How does race (as a concept, an issue, or a part of your identity) affect your writing — how you write and what you write about? If you find that you never think about your race as a factor in your writing, what does that suggest to you, e.g. about your own racial identity, about race as a social category, about how you’ve learned to write… [and so the possibilities go]?
I’m not sure how race really informs my writing. I mean, I imagine it does - how could it not? - but I can’t place as to exactly how it does. I suppose I don’t think much about race, per se, in my day-to-day life. I’ve never lived in especially diverse areas, so it doesn’t come up. More than the question of my own race, though, I am definitely influenced by the more general idea of how races (classes, genders, whatever) relate to each other, usually in a fictional setting, I admit, but it’s there. Some of my favorite pieces of writing - both my own and others’ - have at their core such a situation, the trouble of the judgments we make about people based on what they look like or where they come from, and the trouble of the retaliation for that original injustice. I don’t so much add myself and my own race (specifically, anyway) into this equation when I’m writing about it, which I admit isn’t all that common, and it never really crosses my mind when I don’t set out with the intention to write about it.
What does that say about me? I’m not sure. It sounds bad, but I take race, in some instances, for granted; I don’t think of myself or others of my “race” as particularly racial in any way. I guess that’s just what I consider “normal.” My rational mind says that this is borderline racist, which I don’t like, but that is my impulse. As such, the topic often doesn’t inform my writing if it isn’t a prominent part of that writing…I think.
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February 12th, 2008 at 10:00 am
First, I’d like to say that I appreciate your honesty about how your lack of concern about race when you write might come across. Adding on to this, I don’t think that makes you sound racist, or borderline for that matter, but it actually just shows that in a society where race/racial tension isn’t seen often, the individuals in said society will undoutedly have little to no issues about race to combat when writing a piece, which just makes sense, I suppose. I’m sure that lots of people unless forced to deal with race head on also “take race…for granted.” Seeing as you said that you look for race and gender relationships in fiction, perhaps as an exercise you could try writing a “persona” piece where you kept in mind that your readers are of a different race than you are, just to see if this would have an effect. Just an idea…
February 12th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
I know your not racist. I found myself very unaware of race when I write too. Last semester, I tried to mimic what I thought a black person would write like, and I realized how unaware I was of race before in writing, and how little I knew about the sensitivity of this issue. Another story, I went to Dominica a year ago for a missions trip and found that I was one of the few white people around. The people treated me with hospitality and respect, but there was one instance when we were driving on a bus and a few of the locals started shouting “White, white, white!” I found it kind of humorous, but I can’t even imagine what I would have felt if it were hostile, let alone a burning cross in my backyard.
I have two questions for you: 1. Can you give an example of one of your writings, or one of your favorite writings that have such a situation where there are judgments made on appearance. 2. Can Spock be considered a different race because he has strange ears, pointy eyebrows, and a weird greeting?