tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5912649234542008452.post4360698803058487862..comments2023-10-30T07:26:59.446-04:00Comments on Coloring Between the Lines: TryingAnne Sibley O'Brienhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07084188995698656091noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5912649234542008452.post-45941159604051827582010-09-16T15:27:32.166-04:002010-09-16T15:27:32.166-04:00Love this post. Thanks!Love this post. Thanks!Waiting for Zufan!https://www.blogger.com/profile/00251869333168942963noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5912649234542008452.post-34040838623118784412010-08-02T13:59:51.700-04:002010-08-02T13:59:51.700-04:00I love this two-part article and your blog posts o...I love this two-part article and your blog posts on the subject. Many thanks! Although I’m a white woman, I started many years ago to notice how much literature seemed to have white people as a sort of “default setting” when it’s unnecessary and often even when it’s unrealistic. How come all these fantasy worlds, especially, are populated entirely by white people? One thing I really like about Ursula K. Le Guin’s fiction is that she doesn’t do this. A few years ago, one of my YA stories was published in a national magazine; I hadn’t emphasized that the characters were dark-skinned, but I did mention it in the story, and when it came out it was beautifully illustrated with a picture of the central character — as a white girl. <br /><br />Yes, I can understand why white writers often don’t try to write about people of color (or when they do try, don’t do it very believably). In this country, there’s such a racial divide that white people are very frequently unfamiliar with the experience of living as a person of a different race. If they attempt to make people of color central or even important characters, they run the risk of making huge mistakes even if they’re aware that the experience is different from their own; they don’t want to inadvertently misrepresent everything from cultural conventions to dialect. In my science-fantasy novel Underland I wanted my central character to be of mixed race, and I tried to get around this problem by having her raised from infancy by her white father, her mother having died and her maternal grandparents having severed relations with him because he refused to give his children up to them to raise. I hope it worked.<br /><br />I certainly agree that white people should talk about race with other white people. My own experience can’t be much different from that of many white people, and I have to say that this has almost never happened with me, although I’ve tried to start those conversations plenty of times. The only serious, honest discussions of race I’ve ever had have been with black people! People of color do talk about race with each other, and I think many of them would be amazed to learn that white people don’t, at least not very often. I suspect that it’s because white people are often uncomfortable with the subject and can afford to ignore the fact that it’s there, like the proverbial elephant in the room. People of minority races, in the United States at least, can’t afford to ignore race.Mary Patterson Thornburghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11124474664556340293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5912649234542008452.post-31078944679691032132010-07-17T21:50:37.219-04:002010-07-17T21:50:37.219-04:00Another resounding "YES!" - thank you fo...Another resounding "YES!" - thank you for writing it.M and Mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00557944772547796979noreply@blogger.com