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So, when I was reading a recent ARC review of 27 Hours by Tristina Wright, the reviewer was dissatisfied by the author's treatment of characters of color in part because they felt that the characters of color had been written to be indistinguishable from white people. Even though the book takes place in the future, where all languages and cultural barriers have disappeared (and I'll agree that that's not necessarily a progressive outlook), the reviewer said that at least microaggressions should exist.
Which...I don't really agree with. Or at least, I don't agree with the implication that microaggressions need to be written into a story to distinguish characters of color from white characters.
My main reason for disagreeing is that I have seen other (white) authors do this, and they often execute it really poorly. To the degree to which I by default don't really trust white authors writing about microaggressions against people of color. For example, I've seen white authors who introduce characters of color by having white characters yell racial slurs at them (or, even worse, the character of color uses racial slurs to refer to themselves. Yes, really), and of course the incident is usually brushed aside. Sometimes, it's even used to make a white main character look "progressive" by having them defend the character of color from the racial slur, and I just...this is not how white authors should portray characters of color.
Another thing is that microaggressions can be difficult to understand if you don't actually come from that marginalized group, which is part of why I think many white authors don't portray them well. Maybe I am just very jaded and cynical, but it starts to seem like white authors feel obligated to toss out a statement about racial profiling/affirmative action/etc. if they have a black character, "stop treating Asia as my homeland" if they have an Asian American character, and so on. It just feels incredibly superficial and thereby trivialized.
In the end, I think we don't often discuss that readers of color are going to have varying perspectives on how characters of color are treated. I, myself, don't want to read a book that is constantly reminding me about microaggressions against Asian Americans unless the author can deal with it in a sensitive, nuanced, thoughtful way, instead of with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. And that nuance is just hard to replicate if you don't come from that cultural context, so I'd rather not see it at all.
Which...I don't really agree with. Or at least, I don't agree with the implication that microaggressions need to be written into a story to distinguish characters of color from white characters.
My main reason for disagreeing is that I have seen other (white) authors do this, and they often execute it really poorly. To the degree to which I by default don't really trust white authors writing about microaggressions against people of color. For example, I've seen white authors who introduce characters of color by having white characters yell racial slurs at them (or, even worse, the character of color uses racial slurs to refer to themselves. Yes, really), and of course the incident is usually brushed aside. Sometimes, it's even used to make a white main character look "progressive" by having them defend the character of color from the racial slur, and I just...this is not how white authors should portray characters of color.
Another thing is that microaggressions can be difficult to understand if you don't actually come from that marginalized group, which is part of why I think many white authors don't portray them well. Maybe I am just very jaded and cynical, but it starts to seem like white authors feel obligated to toss out a statement about racial profiling/affirmative action/etc. if they have a black character, "stop treating Asia as my homeland" if they have an Asian American character, and so on. It just feels incredibly superficial and thereby trivialized.
In the end, I think we don't often discuss that readers of color are going to have varying perspectives on how characters of color are treated. I, myself, don't want to read a book that is constantly reminding me about microaggressions against Asian Americans unless the author can deal with it in a sensitive, nuanced, thoughtful way, instead of with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. And that nuance is just hard to replicate if you don't come from that cultural context, so I'd rather not see it at all.
