#white authors writing poc

[am3-26]

there's this girlie (gender-neutral) i keep checking goodreads' of because i can't stop looking at their "all-time favourites" shelf and thinking to myself "why dont you also put 50 shades of grey on there"

#like 4 out of 9 books look like this: blue background #two people standing next to each other (stylized) #red and blue contrast (omg!) #the title is like “anna and clara's love story: lesbianism for women who are not interested in women” #and the reviews to those books are all “i've seen this on tiktok. clara is like sooo relatable fr 😭 #“ #im such a hater i just keep thinking about it randomly. like how can you just put it out there. all-time favourites you say #obviously this is not just a random person #its a an acquintance through unfortunate circumstances #but every time i write a review on goodreads #i have this moment of okay now gotta torture myself. lets check their profile and see what absolutely stupid opinion they have on the latest #book they've read #THAT BEING SAID everyone who has goodreads dm me right now. i am so nice #also lol saw their review where they were like “the poc was written weirdly #i checked the author and she's white. ofc!“ #YOU ARE ALSO WHITE DJHDHDKDJDHDDKFJ HELLO?

[possumteeths]

when i was in middle school i was just obsessed with having white skin. i googled a thousand things, went to the asian beauty store to get skin bleaching products. I took weird fkn lemon baths and stuff. And like i guess I never realized how fucked up that was?

Every time I come across the term porcelain skin I want to throw something. Bodily descriptions in books these days are much much better than they were when I was twelve but fanfic is still very much in the past. Obviously i’m not inserting myself in everything I read, I like to be like fifteen steps away from the story but someone exceptionally beautiful is always described with such white centric terms and often the stupid term porcelain skin. Its annoying and stupid and can we stop saying this dang phrase lol.

#even the whitest goddang person isnt porcelain #im pale as hell compared to the rest of my ppl and its just kinda weird to think back and remember that I was once so ashamed and #embarrassed of my skin color id cover every inch of my body and had long ass hair to hide my face #and everyone was like lol ur goth but like nah! its much worse #i also understand this might just be a me problem but like i think there is something to be said that something beautiful or lovably fragile #is always goddamned described with white ass terms #Also u need to be conscious of the way u describe side characters when ur main character is ~porcelain~ and white #If ur mc is so cool and badass sexy u need to be so conscious of the way they speak and the terms they use and the terms you use to describe #their thoughts and actions #U need to be conscious of how u describe side characters as well its just important to understand the indirect ways that your privelege has #affected you #Yknow also its important to understand the way the world has shaped your thoughts and your person esp when ur a white person writing a poc #I dont rlly feel like idk explaining this in detail but I guess im saying that people need to be more conscious of the way they indirectly #come across and the way that certain terms are outdated and just about harmfull #if ur describing a corpse sure use porcelain skin lol but dont have every instance of bodily description circle around their whiteness #and especially dont have poc characters described in any less affection #if ur white mc is porcelain and beautiful and ur supporting poc character is described rough and u talk abt their scars and etc its weird #cause like CLEARLY everyone on this earth doesnt have perfect perfect skin #its much more interesting to describe ur characters skin and the minor imperfections they have because it tells me about them #it builds something yknow? if ur character is porcelain then theres nothing that tells me abt the character other than that you as an author #find this to be fitting as a descriptor and it says a lot #and like this goes for poc also like poc can write just as harmful things as white ppl #Anyways I read a mass effect fic that described sooo many things soooo bad

[writingmoth]

the dissonance of seeing someone reassure another that it's completely okay to only write about white, cis, het people while you spent all your life worrying that no one will ever read your very queer, very trans, non-american stuff... is wild.

#weve come full circle #like i dont think ppl should ever feel like they are obliged to write anything #but making a point of never writing non white non cis non straight ppl is weird af #im sorry but its weird!!! #and like you are fine #your career wont be ruined if you never write queer ppl or poc #you will do just fine #cant say the same for non cis or het authors #esp authors of color #but what do i know! #txt

[the-greendalehumanbeings]

my unpopular hunger games opinion is that even though i headcanon, katniss as a woc, collins probably didn’t when writing her. there is no need to give her any props or praise her for writing poc. as far as i’m aware suzanne collins has never complained that the movie white-washed her character or corrected the assumptions which says enough about what she thinks. if people want to complain they should complain how a character who is described with racially ambigous features is always seen as white bc white is the default.

