Happy post-daylight savings time everyone (Also, can I get an UGGH, because Daylight Savings Time is annoying).
I hope you're all doing well this Monday (or whenever you're reading). Today, I want to give some updates on my Senior Writing Project, The Iluckstrious Adventures of Lady Luck Volume 1 "The Monorail Conspiracy," and also open up a bit for some of my concerns with Lady Luck, and writing in the 12st Century in general.
All right, first the updates.
Peer Review Copies Sent Out
After pushing it off for a long time, I finally got the courage to send Lady Luck out to some friends for peer reviewing (Thanks again folks). Peer reviewing is a pretty big step for me. I also sent out some questions, which will hopefully help me process the feedback I receive. Shout out to Emma Lombard for peer reviewing my comments. Thanks Emma!! You can find her on Twitter, @LombardEmma.
My plan moving forward is to do more research on the 1940's, make sure I have my historical facts down pat (even though it is a semi-fictional setting) and begin work on the second draft hopefully over the summer, before presenting it to the Pinchpenny Press for my senior project.
 |
| Quick Fun Fact: this' the first image I saw of Lady Luck on the Public Domain Superhero Wikipedia. Source: https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Lady_Luck |
In the mean time, I will also need to decide upon a backup project, in case the Press Board rejects my piece. (It is a possibility, one that I would like to be prepared for). But I'm confident that, with enough time put in, I can have Lady Luck Volume 1 ready in time.
All right, onto the next segment.
Being Transparent
So... this' a topic I've been meaning to write about for some time. In fact, the draft for this blog post was dated to September 5, 2019. I've been scared to write about this topic, but I feel that I should be transparent. Perhaps more for myself, but that's beside the point.
Also, please keep in mind (if you are rereading this at a later date) this post represents where I am as of the date of publication, and will (likely) not represent me in the future. I certainly hope not, I hope I have grown since this point.
All right, here we go.
Writing in the 21st Century has a lot of new concerns writers need to consider. We're in an era where people have higher expectations of writers and the addressing of issues in the real world. Gone is the era where overt racism is tolerated.
One of my concerns is accusations of Cultural Appropriation. Cultural Appropriation, as defined by the Cambridge Dictionary, is "the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture."
Examples can include wearing another cultures religious symbols are tattoos that do not have significant meaning to you, wearing another culture's clothing (see picture below), there are several categories for what can be cultural appropriation.
 |
| An example of cultural appropriation, white women wearing Indigenous dresses. Source: By Frank H. Nowell - Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition Collection, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74096868 |
My first experience with the controversy that comes with cultural appropriation came when I was in high school, when rival high school Goshen High School was faced with a controversy pulling it into the national light.
You see, the GHS' mascot for the longest time was the Goshen.... Redskins (left un-abbreviated for clarity, I apologize in advance if this upsets people). There was a push back to change it, and a rallying cry by Goshen's community (majority white) to keep the mascot. In 2015, the mascot was dropped, and replaced with the Redhawks. You can read an article about the decision here.
When I first heard about it, I was in a very different headset at the time. (Which, for now, I will leave at that). Looking back, with my new perspective, I see how bad the name really is, and how it needed to be changed.
I researched the history of the mascot, and found a lot of VERY racist things that Goshen High School did in the past, such as describing victories as scalpings. Yeah, not exactly culturally progressive, or sensitive.
What I didn't know then, was that a big push back to Goshen's mascot was by Indiana's only federally recognized Indigenous tribe, the Pokagon Band of the Potawatomi, who said using the word Red****s was the same as using the N-word towards African Americans. Again, I apologize if leaving the first use of the word is being insensitive, I am only leaving it so that my point is clear.
Looking back, I'm honestly ashamed I didn't see Goshen's mascot as racist beforehand, when it so obviously is. We even had a joke at my high school how PETA was going to come after our Mascot because Falcons kill animals. However, there's no real parallel between an animal, and a racial stereotype, which people felt strongly about, because of the "heritage" of its use.
So, why am I talking about this? I'm going to break it down a bit more.
Fear
I am very afraid of cultural appropriation, or rather being accused of cultural appropriation. Do I have a right to be? I don't know entirely, if I'm honest. Cultural Appropriation is certainly not going anywhere (just recently Khloe Kardashian was accused of it, which you can read about here.) And the criticism of it is a very serious and sincere topic that needs to be addressed.
