WritingWithColor (Posts tagged Death)

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[Running Commentary] Zombies are Zombies: Cultural Relativism, Folklore, and Foreign Perspectives

She obviously started getting into media in Japan, and (from my research into Japanese media and culture), Japan’s movies about zombies are mostly comedic, since due to traditional funerary practices the idea of zombies bringing down society is ridiculous to a lot of Japanese people. 

Rina: OP, this you? https://www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-zombies/

Marika: Counterpoint: Parasite Eve. Resident Evil. The Evil Within. 

Rina: Literally all the grody horror game franchises that people forget were developed and written by Japanese people because the characters have names like “Leon Kennedy” and “Sebastian Castellanos” 

~ ~ ~

Based on the reception we received the last time we did one of these, the Japanese moderator team returns with another running commentary. (They’re easier to answer this way) (Several of Marika’s answers may be troll answers)

Our question today pertains to foreign perspectives on folklore—that is, how people view folklore and stories that aren’t a part of their culture. CW: for anything you’d associate with zombies and a zombie apocalypse, really.

Keep reading for necromancy, horror games, debunking the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, Hong Kong jiangshi films, Japanese disaster prep videos, and Vietnamese idol pop…

Keep reading

Youtube asks japanese vietnamese cultural differences cultural relativism linguistic relativity zombies sci fi science fiction necromancy death funerary customs funeral ghosts vampires folklore natural disasters disaster preparedness rina says stan thanh duy writeblr

Am I handling the black woman character’s murder well?

@selfdxd2 asked:

Hello! My current project is a crime fiction set in KY, USA in which the instigating action is the death of a young black woman (W), with the first half being another young woman (L) investigating her disappearance and how it correlates with the disappearance of her close friend. That friend (P) is later found alive after having been kidnapped because he witnessed the crime, and is the POV character of the second half. He is also a white man, and him being white is relevant to other aspects of the story. My intention is for the “credit” for solving W’s death to go almost entirely to L (who is also a woman of color, specifically Romani), and for the tragedy to be centered around the unfair loss of life and the pain of her parents and others who knew W rather than how bad P feels about it.

My main cast also has two other prominent black women with arcs that extend outside this tragedy. All of this is intended to lend to one of the story’s major themes of social invisibility vs visibility. So does this exploration of that stray into harmful territory from the outset? I know successfully keeping away from any white manpain traps will take active caution while actually writing the story and I intend to get sensitivity readers as I work on it, but I wanted to get some feedback on my starting point before going too far down that road. Thanks so much for all you do!

It is important for us to know why this young Black woman was murdered to give specific advice. 

  • Was it racially motivated, gender motivated, or both? 
  • Wrong place, wrong time? 
  • Did someone take revenge?
  • Was she involved in something insidious? 
  • Was it truly an accident?

Depending on the reason, you should explore and acknowledge this violence and the existing societal problem behind it. For help, see the crime stats on violence against Black women.

…and for the tragedy to be centered around the unfair loss of life and the pain of her parents and others who knew W rather than how bad P feels about it.

Yes, give a voice to the people most affected by her death. Other Black women, people, and Women of Color. This will help further not make it about the feelings of a white man. He is absolutely a victim of the crime too, being kidnapped, so his trauma does matter and should be tended to. But ultimately, he gets to live.

On that note, his life being worth kidnapping vs. ending begs the question; why wasn’t he murdered while the Black woman’s life had to end? And for representation purposes, why couldn’t it be the other way around (Where the Black woman lives and witnesses the crime, and the white man dies)?

This is why knowing your reasoning for her death is so important. 

Otherwise, if she was thoughtlessly murdered, it does feel like her life was incredibly devalued in your story due to her being a Black woman. It’s a serious and true problem, so I’m not saying not to write this. This just needs careful exploring. If you’re choosing to bring this real life problem into your story, it deserves full and respectful acknowledgement. 

Please check out our resources on writing tragic material, Black suffering and abuse and avoiding exploitation. 

More reading: tragedy exploitation tag

~Mod Colette

Death murder tw Black women Black person dies first Tragedy exploitation Black suffering

Black woman villain corrupts white woman, Korean man hero is killed

Anonymous asked:

Dark fantasy romance without writing stereotypes of POC 

Hello! I’ve decided to write a high fantasy book that is a dark Romance. I want the main character to be black female villain and the other 2 main characters to be a Korean male hero and white female hero. But the story is really going to be able how the female white hero falls in love with the black female villain and becomes evil herself. And the male hero will eventually be killed off. What I’m asking is can this be written without giving into harmful stereotypes such as black=evil and killing off poc characters? Would it be better if I tried changing up the races of my characters?