#tbh this is why i kinda disagree the movies whitewashed her #anytime a white author writes a protagonist with olive skin #they are definitely picturing a white person #it comes from the fact that white people largely see the white as the default #even though i know poc can have olive skin #not that we cant picture them as poc but there is no need to #not that we cant imagine them as poc but there is no need to give props to the author for something they probably didnt think much about #idk im tired of seeing authors praised for diversity bc they did the bare minimum #we dont need to praise them too much #ill be happy to change my opinion if i see proof of suzanne talking about the movies whitewashing her characters but all i could find is her #saying she didnt necessarily write katniss as bi-racial #although i do agree as much as the movies are meh it would really have been great seing katniss portrayed by a woc

[readytospock]

hmmmm…

#perhaps writing characters with xe/xer and they/them pronouns #for my white cishet british author tutor who uses harry potter as an example a bit too much was a bad idea… #she already dislikes me though #probably for my neurodivergent and poc and genderqueer lesbian swag #so what do i have to lose? #well marks but i’m still on track for a good gpa so fuck it #ppl are polyamorous also which probably didn’t help lol #thinking thoughts

[lesenbyan]

There are few things worse, I think, than reading a call to action memoir that is so close to right but really should have been shelved for at least 5yrs before going to print so the author has time to learn enough to see all the false equivalencies that really hinder the point

#personal; #yeah fatphobia is bad but dont you dare act like people aren't asking disabled people to medically alter themselves every day??? #you compare bariatric and gender affirming surgeries in such a way that makes the latter sound easy to get?? #and in fact don't at ALL go into the struggles for transition care except for a nod at FL while comparing us (trans people) #to fat people like our lives are Much Easier instead of /oppressed by the same white colonial structures that enforce fatphobia/ #but go off i guess #i was giving a lot of leeway when i was just side eyeing the comparisons with racism bc i'm not fat and i've not experienced enough racism #to say either way on those #but the MOMENT she started using trans and disabled comparisons i about lost it #and also randomly started calling it antisemitic (sure as much as it's violnt to all poc) in the last chapter with nothing supporting it #like you can tell it was written over the course of the last like 2 maybe 3 years without enough space to breathe #i have listened to a book on writing memoir so often i've got some of it all but memorized #and i agree that if it's more recent than a decade you're probably too close to be writing it #and this author's writing mostly about during pandemic times. this is more a journal and call to action than memoir #but its not polished enough to be a proper call to action bc there's not much it gives you to do other than 'stop dieting & dare to be fat' #which isn't an effective call to action when only those most harmed by fatphobia can act on it you know??? #lots of complaints #3/10 #edit: reiterting that i'm not saying it' #*it's not anti-semitic; just that a good published work of this kind doesn't make last second claims and certainly not ones #they haven't already explicitly supported in the text #i feel the need to clarify with the very very vocal rise of anti semitism esp in the left #like yes there are anti-Semitic ties. she didn't name them. just said 'they exist lol' and this went to print #great study in poor research slipping onto shelves bc topic matter is relevant

[pprodsuga]

.

#I feel like I need to disclaim that I’m not white and I will not write with a white main character in mind #I’m aware that not every skin tone can ‘flush’ or have reddened cheeks but mine can #idk the line between trying to be inclusive and writing for me is where I get a little lost when I write fics #I would love to be as inclusive as possible without losing the depth of character for whoever I make yn out to be #personally I will still read fics with a specific poc mc if the author wants to write to include themselves ya know #anyway I don’t think anyone cares that much but I just feel compelled to say this at least once #jo’s rants

[snowberrykaworu]

wanna write a long post abt a book im reading rn and how it deals with racism poorly without looking like the weird ass white ppl that wrote terrible reviews complaining abt the portrayal of racism in it

