Is my novel becoming problematic?

[MemoryTale]

So I've managed to get over my slump recently and started cracking on with editing my never-ending WIP again, but I've hit upon a problem that's stymying me somewhat, so I thought I'd canvas some opinions.

A bit of background, first off. In the backstory of this novel, society has been engineered by someone with the goal of creating a Utopia for people. By his definition, that is, a society with no war, crime or deadly disease. The problem is, they have extremely simplistic views about how to go about this. The technology is advanced enough where deadly disease isn't much of an issue, but societal issues are an ongoing bugbear. As things stand, he's mucked up to such an extent that crime runs rampant, and it's amazing the infrastructure is still standing.

So then I had a bolt of inspiration while I was at work this afternoon, and was supposed to be doing something else. I thought of course his idea of how to eliminate racism would be to evenly distribute the various races. I don't want to say how, because that would be a massive spoiler. Logically this would mean a few generations down the line, most people in this society would be mixed race.

Now here's the quandary - I'm worried this could all come across that the moral of the story is that a society of darker skinned people would = a high crime rate and a rundown society. What do you all think? Am I overthinking this, or should the idea be killed with fire?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Personally I think you’re overthinking - it’s pretty well established that Nordic genes will die out (and Celtic) and dark skin become more dominant

 

[Dragonlady]

Is a darker skinned group of people what you'd get, or just a different mixture from what we have now? (There are more than two races)
Would people gravitate to people who looked like them anyway?

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

I assume that by "evenly distribute" you mean genetically (across generations, via sex and babies) rather than geographically? While that may be well meaning, I think it is a somewhat discredited concept. Instead we should celebrate diversity. This may be your point of course; that the well meaning social engineer in your story gets it all wrong and fails to deliver the intended utopia. Even if that is indeed your point, you cannot rely on readers to interpret your work correctly. For that reason I would probably avoid the whole topic.

 

[MemoryTale]

Is a darker skinned group of people what you'd get, or just a different mixture from what we have now? (There are more than two races)
Would people gravitate to people who looked like them anyway?

For the first point, I'm speaking in fairly broad terms, so there would be light and dark skinned European people, light and dark skinned Asian people, etc. This is not a society that has organically formed and developed, so while people would probably gravitate towards others with shared experiences, beliefs, etc, that's not really something I had to consider for this story.

I assume that by "evenly distribute" you mean genetically (across generations, via sex and babies) rather than geographically? While that may be well meaning, I think it is a somewhat discredited concept. Instead we should celebrate diversity. This may be your point of course; that the well meaning social engineer in your story gets it all wrong and fails to deliver the intended utopia. Even if that is indeed your point, you cannot rely on readers to interpret your work correctly. For that reason I would probably avoid the whole topic.

The bolded section is actually the true moral of the story I'm going for, that there are no simple solutions to complex issues and that attempts to apply them, no matter how well meaning, only make things worse.

 

[msstice]

Darker skin and darker eye color are, I believe dominant, but genetics works in strange ways. Besides being part of a "mixed-race" couple myself I know several "mixed-race" families (mostly European + Indian and one Indian + African) and skin color is mysterious. One couple has twins and they are both darker than one parent, but one is lighter than the other. Brazil is a decent example of mixed race couples going at it for a few generations as is Spain and other European countries close to North Africa. Eyes are mysterious too. Blue eyes are recessive, so my kid has brown eyes, but she carries the gene, so some descendant down the line is gonna have brown skin and blue eyes.

Long story short, minus the selective pressure for lighter skin in colder climates, we are all gonna brown back down.

 

[Steve Harrison]

Everything now is problematic, which to me means nothing is problematic.

My opinion would be to write your story they way it needs to be told. You clearly have no intention to offend anyone - though some people will go out of their way to be offended - but if you compromise your vision of the story because of a reaction that might or might not happen, I don't think it's a good thing for the work.

 

[Harpo]

I don’t like the word “problematic” - it sound like a vending machine for problems.

 

[Wayne Mack]

his idea of how to eliminate racism would be to evenly distribute the various races.

this could all come across that the moral of the story is that a society of darker skinned people would = a high crime rate and a rundown society

From the synopsis, I do not see the integration leading to the the suggested interpretation. I think the interpretation would be more dependent upon how the pre-integration societies act and the unexpected consequences arising post-integration. It is really the author who should guide the readers towards the writer's preferred conclusion. Of curse, there will always be a subset of readers who will try to force their own interpretations onto the story.

Write the story as you feel it should be told and overlay the interpretation that you desire (and do not fear being too obvious; being too subtle is the more common problem).

 

[Brian G Turner]

The blunt truth? Yes, I think your novel idea is problematic if you're going to make race a key element of it - certainly if you're looking to sell it to the wider public. Solving racism by mixing up skin colours completely misses the point of what racism is.

Bottom line - I'd suggest removing that element from your story if you want it to live. Keep it in if your story is just an exercise of putting words together.

 

[msstice]

Solving racism by mixing up skin colours completely misses the point of what racism is.

An interesting story would be how racism is just a special case of classism, which is social stratification which in turn doesn't need "races" to exist, just some marker, like geographic location ("Which side of the tracks are you from then?") family line, profession, political views ...