Black woman corrupts white woman

  • It’s okay to write flawed, imperfect and villainous Black characters. 
  • Please do not make her the only Black woman character. Have non-evil Black woman character(s).
  • Be mindful of direct Black is evil, white is good symbolism. Especially in juxtaposition of a “pure and innocent” white woman being corrupted by the “impure, tainted” Black woman. This isn’t exactly a new or welcome narrative, so if you could work to move far away from some of those implications, that would be swell.

More reading:

~Mod Colette

Korean man hero killed off

And the [Korean] male hero will eventually be killed off.

Is this hero the only Korean character in the story? Or worse, the only Asian character? With your major Asian character dying, I’d recommend having at least two side Asian characters who survive, preferably at least one Korean character included (this would probably be most natural as your male hero’s friend or family).

Also, does this Korean character die only for the character arc or reaction of your white female hero? Or does he have his own character arc that concludes with his death? 

Your Korean hero should be a complete character in his own right and not a plot device to show the shocking tragedy of your dark romance. His life and death should also be driven by his own motives, not just supporting the white character’s romance with the black character.

I understand that your story is a romance, and that the Korean male hero may need to get less focus compared to the wlw relationship. I still suggest that if you plan to kill him, he deserves to have the work put in so that his death is not solely about the shock value. If you find that difficult to work in, I suggest that you choose something less final than death - perhaps a betrayal that ended in heavy injury or retirement?

- Mod Rune

death black women black and white color symbolism Korean man asks

genotaurus-inactive asked:

I'm writing a Fantasy Story in which one villain is a black woman, the other one being her white husband. She is a Phoenix Shapeshifter, and so powerful she never knew what it's like to be seriously injured until the protagonists roll around. But I'm unsure if I should keep her black because the ending involves the death of her husband, which emotionally shatters her, and she is the only major black woman, though there are major black males. Would it 'tie' her emotions too much to a white man?

Black villain loses her white husband

It’s understandable for her to be devastated by the loss of her husband. The husband’s race isn’t a factor here. I would expect her to be emotional about this.

Be mindful of how much pain and suffering she experiences, especially in comparison to other characters. I understand that she’s a villain and that “getting what’s coming to them” is seen as a good outcome. However, too many narratives tend to torment Black women characters, physically and / or emotionally. 

How sympathetic is she meant to be a villain? Is she someone you love to hate or hate to love?

This would affect how much happiness you’re willing to invest in her, but just because she’s the villain or antagonist, doesn’t mean she can’t have “wins” of her own, whether the readers necessarily root for it, care or not. 

The point: Placing inhumane amounts of pain and suffering on even “Bad” Black women characters isn’t pleasant to read, in my [Black] opinion!!

From serious injury to the losses, check for how much pain you put her through. She can have human moments of both pain and light. I think this makes for a more dynamic character.

It doesn’t even have to 

  1. Justify any of her bad actions or 
  2. be used to make the readers lean one way or another towards their feelings about her.

~Mod Colette 

Black Black women Black villains villains strong black woman death death tw bwwm asks

Black Royal Family, deaths and survivals

@funkyfrogwhore asked:

Hi! I’m writing a fantasy series with the primary cast of characters being POC. This particular submission is in regards to the Black characters. The series’ main driving conflict is colonization from a Catholic coded religious organization, and the royal family (the current generation of which is all Black) was converted a couple generations back. The primary catalyst event of the series is a coup overthrowing the queen and king following a religious crusade. I’ve been looking over this blog after seeing it recommended for sensitively writing characters of color as a white author and one thing I’m afraid of falling into in the beginning of the series is the abused Black people trope/Black one dies first trope.

For the first third of the first book in what I plan to make a trilogy, it appears that the oldest child, the son and heir, (aged 18) is the sole survivor of this coup. However, it is then revealed that the princess, his younger sister, (aged 17) survived as well, physically unscathed, and emotionally recovered for the most part. They were both taken in by lowborn people who had suffered at the hands of the church, (the prince’s group’s ages are 20, 22, 19, and 19, princess taken in by one man who is 20) which was heavily supported by their parents. The two siblings don’t reunite until the end of the first book, and the loss of their parents and the attempts on their lives during that coup are the only real violence they face throughout the series. The queen and king being overthrown and dying is intrinsic to the plot of the series (it’s the catalyst for everything else that happens). Their children regain power in the second book after they are reunited with their aunt, and the only real suffering they experience following the coup is emotional (pining for the lowborn romantic partners they fell for during the first book). I don’t plan on going into much detail about the coup (it’s told from the perspective of the prince who is out in the town incognito when it happens, so he’s away from the action). I want to be able to write these characters and events respectfully and in a way that isn’t triggering to Black readers. Any recommendations for that?

