Should white people be allowed to write books about minorities?

Yes, I definitely understand that that's where their argument comes from. I think that arguement is dumb, though, because a) white privilege doesn't exist, and b) a white person succeeding isn't preventing black people from also succeeding and writing their own books. We can all have success at the same time.

So very true. They are literally never satisfied. If you make a character black, they get made they aren't also gay. If you make them gay, they get mad they aren't also trans. If you make them trans, they get made they aren't also in a wheelchair or have a mental illness. It never ends.

And people get so outraged and start name-calling (i.e. labeling people bigots) whenever they, in their opinion, "misrepresent" any of these issues. So it's like no wonder these issues aren't talked about much, because people don't want to be attacked if they don't write it the way you expect them too. So they stick with what's safe.

I completely agree. It's racism, plain and simple.

 

True. And they're the ones I gotta be concerned about. I'm not super worried about pissing off some liberal activist, but I probably don't want all the murderers on my bad side!

 

Two words: social media.

People are being brainwashed by the likes of Facebook. I heard a good podcast with Roger McNamee, who used to work for Facebook.

People should get educated about this stuff and then make informed choices about it.

 

I agree. I just had like 4 people attack me for saying that you can't say a book is bad if the reason you didn't like it is because you didn't read the back and you thought it was going to be about something else. Apparently that's just super offensive and I deserve to be ganged up on and made fun of for saying it.

 

I disagree with so much of this comment. Of course, it's more subjective anyway, so any debate on it would just be circular.

 

No worries, I'm not the type. Besides, as wrong as she may be, she wasn't aggressive about it or anything.

 

Yeah, cultural appropriation is a total joke.

 

I know yall are kind of half-joking, but Twilight was such an important book for its time. I've met SO many people who love books today because of Twilight, myself included. I was obsessed with those books, and at that age it was the first time I ever loved reading that much.

So no banning Twilight. Lol I like it, even though the writing isnt the best, and it got so many people to start reading more and loving books, which is awesome!

 

You do have a point. I've noticed a lot of ranting on here from folks which they talk about things that offend or appall them... yet they decide to do the very thing the person who stated the message desired in the first place. Which is to have it heard. By spreading it. And the reactions can become pretty dramatic at times, as you've pointed out.

 

K, first of all, I'm not "going crazy." I'm having a conversation. If you think the conversation is dumb and should be ignored, you're free to ignore it.

Secondly, no, this is NOT "some liberal nut job" saying this. This is a rapidly growing reality throughout the entire publishing industry, which directly effects me as an author. I'm really sick of people acting like stuff like this is just something a few crazy people believe. That's just quite simply not true in this case, at all. This has been labeled by many authors and publishers not as a "trend" in the market, but as a necessary change that needs to be implemented all across the board. And it's not just a couple publishers agreeing with that, or a couple reviewers, or a couple authors. It's far more than that.

I really don't appreciate you acting like I'm just whining about something unimportant when you don't know what you're talking about. This effects me directly, and my career, in a pretty substantial way. If you can't see that and you think it's dumb and should just be ignored, then fine, go ahead and ignore. But don't tell me to do the same, because you don't know what you're talking about if you think this is just something a couple crazy people are saying. It's not.

 

The latter example isn't just "cultural appropriation," it's hateful. I don't condone hatred in any form.

The first example, I would still say is not a big deal. People slap crosses on all kinds of stuff, and I'm not whining about it, because they're ignorant and don't know or care about what it symbolizes. There's a difference between someone doing something intentionally out of mockery and hatred, and someone doing something because they think it looks cool and they don't know what it means. Most people who argue about cultural appropriation want to condemn the people in the latter category, who simply decided to buy a shirt with som fancy looking symbol on it and don't even know what it means. That's what I say is a joke.

But this thread isn't really about cultural appropriation anyway, in that broad sense. It's about the publishing industry censoring people based on their race or gender or sexuality.

 

I don't understand what you mean about the person posting the video desiring to have the message spread. That's not really what she desired. It's not like this is some idea she had that she wants more people to see, she was just telling new writers "this is what the publishing industry is like." "Spreading" this message isn't going to do anything but make people aware of something that is already happening. I don't see why that's a bad thing. I, for one, as an author, was very glad to be made aware that this is happening, because I think it's downright wrong and against my beliefs. So I will not be working with any publishers who participate in this kind of discrimination.