beta reader / sensitivity reader for 750 word story involving all black characters?

[joy_of_cooking]

I wrote a 750 word story where everyone is (edit: US) Black. I know approximately nothing about Black people. Would rather hear it from one person (or a few people) over DM than everyone in the comments if I turned out to be totally racist.

If you're wondering why I wrote a story about people I admit to knowing nothing about, the answer is pretty silly and if I publish you can read it in the author's note.

 

[oneagainst]

I world say just write about people... you didn't ask for a sensitivity reader for the vampire stories, right?

 

[MelissaBaby]

I wrote a 750 word story where everyone is (edit: US) Black. I know approximately nothing about Black people. Would rather hear it from one person (or a few people) over DM than everyone in the comments if I turned out to be totally racist.

If you're wondering why I wrote a story about people I admit to knowing nothing about, the answer is pretty silly and if I publish you can read it in the author's note.

DM me, I'll have the husband read it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I world say just write about people... you didn't ask for a sensitivity reader for the vampire stories, right?

Black people are real, vampires aren't.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I world say just write about people... you didn't ask for a sensitivity reader for the vampire stories, right?

Black people are real, vampires aren't.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Black people are real, vampires aren't.

Ha!!!

 

[AlinaX]

Vampires don't leave criticism. They vote with their fangs.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Ha!!!

I can't believe how perfect that timing was.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I can't believe how perfect that timing was.

Posting in harmony.

 

[jhealy55]

Black people are real, vampires aren't.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

DM me, I'll have the husband read it.

Thanks MelissaBaby! Will send it along as soon as I stop obsessively tweaking it. Might take a couple of days.

Black people are real, vampires aren't.

More relevantly, Black people now have some political power. The Vandals were also real, but no longer survive in sufficient numbers and unity to protest the reduction of their legacy to a single fortnight of property damage in 455.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Really? You don't know a single thing? Do you at least know a single black person? Me, Millie, and DJMac(?) don't count.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Really? You don't know a single thing? Do you at least know a single black person? Me, Millie, and DJMac(?) don't count.

Okay, "not a single thing" is a little bit of an exaggeration, but it's more true than not. It's true enough that I wouldn't publish this story without running it by a Black person. Residential segregation is a hell of a drug.

 

[SimonDoom]

Ha!!!

That's kind of scary.

Are you sure you and Bramblethorn are different people? I'm beginning to wonder.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I w

That's kind of scary.

Are you sure you and Bramblethorn are different people? I'm beginning to wonder.

I would be Bramblethorn when I grow up, if I was going to grow up.

 

[Bramblethorn]

That's kind of scary.

Are you sure you and Bramblethorn are different people? I'm beginning to wonder.

Oh, you'd know the difference if you ever saw me attempting to dance.

 

[lovecraft68]

Okay, "not a single thing" is a little bit of an exaggeration, but it's more true than not. It's true enough that I wouldn't publish this story without running it by a Black person. Residential segregation is a hell of a drug.

The irony here is common among the 'woke' for lack of any better term. So desperate not to offend, you're offending.

You're acting like this is a different species of person so alien and so foreign that you're not sure you know how to write them.

I'm not a woman and I write female POV, not a lesbian and I have written lesbian scenes. Not gay and written a couple of M/M scenes.

I have a story here written from the POV of a young dominatrix who grew up poor in the rural south who for the sake of this topic I'll say is black. I'm a white male who grew up poor up in the Northeast.

In none of the examples above did I need to seek out the topic of my story to make sure I had it right I am a creative, and I've met people from all walks of life over the course of mine and that's all I needed to give it a shot to write from various POV's that aren't 'mine'

I have friends and I know people. That's how I see it. When one needs to call out any other identifier such as their skin color, gender, sexual orientation, religion, political affiliation it makes me wonder why they need to do so? So people think "oh, wow, they have black friends?"

By the same token I write characters. Whatever their traits may be, they're people with those traits, the traits don't make the character.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Oh, you'd know the difference if you ever saw me attempting to dance.

Do you do The Elaine?

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Okay, "not a single thing" is a little bit of an exaggeration, but it's more true than not. It's true enough that I wouldn't publish this story without running it by a Black person. Residential segregation is a hell of a drug.

As long as they aren't thugs, hooligans, hoodrats, and coons, you're on a good start.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Do you do The Elaine?

I don't have that level of confidence, alas.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

As long as they aren't thugs, hooligans, hoodrats, and coons, you're on a good start.

I don't know what hoodrats or coons are, but given what I know about thugs and hooligans I'm not going to google the other two.

One's a social worker. She's got a bunch of prestigious sheepskin on her wall, the debt from which she will never, ever pay off except by loan forgiveness through public service. The other works with at-risk youth. He's clearly had a rough life, just going by the scarring. The story is about their femdom relationship, why he's into that, and why he keeps it to himself.

Or it would be if I could finish it. :-( Might just be too big for 750 words. I'll keep plugging away for now, though.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I don't know what hoodrats or coons are, but given what I know about thugs and hooligans I'm not going to google the other two.

One's a social worker. She's got a bunch of prestigious sheepskin on her wall, the debt from which she will never, ever pay off except by loan forgiveness through public service. The other works with at-risk youth. He's clearly had a rough life, just going by the scarring. The story is about their femdom relationship, why he's into that, and why he keeps it to himself.

Or it would be if I could finish it. :-( Might just be too big for 750 words. I'll keep plugging away for now, though.

Good. You're on your way. The at risk social worker is a trope, but not a bad one. I just write people as people, unless I'm trying to play up race.

 

[Duleigh]

More relevantly, Black people now have some political power.

You don't think Vampires have political power? Vampires are in the highest reaches of office! They practically run...

No wait, I was thinking parasites, not vampires. Never mind.

 

[Djmac1031]

Really? You don't know a single thing? Do you at least know a single black person? Me, Millie, and DJMac(?) don't count.

Not that it matters I suppose but if for no other reason than to clear up any possible confusion:

I'm not black. But my girlfriend is.

 

[EmilyMiller]

beta reader / sensitivity reader for 750 word story involving all black characters?​

I get the sensitivity. When I wrote my first male narrator, in Fragile, reached out to a guy friend. When I wrote my Futanari fantasy, Something Has Come Up, I reached out to three male Lit friends.

When I have written black characters (never a narrator as yet) then I have ask black friends to take a look.

But, I wrote Na-ri as the narrator of the middle chunk of Caputpedes without checking with any Korean-Americans. This was as I wrote her as a character who didn’t exhibit any ethnic traits bar apprearance.

In A Good Girl Gone bad, chapters two and three have me as the narrator, chapter one has my best friend. I did run this by her. Chapter four will have Ella as the narrator (it’s no secret that Ella is based on another Lit author). That’s going to be harder to pull off, but I have her stories to fall back on.

In general, I write people as people. Ethnicity or gender is a secondary consideration. And mostly not a big deal.

Emily

—

UPDATE: My point, which I managed to not state explicitly , is that: even if you are writing a character who shares your gender and ethnicity, you can’t really know that character (even if you made them up) all you can do is try to create a consistent character. We don’t really know what it is like to be anyone else. But we can use observation and empathy to do our best.