Hi! Focusing on your Black characters and not other plot aspects of the story:

This does not read as highly violent or full of suffering for your Black characters. They experience hardship, but it does not feel exploitative and has minimal physical impacts. It’s definitely unfortunate that the Black parents die, but 1) you do have prominent Black men and women 2) their deaths are highly plot relevant and are a catalyst for all the events to come. I’d say carry on with this story, sounds like you’re on the right track and doing an excellent job. 

If other Black readers have anything to add or that this writer should keep in mind, please chime in.

~Mod Colette

Asks Black Black women Black men Black death death

aceguanaco asked:

Hi, I have a subplot I’m considering adding to my story but I’m unsure if it would be offensive. One of my main characters is a black girl who had died previously but has since returned from the dead, and is really obsessed with making her second life count. I was planning on ending the story with her completing her goal, and sacrificing herself for the greater good (though she will be able to get reincarnated again, an option she only gets if she lived a good and moral life). I was thinking of increasing the tension by having her slip up and do something super not moral, which would make it so she has to overcompensate in order to live a good enough life to be reincarnated. My thought was that she’d get harassed by a random guy and feel unsafe, and accidentally kill him using her magic. I’m worried this would fall too much in the realm of “black girl has anger issues and lack of emotional control” or something like that, or that the concept itself (“black girl has to work 10x harder to prove herself than the white/other poc characters”) might be problematic. Please let me know if you have any thoughts/advice, thanks!

Sacrificial Black girl, second-chances and redemption

A young woman protecting herself and accidentally killing the man harassing her does not make me think “angry” or “lack of control / animalistic.” Things may have gotten out of hand, but she was ultimately defending herself. Also, Black characters should be allowed imperfections. Humans make mistakes. She wants to live a good and moral life during her second chance, so this incident seems like a great way to give her moral conflict. 

Sacrificial Black woman

My bigger concern is the Black girl sacrificing herself. She died in another life and is eager for a new life, only to give up her second chance by sacrificing herself? This meets the definition of Sacrificial Negro. 

Plenty of stories already choose to make Black women character’s storylines about struggle and sacrifice. In a world where our presence in stories is limited in the first place, this type of plot often becomes the focal point. Truly consider how necessary it is to walk this same road so many writers have taken before you when writing this character.

As a Black woman reader, It would disappoint me to read that she ends up dying, particularly by sacrifice. Putting a modern twist on this old tale does not lessen the disappointment. Same thing, different day.

Before you write this, ask yourself:

  • How necessary is it to give her this storyline? 
  • Why must she give up her life in order to help the greater good? Why is this sacrifice on her hands vs. someone else?
  • How can she help out without dying? 
  • What makes her so willing, having been so grateful for this second chance, to give it away now? You mentioned she feels like she has met her goals. Perhaps expand on that.

If you tied her reasoning into feeling unworthy due to the killing accident, that would provide more of an explanation for her actions. Without a reason, though, you may imply her sacrifice is just what she should do, as if her life is not as valuable as others.

If she went through with it, but survived:

Her not actually dying, in spite of her willingness to sacrifice herself, would be a moment for her to:

  1. Unpack what made her so willing to sacrifice herself.
  2. Come to terms that she is worthy of this second chance
  3. Sometimes surviving truly is more interesting. Once a character is dead, they’re dead. But surviving allows all sorts of emotions, aftereffects and coming to term with things that the character must deal with.
  4. Or, at least, allows her to self reflect. Not everything ends in a grand epiphany, but it’s worth allowing the character to explore her feelings about her choices.

Good vs evil and The Struggle

Overcompensating in order to live a good enough life to be reincarnated, Black girl has to work 10x harder to prove herself than the white/other poc characters

The whole incident seems like a morally gray area. She kills someone who was harassing her. Likely in an attempt to defend herself. Also, it was completely by accident. Now, she’s being punished and has to work to deserve reincarnation. 

  • Based on the details of the killing, consider whether it was an action deserving of this harsh of punishment.
  • Who makes the rules on whether this is something that makes her unworthy in this world?
  • What are those rules and does anyone ever question those definitions of good and bad?