#mine #what im gonna write most likely is just that racism is far more subtle and that hurts way more imo #i dont like how this book is meant to look smart when the racist white ppl just act like racist villains in a #cartoon psa for kids just kinda annoying #also it doesnt help that the author comes from a very privileged background (ivy league + oxbridge education) and doesnt get #class dynamics and class consciousness at all #kinda annoyed that its hard to talk abt racism as a poc when i wanna state that even poc can be super racist #and then having ppl go like no poc cant be racist and justify it or dont get why subtle showings of it happen more #often irl than people think i just hate cartoon caricatures of racism in “adult” books just feels rather 2 dimensional and lazy

[lazaruspiss]

2 things. 1: i gotta sort my live read posts better. 2: i should do more live reads and summaries, theyre fun

#maybe the pride comics #every year theres one thats so bad that i wish i never read it #and this years broke the trend the first 2 set of making me cry over kate kane :/ it was so disappointing tbh #no lesbian anguish for lazzy?? none??? #bc its a mix of authors obv theres plenty good n bad stories #bad as in quality not like. problematic bad to be clear #except for the one dev grayson wrote. ma'am please stop writing poc characters its not working #fatal flaw: white and it shows #yeah after i figure out a sorting system ill do some queer posting #ramble tag

[writingwithcolor]

What is Tragedy Exploitation?

Tragedy exploitation is the fixation on the traumatic elements of a marginalized group’s past and/or present. Such narratives are often promoted due to the misguided belief that the more painful a story, the more meaningful.

Within the publishing industry, the reality is that stories focusing on the tragedy of man’s internal conflict are heavily lauded, but this takes on a different dimension when an author is an outsider depicting stories that feature underrepresented groups.

In a media landscape where stories of marginalized suffering receive disproportionate visibility and acclaim, what a number of marginalized audiences need more are stories of hope and empowerment rather than tragedy.

Further Reading:

White Authors and Topics to Avoid/Tread Carefully

Writing About PoC Trials and Tribulations

Tragedy Exploitation and Characters of Color (follow up)

Avoiding Tragedy Exploitation - Craft Aspects to Consider

---

This Q&A is an excerpt from our General FAQ for Newcomers, which can be found in our new Masterpost of rules and FAQs. Take a look for more resources on diverse representation.

-Writing With Color

#writing with color #writeblr #representation #writers on tumblr #writing advice #writing tips #faq

[ayeforscotland]

I think there is something to be said about the sheer amount of fantasy that follows a ‘Game of Thrones’ style of ‘everything bad that can happen, will happen and it’ll actually be a lot worse’.

However, dark fictional worlds exist, often because they’re a reflection of our world. And I don’t think white people have any sort of monopoly on writing about conflict while PoC authors are all writing about utopias.

I do think white people tend to write much more from an Arthurian knights of the realm sort of fantasy, but arguably that’s ingrained across most of our society and we should be making room for more diverse fantasy settings.

Also, for the record, taxes absolutely shouldn’t be on this list anyway - makes me think this person is incredibly young.

#ayeforscotland

[princessofmarvel]

Runaway

summary | thomas has made a deal with a man to help his business. thomas’s only condition? to marry the man's daughter. except she doesn’t want to marry him. 

pairing | thomas shelby x fem!reader

word count | 1.98k

 genre | fluff with some angst?

requested? | yes! i had so much fun writing this! especially since i have never written anything like this before! thank you so much for requesting! please let me know if you like it!

warnings! | arranged marriage? darkish thomas? (not really, i’m just not great at writing dark characters sometimes, lol) not proof read yet!

author’s note! | hey everyone! this main character was written with poc in mind, i have tried my best, but since i am not a person of color please let me know if there is anything i can change to make it better! i hope you enjoy your request! please know that if you have requested something, i promise that i will get to it soon! And as always, I do I have really bad OCD that causes me to write in some random capitalization, and punctuation, But I think that we don't have to worry about that in this fic lol. And let me know if there are any mistakes, but please be kind!

