Write Diversity

What POC Readers Like To see

So, you want to or have written a POC character but something feels off. You're unsure if it sounds authentic or maybe even if your idea is problematic. I typically write characters first think of their looks later so I have characters who happen to be (Insert race) and build from there. That's me, and being a person of color this method isn't really questioned but for those of us writing outside our race, this can be a very slippery slope. We will go over what words to avoid and why we also will go over things people of color are sick of seeing or some like seeing despite others finding the issue. 

This chapter is dedicated to what we WANT to see. 

For me personally, I think it's dope to see myself in writing but get exhausted by drama and victimhood. I write dark literature, none of my characters cutches or plot points have to do with their race. I like to see people of color for representation but not have their color represent everything they are, and I'm sick of the urban genre entirely. I want fantasy, romance, contemporary, action. That's just me. Here are some other users from other backgrounds. 

I wanna see people of different ethnicities, hair types, skin colors, different cultural backgrounds, different languages are spoken, things that are done that are typically "white" (like black people loving to go to comic con and dressing up like fav characters), etc that kind of stuff.

-Wattpad User MalanatedMelon

I wanna see things related to my fun fact about black people (See How bout No chapter). I wanna see black people enjoying non traditionally black things like language learning, reading comics, listening to music that's not necessarily hip hop and R&B, speaking standard English as their everyday English (I do) and not being said to 'speak white'. Black people living in the suburbs and having two-parent households.

-Wattpad User Biliai

Not just a variety of races and ethnicity, but personalities, disabilities, disorders, etc.

-Wattpad User gtgrandom

When asked All users expressed they wanted to see people of color doing things that our white counterparts do without explanation. We want to be witches. We want a love affair that defies logic. We want funky hair and eyes. Give us your needs. Give us your jocks. Shy wallflowers and loners. Make a character people want to read not just one who fits an archetype.

Also body shapes! Not all POC/black women are curvy. Not all black me are horses (if you know what I mean). And I'm saying this for all of those interracial black/white ships. That's fetishizing!

-Wattpad User Biliai

Speaks for itself. I happen to be a curvy woman who has been with... (Cough) moving on. The fact is this does not ring true for all so try to add in some characters with different builds. 

People often never try more than the stock character from that country and don't nuance them that much. This lands them into stereotypes. But what about the diversity within? What about The Japanese person living in Korea? The US Mormon living in Korea? What about migrant workers living in Korea? Do you know what Korean Indian food tastes like?

People too narrowly focus on the major group, and the biggest section of it–I get why–easier to research, but don't forget the other people that are a part of that. The biracial people. What's their life like there? North Koreans living in South Korea often have a hard time. And also how people treat people with intersectionality will be different from country to country, ethnicity to ethnicity within borders. Not everything is in effing Seoul. Pull a map sometime.