But what exactly is the source of my fear? Well, it also connects to my other concerns with my privilege. If you follow me on my Twitter, or my Facebook Page, you know my race. For those who don't, I'm a white, straight, male.
I have a lot of privilege, and I do not know what that means for me as a writer. Take Lady Luck, for example, I have characters who are not white, and do not have the same sexuality as me. Do I have a right to write about experiences that're not my own?
Again, I'm not entirely sure if I do or not. I am trying to represent other experiences accurately. My biggest concern is my representation of the Japanese Internment Camps, which is not a major part of my story, but is still important for one chapter, and the overall theme of the piece.
I recently checked out George Takei's "They Called us Enemy" from the library, and will use it as a reference for facts on the Internment Camps. While I do have some fictional elements in the story, I still have to make sure that I represent the "Basic Facts," if you will, as accurately as possible.
Now, will I get all the characters and all the experiences correct? Unfortunately not. I can try to immerse myself into other cultural experiences, but at the end of the day, I cannot became Japanese, Chinese, African American, or Latino, for example. I'll always be a white Mennonite man, and I will have my cultural biases, whether intentionally or not, in my pieces.
Concerns Over Backlashes/My Future as a Writer
Another source of my fear has been recent controversies in the writing community. (One of which got so bad that I had to leave Twitter and the #WritingCommunity for awhile).
The first one I saw was the #IStandwithCourtneyMilan on Twitter. Essentially, a Chinese American writer accused a white writer of gate keeping and racism in her piece, was kicked out of a prominent
romance writer organization, which led to a big backlash and an award ceremony being cancelled due to people's distrust of the organization. (I will leave you to look into that yourselves, I don't want to drag this post out. Also, looking into it again might not be the best for my mental health).
One tweet that I saw quoted (which I will reference here) by Courtney Milan, is something I've been pondering for a while. Courtney Milan was discussing the aforementioned white writer (who wrote a story in Imperial China) and said, (summarized) "Don't write about how bad other cultures are because you will look like a F***ing racist."
I got scared because of my piece, which's written in the 1940's. I mention the Imperial Japanese a little, but they're not the main antagonists, that's the Nazis (because Nazis are easy targets for criticism, also, relevance due to the rise of new fascist groups).
Still, is it even my place to try and critique that era? I do weigh criticism in my story at the US as well, in particular for the treatment of the Japanese in the Internment Camps. Though, following the controversies I've seen, I wonder if it's my place to do so, and if I do, will I see backlash from my campus community, or in the future?
The truth is, to boil it down further, I am afraid of the future. What place do I have, as a straight white male, in a world demanding more diversity from not just characters, but writers and other creators? Which we REALLY need, by the way, let me make that clear.
I've found myself getting caught in a mind trap, regarding the push for representation, that I feel (but cannot say with authority, since I haven't researched it) that other white creators feel like more representation means less of them. That someone is saying "Your voice does not matter anymore," or "We don't want you anymore." Which is really about more representation, because let's face it, white people are over represented in everything. If we truly care about putting diverse characters in our stories, we need to also do so in real life, in our media, publishing, and for our fellow writers.
What is the role for people like me? I don't know. But that's a part of the hope for the future. A challenge, as my friend Jacob pointed out. A challenge to do better, to help my fellow writers who're underrepresented get their fair share of the pie and seat at the table. Again, how will I do that? I'm not sure. But I do know that I need to do better, and will work towards being more inclusive, in and off the page.
For further reading on this topic, please refer to the links below, including an article from Writing About Writing which helped me process.
Do you have any suggestions on how to help underrepresented writers? What is a topic you found struggling to talk about with others? For me, I found writing on this topic was very helpful. If you feel comfortable, please share your answers in the comments either on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter.
Also, concluding thought. No matter your background, your ethnicity, sexuality, or writing background, if you feel you have a story to tell, go for it. You don't need a writing major to do so. Go forth, because your voice, and your story matters. Thank you, and I'll see you on the Tramway.
www.chrisbrecheen.com/2018/08/wont-someone-think-of-straight-white.html
www.nytimes.com/2020/03/06/books/american-dirt-oprah-book-club-apple-tv.html
www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-03-07/american-dirt-apology-tour-oprah
https://medium.com/@nettlefish/cultural-appropriation-for-the-worried-writer-some-practical-advice-ac21710685e3
No comments:
Post a Comment