Portraying Characters of Different Ethnicities

[Zilelabelle]

I'm trying to add more diversity to my work, because lord knows we need as much diverse representation as we can get out there, but I find myself very hesitant to write main and secondary characters with a different ethnicity than my own. I'm afraid of getting it wrong. I'm also afraid to ask my black and Hispanic friends for their thoughts on my work because I don't want them to feel like I think it's their job to educate me on the matter.

Currently, I'm heavily relying on Google to try and educate myself on various cultures and sub-cultures, and I was a Japanese Language and Literature major in college, so I feel a little more comfortable writing about them into my stories. However, I feel like that isn't enough.

How do you all treat this issue in your own work? I want to help add to the promotion of diversity and I don't want to mess this up.

[Romeo Ray]

That's a very excellent question, Zileabelle. The first step in portraying another character in any circumstance is to understand and never forget that it's not you, its another person. That being said, I'd also suggest watching older movies that display the cliches of ethnic diversity from poverty stricken ghettos, to the upper class beverly hills idea. "The Help" etc. Don't stay in your shoes with personalities and it'll be hard to go wrong honestly. I'm a hispanic, Russian, Native Mut, and I have characteristics of every ethnicity I swear. So hope that helps

[Zilelabelle]

That's a very excellent question, Zileabelle. The first step in portraying another character in any circumstance is to understand and never forget that it's not you, its another person. That being said, I'd also suggest watching older movies that display the cliches of ethnic diversity from poverty stricken ghettos, to the upper class beverly hills idea. "The Help" etc. Don't stay in your shoes with personalities and it'll be hard to go wrong honestly. I'm a hispanic, Russian, Native Mut, and I have characteristics of every ethnicity I swear. So hope that helps

Thank you, that does help I never thought of researching tropes and cliches as a way of avoiding them.

[KS Crooks]

If people only wrote from personal experience, there would be no fiction worth reading. The issue of including people of different colours and other characteristics is something many authors never consider. I applaud you for recognizing that there are many different people out there and for being willing to include them. The default for most people in North America and Europe when a character is not described is that they are white, heterosexual and able bodied. Don't worry about offending anyone, the greatest offence is in not including any of us with greater amounts of pigment in our skin or other ways groups of people differ.

To me the easiest way for you to start doing this is to write your characters and story, and then make some of them different colours, ethnicities, orientations, abilities, etc. A black man born and raised in Chicago has more in common with a white man from the same place than he does with a black man born and raised in Kenya. A man and a woman who are deaf have something prominent in common, but in other ways they can be vastly different.

Don’t be afraid of descriptions. The colour, type, size and age of a car is routinely mentioned; why not the same for people? You can have a light blue, four door, and five year old door sedan driving down a busy street. You can have a dark brown, thin, 45 year old New Yorker going down the sidewalk in his wheelchair. There is nothing offensive with stating a person’s appearance.

The characteristics don’t have to impact the story. E.g. Police Detective Henry Grange kisses his husband goodbye as he leaves to investigate a triple homicide- The fact that Detective Henry is homosexual may never come into play in the story. So why put it in? So someone who is homosexual can see something of themselves as a strong character and someone who is not homosexual to see that they can do the things heterosexual people do. The same goes for colour, gender and other characteristics.

In the book The Shawshank Redemption the character of Ellis Redding (Red) is white, in the movie he is played by black actor Morgan Freeman. Did it matter what colour he was in terms of how he behaved, no. It mattered in that he was included. People, especially youth, want and need to see themselves represented. If you want to contain cultural references for those characters then do a little research, talk to people and find some that are realistic for your characters to have or do.

If it is a non-human character such as an elf, dwarf or a world of your own creation then make then give them whatever attributes you want. Now, often this again means one way of looking. In most fantasy movies humans, dwarves, elves, centaurs and other such beings are all white and standard. Is this due to the author making the characters this way or the directors only having one way of looking at the world?

My feeling is if a person wants diverse people to read their book, it would help to have diverse characters in their book. The harder task is incorporating the description into the story in a way that feels natural. Good luck with your writing.

[Polgesteirg]

Try to watch shows or read works that explore their culture in particular. For example, watch El Chavo if you want an insight into Hispanic comedy and culture. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and The Boondocks would represent black culture, etc.

Or...

You could also just portray them as average people instead of trying to define them by their ethnicity or race just for the sake of "increasing diversity". Unless their culture is an important part of the story, I generally find that authors who put priority in adding diverse characters to their work often end up adding lackluster and unnecessary elements to their story.

[maggiechap]

This is something I struggle with as well and I fear my stories lack depth because of it. Recently, I've realized I know a eclectic group of people and am leaning on them for support -they're all ecstatic to help out.