

She is a POC woman who is content to be escorted and led by white man.

What you're doing at the moment is focusing on things you know little about, and your ignorance is shining through.

If you're serious about writing, I'd recommend you focus on stories that draw on your own experiences and interests in order to give your stories a sense of truth and depth.

 

[Shorewalker]

You are right to have the concerns that you do...these most certainly are 'hot buttons'. However, I'm not convinced that you are yet fully informed enough to do the subject matter justice. Instead of placing the story in 'the bottom end of the northern part', I'd suggest you decide exactly where you could place it and research the precise conditions that appertained before twisting them to suit the story.

I'm also not sure that you have the life experience to 'get into the head' of your lead character. If you did this with a character of your own gender and ethnicity, your only problem would be writing a potentially poor story. In these circumstances, the issues could be much greater.

 

[Ihe]

I don't think we can judge the story correctly with just the draft summary. All those hot-button topics like "western superiority", racial inequity, sexism, and the like can have a place in literature if approached with respect and if it's related to character development (she starts out content with her white male bodyguard because she is used to white westerners in her city, until she outgrows the need of him, becoming a badass in her own right), if it's relevant to plot--if there are justifiable story reasons to do it the way it is done (for example, a good explanation as to why she is content with being protected--maybe she comes from a male-dominant traditional household and was also pampered her whole life and likes it that way at first. Why is the bodyguard white? Maybe he offered her a discount other bodyguards didn't--because white bodyguards stand out in the tribal crowd in this particular part of the world, which isn't great for their job description, so they don't have as much clientele, or anything like that, and this decision brings its own subset of conflicts to the narrative, etc). The execution, the reasons given, and the message proposed behind it is everything. Just make sure it doesn't generalize or stereotype.

I will concede, @anthorn, that the geography of it all is a bit confusing. If you have in mind a place like Africa, and tribes like in Africa, why not just make it Africa? Now that others have pointed it out, it does feel like you just want to write about Africa, but without the hassle of researching and without the moral responsibility to depict it correctly, so you create a slightly different one. This could be your story's undoing, if not handled well. Is there any particular story reason that your setting isn't Africa? A fantastical or sci-fi plot element of some kind that forces you to make up a world that is almost like the real one?

 

[anthorn]

I don't think we can judge the story correctly with just the draft summary. All those hot-button topics like "western superiority", racial inequity, sexism, and the like can have a place in literature if approached with respect and if it's related to character development (she starts out content with her white male bodyguard because she is used to white westerners in her city, until she outgrows the need of him, becoming a badass in her own right), if it's relevant to plot--if there are justifiable story reasons to do it the way it is done (for example, a good explanation as to why she is content with being protected--maybe she comes from a male-dominant traditional household and was also pampered her whole life and likes it that way at first. Why is the bodyguard white? Maybe he offered her a discount other bodyguards didn't--because white bodyguards stand out in the tribal crowd in this particular part of the world, which isn't great for their job description, so they don't have as much clientele, or anything like that, and this decision brings its own subset of conflicts to the narrative, etc). The execution, the reasons given, and the message proposed behind it is everything. Just make sure it doesn't generalize or stereotype.

I will concede, @anthorn, that the geography of it all is a bit confusing. If you have in mind a place like Africa, and tribes like in Africa, why not just make it Africa? Now that others have pointed it out, it does feel like you just want to write about Africa, but without the hassle of researching and without the moral responsibility to depict it correctly, so you create a slightly different one. This could be your story's undoing, if not handled well. Is there any particular story reason that your setting isn't Africa? A fantastical or sci-fi plot element of some kind that forces you to make up a world that is almost like the real one?

Because it's a fantasy. It's just I am aware I need to be aware of things. It's a secondary world with a landmass that's closest equivalent is Africa. Plot reasons as to why she's content at being protected is because she doesn't have any sword or rifle training and the bodyguard does.

 

[EJDeBrun]

My history: I lived in Georgia USA for a few years. It was (and still is) very segregated, but the thing about it that was really tragic was that it was socio-economics involved. Color was only one aspect of many aspects when it came to the gross differences between the have and the have nots. Looking at that, I think there are a lot of other angles for you to use that don't have to center around skin color and in fact I think your summary demonstrates enough of that to avoid the issue entirely. So if I might suggest, I would do that. Focus on her orphanage origins and tribal backgrounds more than the specific skin color which is really just a symbol for a lot of other historical and cultural things.

If you want your MC still to be of African descent, then you could make it very subtle. Like blanching ashen instead of blanching white, but I wouldn't make a huge deal out of it.

 

[The Bluestocking]

There are so many problems with this, not least:







What you're doing at the moment is focusing on things you know little about, and your ignorance is shining through.

If you're serious about writing, I'd recommend you focus on stories that draw on your own experiences and interests in order to give your stories a sense of truth and depth.

And I will add this (to what @Brian G Turner said) - Perhaps some stories are not yours to tell?

 

[Toby Frost]

I have to say that in principle I disagree. The question to my mind is whether you can do it well, not whether you should be allowed to attempt it.

 

[SilentRoamer]

And I will add this (to what @Brian G Turner said) - Perhaps some stories are not yours to tell?

Ridiculous. Brians statements are clearly nuanced - if writing about emotionally sensitive peoples, events and circumstances it behooves the writer to attempt to understand the context, both out of respect for the subject matter but also out of respect for the validity of their own work.

Now I would agree writing a pseudo African tribal analogue may have difficulties for an author but I think it is still their right to choose to do so. Cultural, social or economic groups do not have the sole right of arbitration on works depicting thier life, nor are the exclusive right to tell "their" story. Otherwise why should the wealthy write tales of the poor? Why should white people write POC? Why should any of us write any SF or Fantasy outside of our direct experience.

If we can only write about direct experience then literature would be a drab place indeed.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Because it's a fantasy. It's just I am aware I need to be aware of things. It's a secondary world with a landmass that's closest equivalent is Africa. Plot reasons as to why she's content at being protected is because she doesn't have any sword or rifle training and the bodyguard does.

Just on another note - the market hates stories with helpless little women protected by men. It certainly tweaked my buttons

 

[Mouse]

It certainly tweaked my buttons

And mine.