Questions tagged [racism]
For questions about whether something in your writing could be considered racist.
11
questions
3
votes
3
answers
184
views
How to describe races/ethnicities in setting where corresponding geographic locations do not exist?
In English, the common name for some racial or ethnic groups is a fairly neutral English word (e.g. white, black...). Others, however, are named only by reference to a geographic point of origin (e.g. ...
1
vote
2
answers
227
views
How to convey a character's race/ethnicity clearly but appropriately?
When describing a character I usually provide some indication of their race/ethnicity since a lot of my work has multiracial characters and I tend to use elements of ethnicity in characterization. ...
3
votes
4
answers
464
views
Is the word "coloured" offensive when writing about Apartheid?
I am writing a paper on Aparthied and I was going to use the word "coloured" in it, but I wasn't sure if it would be offensive or not. For context, it was a word used in South Africa to ...
8
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Would this be considered racist?
I am a young author writing a fantasy series. I’m re-reading the manuscript of my first book and noticed something about sun elves. I know this question is a little long but bear with me.
Sun elves ...
10
votes
7
answers
724
views
Is the often used black and white symbolism inherently racist?
It is an extremely common trope that white/light means good and dark/black means bad/evil.
I thought that - contrary to the appearances - the black/white symbolism is not racist. I believe it has ...
67
votes
17
answers
19k
views
Avoiding racist tropes in fantasy
I'm interested in starting a pleasure project: a fantasy story, along the lines of a witch delivering a prophecy to a king about a dangerous and deceitful foe who will overthrow him, and the king ...
14
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Should I include an appendix for inessential, yet related worldbuilding to my story?
I'm of the opinion that a story should stand on its own; any worldbuilding that is necessary for the plot and story to function should be part of the story. However, at the same time, the world I ...
6
votes
6
answers
426
views
Early investment in a character who "learns better"
I'm looking for ways to build early reader investment in an unlikable character who "learns better," but not until fairly late in the book. In particular, I'm writing a first-person middle-grade ...
13
votes
4
answers
278
views
How can I distance myself from an article published under my name, with edits I disagree with?
I wrote an article for a university newspaper that summarizes incidents involving racism on campus. After edits, the sentence structure became uniformly long instead of varied, straightforward ...
3
votes
6
answers
849
views
Sympathetic Racist
So when designing characters an important part of them is flaws and how they overcome them or rise above them. And so I wanted to make a character(one of the main characters, either supporting the ...
29
votes
11
answers
5k
views
Writing diversity
I am writing a military sci-fi novel about an international military force facing aliens. My cast is very diverse: the MC is Yemenite-Israeli, his love interest is German, his room-mates are from ...