Thomas knew what was happening today, hell his whole family knew. His future bride was coming to birmingham. He struck up a good deal with her father about helping her fathers business about a week ago, then he saw a photo of the man's daughter. The only condition Thomas made? To marry his daughter. Once they agreed, the man said he needed a week to get his family there. By the time they got there, Thomas had already got everything set up to make damn sure the man would be successful in birmingham. Which included a few fights, but Thomas would do it all over again if it meant he could have her. 

They weren’t to meet until the wedding, something her father insisted on. So Thomas stood in a room of the church getting ready, when his brother John busted in. 

“They can’t find her Tommy” was all John said as he huffed as if he was out of breath.

Thomas’s mind began to race. What did he mean they couldn’t find her? Has something happened? Had one of his enemies found out about today and took her? 

“She was getting ready, and asked for a moment to herself, when her mother came back in to check on her, she was gone.” John added as he leaned on the closest chair. 

Thomas stood and took in his brother's words for a moment before he left the room. His future wife was out in Birmingham in her pretty white dress, with no protection and no one was doing anything about it. Her family may not know this city, but Thomas did. He knew what could happen to her if she stayed out there too long. This won’t be an issue when they’re married, and she has his last name. She could kill someone and get away with it then, but right now no one in Birmingham knows who she is. All they know is that she is a pretty girl in a white wedding dress, and the thought of what could happen to her made him sick.  

Thomas looked everywhere he could think his fiance would be. He couldn’t find her anywhere, the only place he hadn’t checked was the Garrison. 

He walked in to see his bride to be, standing behind the bar making herself what looked like her fourth drink. He walked in slowly, making sure not to scare her. 

“(Y/n)?” He asked as he walked up to the bar. She looked up at him as she continued to make her drink. “I’m Thomas Shelby, your future-”

“I know who you are.” She said, cutting him off. 

“Well, we're supposed to be getting married right now.” He said matter of factly. “So what are you doing here?”

“I’m not marrying you, thought you would have figured that out by now.” She said as she took a sip of her drink. 

Thomas looked at her, making sure to not show how shocked he was that she was speaking to him that way.

“And, why not?” He asked her, now intrigued. 

“I don’t want to, I don't know you.” She said as she finished her drink. 

Thomas moved to be behind the bar where she was. He took her drink from her hand and placed it on the bar. 

“(Y/n)” He said as he towered over her. “Your father has already given me your hand.” 

“I know, I don’t care.” She said as she grabbed her drink back from Thomas.

Thomas just took a moment and stared at the girl as she took her drink back. It was the first time he truly got to look at her. He got to take in the color of her eyes, and the curl of her hair, she truly was beautiful.

“Why exactly are you so against marrying me?” He asked as he stared at her. 

“I want to be my own person, not defined by my father or my husband.” She said not missing a beat. 

“I think I can help with that.” Thomas said, starting to get closer to the girl. “I have a certain reputation, if you’re married to me, you’ll be untouchable.”

“That's still me being defined by my husband.” She said, cutting him off with a small eye roll. 

Thomas took the drink from her and set it back down, but this time, she didn’t turn away from him, she just stared up at him, waiting for him to continue. 

“As I was saying, you would be untouchable, and if you wanted a role in peaky blinder business, you wouldn’t just be “Thomas Shelby's wife”. You would be “(Y/n) Shelby, most feared woman in Birmingham”. You have an opportunity here, the choice is yours.” Thomas said, staring her in the eyes. Normally he would never offer this to someone he just met. But there was something about (Y/n), just the look in her eyes, the way she wasn’t scared of him, how she held herself, how she looked at him with the same amount of intensity he looked a her with, how she didn’t care she was defying the most feared man in birmingham. "Don't let your pride get in the way of a smart decision."

Thomas watches the girl stare at the wall for a moment, him taking in her side profile. Until she finally looked up at him.

"I won't be reduced to just your little wife?" She asked with a small glimmer of hope in her eyes.

"I'll let you take care of anyone who says you are" He said with a serious look on his face.

The girl gave him a small smile, it was obvious that no one had ever believed in her the way Thomas was right now, that they all thought of her as some weak little girl and nothing more.

