Writing: The Issue of Race in My Fiction
I am an African-English-Blackfoot Indian-American.
We writers are a strange lot. Of course, that could be said about human beings in general.
Hello, my brother and sister writers. It’s the Old Soldier here to shoot the breeze with you about writing and being a writer. Actually, I’m here to talk about race in the short narrative.
Image by State Library of New South Wales collection via Flickr
As writers we love to put tags on our characters. That’s one way that we let our readers know what’s going on. We usually give our characters names. We tell the reader the gender of our characters.
Race plays a part, too, but in a different way. Race has certainly played an important part in human history. When I was a very young writer I read a lot of work by “Black Writers.” That was because I was a young black man and race was very much in the forefront of the cultural wars of the 1960s and 1970s of my youth.
But somewhere along the line I made a conscious decision not to be a “Black Writer.”
First let me say that being a “Black Writer” is a wonderful thing. Just as being a Jewish or a Feminists or an Hispanic writer is a wonderful thing. But I did not want to be known as a “Black Writer.” There are very few places in my fiction where a character is identified by his or her race. I do this on purpose. I do it for the same reason that I seldom tell the reader if my characters would be considered good looking or not. Sometimes my characters remain nameless.
In my fictional world, that my characters are of different racial backgrounds is a given. Some would say that because the race of my characters is seldom mentioned my flash fiction is unrealistic. My answer is that as an artist, by not pointing out the race of my characters, I am making a very definite statement about race.
I am also making a statement about life.
Liked it
Tags: fiction, Flash fiction, Life, Writers, Writing
Click the icon to the left to subscribe to Writinghood with your favorite RSS reader.
February 13th, 2011 at 9:20 am
I liked that Guy cheers
February 13th, 2011 at 9:21 am
I agree that we writers are a strange breed. One of the things I like about the community of writers on this site is how international it is and the chance to read such a varied view of the world through those differences.
February 13th, 2011 at 9:25 am
I never really thought about this before but differences in race, gender, age and so on don’t need to be stressed in the writing to make a good story.
Christine
February 13th, 2011 at 9:32 am
Unless race is needed to be mentioned because it affects the course of the story, where’s the need to mention it. Liked it.
February 13th, 2011 at 9:41 am
I never thought about this before Guy, certainly an interesting point to make.
February 13th, 2011 at 10:13 am
Nice share.
February 13th, 2011 at 10:22 am
Unless it somehow propels the story or the character, it\’s unnecessary information.
February 13th, 2011 at 11:28 am
When you are black and see the world through black eyes, your characters become black but when you don’t see the world through black or white, then race disappears. I have a different idea when it comes to names though, you are being unfair to your characters by denying them the most basic form of identification and that must be the source of un-realism in your fiction.
February 13th, 2011 at 11:52 am
If the story is interesting and compelling, what is not stated really does no matter, to my thinking it is content. Thank you.
February 13th, 2011 at 1:21 pm
Jimmy, I do not mean to deny my characters a basic right by sometimes not giving them names. I do understand why you may think that I should give them names. The reason I sometimes do not give my characters names is that names are tags, too. Names carry emotional baggage. I want my characters to be judged on what they say and do. Anyway, that is why I do it; but like I said, your point is well taken.
February 13th, 2011 at 3:34 pm
I never give my characters a race, why does it matter? There are times I don’t even give them a name. I tell the story in third person without any names. One of my favorite ways to write.
February 13th, 2011 at 7:24 pm
Being a writer transcends race, nationality or religion. A writer is always a writer.
February 13th, 2011 at 8:05 pm
I know fiction writers are sometimes pressured by publishers to make the characters fit a stereotype.
February 14th, 2011 at 6:57 am
I dont use race as a discriptive tool either. I will however say a character is ‘fat’ or has ‘a limp’ if they do! as much as I agree that characters should define themselves by their actions, I do agree with Jimmy also and I usually use names but try to limit character names to say three or four as to not confuse the reader. If its a minor player in the short story I leave them nameless. LB
February 14th, 2011 at 6:58 am
Oh P.S. you wrote a whole article and didn’t mention Twitter! good lad! LB
February 14th, 2011 at 11:56 am
You treat them as universal humans.
February 14th, 2011 at 1:30 pm
Race is definitely part of one\’s identity; but I grew up in a time when race was used to say how different we are from each other. I do not think we are all that different at all. So, as a young writer I decided not to point out the race of my characters unless it had something to do with the story. My stories never have anything to do with race.
February 14th, 2011 at 6:22 pm
The ‘Frank Yerby’ model…Yerby is a well known writer; he happens to be black, but you’d never know it from his work.
Many non-American writers do not mention race as it rarely is important in their milieu.
February 14th, 2011 at 9:02 pm
Writing should go beyond the borders of race and other aspects. But in the process of taking things in the universal context, we should not lose our identity as well. Writing should be a way to bridge gaps and not alienate ourselves from others. Just my humble opinion.
February 14th, 2011 at 9:44 pm
Everyone has their own personal style and journey. Writing is a journey of telling stories and of personal discovery. Giving names to a character may be important at some point or may not even necessary at times. There’s a time and place for everything.
February 15th, 2011 at 1:13 am
Giving a reader too much information can spoil the story. As you write flash fiction, you have room only for the important things. I can understand your decision re race. The only time I ever considered it was when submitting childrens stories here in NZ and only material with a Maori content was getting accepted.
February 16th, 2011 at 9:11 am
For the most part, I think if the story is not about race, there is no reason to point it out, especially in a flash fiction story where every word counts.
February 16th, 2011 at 5:27 pm
i am so glad to hear of someone who does this. i have a similar opinion on appearances. I have made it a goal to write some stories without comments about how pretty one character looks. i often get sick of writers who talk about someones pretty blonde hair and stuff like that.
February 17th, 2011 at 8:27 am
very interesting article. http://yourhealth-solution.blogspot.com
February 19th, 2011 at 1:49 pm
I agree with you that we writers are of special breed. People look at us (when we\’re just starting) as though we were wasting our time and shouldn\’t we do something more practical? It\’s what they think. I don\’t care. I write everyday for two or three hours and I do my research. One day or another I\’ll prove those who thought I was wasting my time that I was right. Good article. I enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing.
February 20th, 2011 at 2:38 pm
I think you should be able to judge the personality and possibly race by the ongoing story of your character. I don’t believe it’s necessary to point it out. If the story is clear there shouldn’t be any doubt.