Writing POC 101

Black Hispanic Characters - @yikeyway

OKAY!! Let's get one thing straight: Us black people, do not have exaggerated/'ghetto' names. Believe it or not, we do have normal names. Some parents choose to give their child a heritage related name, like 'Simona', 'Shaweeni' etc. it's just because of their heritage and where their family comes from.

1) Not all black/hispanic people are loud and will slap you with their flip flop. Yes my Panamanian/Black mother has swiped me with a broomstick, or a flip flop once in a while. But that's just a common stereotype tumblr made up, because tumblr has nothing better to do. Black and Hispanic people do not sell drugs, overuse 'nigga' or 'ese' (which translates to 'that') and do not put hot sauce on everything. That's a common stereotype I would like to squash right now.

2) Hispanics don't have thick accents, most immigrants do, but I can ASSURE you, my mother has a Jersey accent and not a 'spanish' one. And yes - we can be understood when we talk.

3) We do not say 'y'all' all the time, we do not say 'nigga' all the time, we do not all live in bad parts of town, all of our pants do not sag, not all of our ancestors were slaves (one of mine were the richest blacks in VA) and we ALL have good education, I can assure you. Those vines that bluntly degrade and portray Blacks as thugs and neanderthals are completely wrong.

4) OUR PARENTS DO NOT HIT US EVERY DAY. This stereotype is so COMMON for Hispanic parents, and annoys the shit out of me. DO NOT PORTRAY US AS ABUSIVE!! WE ARE NOT ABUSIVE!! Yes, some families are abusive to their kids, but most ARE NOT. We do not hit everyone with a broom or flip flop, and we don't always yell in spanish. (My mother talks to herself in spanish though.)

5) We are not all fat and sweaty, and smell bad. This is so common in fanfictions with black women, white people usually take what they see in slavery/black people movies or anything with a black person in it, and puts it in their fic. I - for one, am underweight.

6) Some of us, are queer. Oh look at that, a transgirl black person?? Those exist?? INDEED! May I remind you: Rock n Roll was created by a QUEER BLACK woman. Pale white people with colourful hair aren't the only ones that can be queer.

7) With Hispanic people, it is hard to get an education, since most are immigrants, but we are very smart and don't misplace words. We are educated people capable of everything you can learn and do.

8) Black people do not say sentances like: "Yes'm, I know ma'am, mys momma told me's, that I's gotsta be good." Some black people have a baltimore accent, etc. but we can easily say sophisticated sentences like you can.

9) we don't only eat fried chicken, please stop. We eat regular food too, sometimes asian food!

10) Taco's are overused in fics with a hispanic person, I just want to say that in my house we usually eat spaghetti and meatballs, pizza, or a random dish from farmivore because my mom is sponsored by them.

Please write us as we are: People.

Do not give us ridiculous names, or make us say ridiculous sentences. We are like you, and deserve privilege like you. We are educated and can decipher their from they're.

Thank you.