"Fine, I'll marry you" She said as she looked up at him with a small smile. 

Thomas wrapped her arm in his and led her out of the Garrison. He held the bottom of her white dress up away from the dirt as he walked them back to the church. 

“You know, you’re not supposed to see the bride before the wedding.” She said to him with a small laugh. “It’s bad luck.” 

“I won’t let anything ruin this marriage, trust me.” He said as he opened the church door for her and let her walk in first. Thomas watched as her family whisked her away, knowing that this girl was truly something he had never expected her to be, and he loved it.

#thomas shelby #thomas shelby imagine #tommy shelby #tommy shelby imagine #cillian murphy #thomas shelby x reader #tommy shelby x reader #thomas shelby fic #tommy shleby fic #thomas shelby fanfic #tommy shelby fanfic #thomas shelby fluff #tommy shelby fluff #thomas shelby angst #tommy shelby angst #thomas shelby peaky blinders #tommy shelby peaky blinders #peaky blinders #thomas shelby smut #tommy shelby smut

[margokesses]

I ask this because I remember reading the book Criers' War (I ended up DNF'ing bc the writing style was not for me). But I do remember the 2 leads being described with non-white physical features but the author never added anything else to show that they were non-white so I had a hard time imagining them as being so.

And that reminded me of The Jasmine Throne where the characters are also described as non-white but because this is an Indian based fantasy world and you get to see nods to that culture through things like the language, foods, dress, etc. I had no time seeing these women as Indian women.

But I am also reminded of Sydney Adamu from The Bear and how on screen, her culture isn't really being shown. But because I can see that she is Black woman, I can also see the layers added to her character and her story of trying to gain respect from running and eventually opening a restaurant. Even though those layers are not explicitly said on screen.

Anyways I hope this makes sense. Please feel free to reblog for more results!

Also I know that some white person is gonna ask: yes y'all can reblog but don't be adding shit. I do not care about your opinion on POC representation.

#the bear #sydney adamu #the jasmine throne #criers war #representation #hush ke

[pastadoughie]

i am literally begging people to stop putting sexism and transphobia on my dashboard please fucking think critically abt ur internal biases for 5 secconds and please accept even an ounce of critisism without assuming that someone is attacking you unfairly

alot of you have extremely sexist beliefs that you dont recognize because within social media as a whole these are incredibly normalized, covering blatent homophobia and misandry in tumblr buzzwords doesnt make you not sexist it just lets you be sexist and homophobic and transphobic in a way that is socially acceptable and incouraged within a queer centric space

i keep seeing posts talking abt how people actively like artwork (writing, photography, drawings) more when they find out its of a butch lesbian and not just a dude, and like, if your opinion on a peice of media can change solely based on the gender of the person being depicted by it, with zero change to the character, then that implies an inharent bias against men like, just because its men doesnt mean it isnt sexism

same thing where people think that media depicting gay men is better when it explicitly isnt written by a gay man, like that implies a fundimental disrespect of the work based on the sexuality and gender of the author. if you like an artwork but then you find out its written by a trans women, and all of a sudden you think its garbage, you are transphobic, but when people try to point this same bias out for the works of queer men this is largely written off.

i know ppl will argue abt punching up and whatnot, and while i do in some ways agree with that overall sentiment, i think that we should be striving to uh, not be sexist at all, rather then just being misandrists instead of mysogenists, like, if you only care about sexism when it hurts women/women ajacent people then you dont actually hate sexism you just want it to harm a different group of people, you dont hate the system you just want to be ontop of it and benifit from it

misandry and mysogeny present in different ways, they arent a directly comparable thing, different people have things worse in different ways so its rlly hard to take a group and say "this group has it worse", like yes generalizations like that can help in an extremely broad sense, but the world is not black and white and this kind of shit is mindnumbingly complex, trying to act like there is some kind of objective scoreing system for who is more oppressed then who is just unproductive and harmful

and moreover, someone having it worse then you doesnt make you less deserving of trying to make your situation better, i dont experience racism and in many many many ways i have it easier then poc people, that does not make me undeserving of support and that doesnt make me complaining or trying to better my situation unreasonable

we can care abt the lives and want to better the situation of different groups simoltaniously, we dont have to stop caring about racism because we want to better transphobia

i get that transwomen have it rlly bad and i do not experience the exact same struggles as them, and therefore cant comment on alot of them, but so often i see erasure of queer men in order to give more focus to transwomen, and just because trans girls go through alot of shit doesnt make that ok

one thing that people have to recognize about misandry and specifically transmisandry that you dont really have to see as much with its mysogeny counterparts is that they have far more attention and people care far more about activism for queer women/women in general, queer mens experience and specifically the transmasc experience is very very very often erased and written off even by supposedly trans friendly and queer sorces, people care more about butch lesbians then they do trans men dispite the insane ammount of overlap between the two groups, when researching about historical butch lesbians alot of them are just, trans guys that people are misgendering and mislabeling as butch lesbians because ooooo woemennnnn

being transmasc myself i can say that like, the erasure of trans men is an extremely large issue, for large swaths of history the experiences of trans people arent paid attention to at all, and even looking at media coverage today, if people are going to talk abt transgenderism they are talking about it specifically under the lens of trans women

this is largely because misandry (specifically, people thinking that having cock and ball makese u somehow predatory) makes trans women an easier punching bag, trans women get more attention because they are easier for radfems (misandrists) to be bigoted against in a more violent way, if you assume all men and amab people are violent and predatory by nature then this makes justifying violence against trans women easier

and yea being a punching bag for the media is fucking hard but it does mean that activism for that group is much much much louder, more people are complaining about trans women so more people know abt the specific issues they face

but dispite trans men yaknow, also existing and recieving a shit ton of transphobia and erasure over history they dont get talked about as much, people hate us and are violent twards us but we dont nessasarily get the same outrage for our treatment

trans men are just as often get the dismissal for being women, and the outrage for being men as trans women do we just dont get as much support and thats really difficult! often people seek to treat transmasculinism as some kind of new thing like, i get the comment often that "usually its boys that wanna be girls" and its like, no. its not. its simply that people care less about us

i think that its really easy to misenterpret me here so im gonna just get this out of the way, i dont think that women have it easier then men in a broad socital sense, but also, i dont nessasarily believe that means that my complaints are invalid, being a queer woman is not a walk in the park, and neither is being a queer man, and both groups experience homophobia transphobia and sexism in different ways, so acting as if saying one is objectively worse then the other is unfair and reductive

i think that if we want to get anywhere in regards to making it easier to be trans then we need to talk about all queer experiences, you cant just, only care about trans women you have to care about all trans people, and moreover queer people in general, this means you HAVE to be vigilant about people wrapping up sexism in a tumblr buzzword packadge, you need to consume things critically and you are not immune to pipelines, people dont just wake up and become radfems you get continually fed more and more extreme idologies, being fed things that you 90% agree with untill you eventually become completely removed from the groups you were supposed to stand with

you can care about the oppression of multiple groups at once, and if you think activism in any way involves the erasure of a certain group then you have fundimentally misunderstood what youre supposed to be doing, queer men exist and they deserve support and respect and you need to be able to support and respect them without being like "ohh she is soooooo trransfemme coded" like. men can be queer and still be men, they can be queer and still deserve your love and support, i am begging.

also yes i am aware that outside of my specific experience of tumblr people fuckin hate trans girls and women in general and they dont feel the need to do this shit. but that doesnt mean what im talking about is not an issue and is not something that people need to change and address. if you find urself doing this shit you have got to reflect on yourself, you arent immune to transphobia or homophobia or sexism ESPECIALLY if you think that you somehow are magically immune. nobody is. no identity is. everybody is suseptible to this shit and it takes active critical thinking in order to combat it

#the beast speaks #i keep seeing this shit on my dash crying screaming throwing up i am begging people to get even a single ounce of reading comprehension #i get this is the piss on the poor webbed site but i try to have hope in humanity and every day i am disapointed further #retchid opinions