Perhaps there’s a higher authority making the call. Perhaps she is deeming herself unworthy until she accumulates enough good acts.

The struggle of having to work harder plus prove oneself is definitely a reality that many Black women face. And again, this is putting a magical twist on racial tropes, which doesn’t make it less off-putting, in my opinion.

Consider how much she has to devote her new life to hard work and redemption. How much of this struggle you include will define if you’re giving the Black girl a “Struggle novel” storyline. In that case, readers should be warned that you’re writing about these hardships. This allows those of us who didn’t sign up for yet another Black woman struggling story to avoid your book. 

How much work and struggle your Black character faces compared to other people in the novel can indicate if you’re leaning towards Struggle Novel and singling out the Black woman. If it’s disproportionate compared to others, you may be writing into tragedy exploitation.

Recommendation:

Also, based on some of the concepts in your story, I recommend watching the Good Place. I’m noticing some relevant themes, but I won’t say too much, as the show is full of twists and turns! 

~Mod Colette

Black Black women Strong Black Woman Sacrificial negro death Black death tragedy exploitation struggle struggle novel asks

tasmanianstripes asked:

Hello! So I am writing this kind of horror novel? And there's a black family that's like upper-middle class (not rich but well off, mother is a surgeror). So there's two parents and they have a son and a daughter, the son is kind of abusive and a bully which prompts the daughter to leave to live with her uncle and cousin. The son ends up killing both or one parent (still deciding) and then gets possessed by a monster which especially kills him and the monster uses him as a vessel (part 1/2)

(so with that out of the way; basically the son being a horrible person and at least one of the parents dying is very important to the plot but I want to make sure I do this tactfully. I can of course change things and dail it down if necessary. Also, if that’s any concern, the characters of colour aren’t the only ones suffering, it’s a generally dark book and pretty much everybody goes through some heavy shit. I can tell you more if necessary, and thank you in advance for your help! ♡

Evil Black Man becomes possessed by a Monster

You’ll have to be careful with this one. You seem to be portraying Black men as monsters, quite literally and also in a “inhumane” sense (betraying others, murdering his loved ones and abusing his Black sister). He also kills one parent, and depending on their gender, this has other implications. Their acts also feed into tropes of Black people being violent, particularly as more violent, with the target being other Black people. I will discuss these tropes more.

Violent Men of Color

Men of Color, particularly dark-skinned men with an emphasis on Black men, are often harmfully portrayed as aggressive, predatory and even animalistic. This is a harmful, dehumanizing trope and feeds into real life biases against Black men that gets these men killed. People assume MOC are just that much more violent and that they’re armed. This leads to overreacting to their presence and actions in fear, when really these men are just trying to live their life. Some even go out of their way to prove they are harmless to reduce the unearned panic their presence may cause (e.g. hands out of pockets, smiling brightly, making sure they’re visible so their presence isn’t a surprise, especially at night)

Examples of this trope in action:

  • The way “Karens” call the police on Black people at the drop of a hat with claims that they fear for their life or are being threatened. They’ll play on this stereotype for sympathy and to urge on a stronger reaction from police and others around them.
  • People locking their doors or crossing the street when a Black person comes near.
  • Police brutality and vigilantes that lead to murders when they
    • Falsely perceive a weapon / read into simple hand motions as reaching for a weapon
    • Assume BIPOC will get violent and treat them like a threat from the beginning

Note: You see this at play towards Black women too. I’m pretty sure every fellow Black woman I know, including myself, has had a white woman clutch their purse upon them passing by in a store, and / or has been accused of being too “angry” and aggressive when speaking their mind or showing emotion.

It really isn’t great to feed this narrative. The media is oversaturated with these portrayals already. 

“Black on Black” crime

As for this aspect, I can see some of that portrayed in your story. The reality of this phrase is rooted in anti-blackness and intends to make Black people out to be more violent compared to white people and other races. When used to justify others killing Black people, it’s a racist justification for their deaths. 

The truth: People tend to commit crimes against the people they know and in their immediate demographic and area. Black people tend to know Black people. In the same way white people tend to know white people, and so on.

Statistics:

- Rates of white-on-white and Black-on-Black homicides are similar and remain within 10 percentage points of each other, around 80% and 90%, respectively.

- Likewise, rates of Black-on-white and white-on-Black homicide remain within eight percentage points of each other, at around 16% and 8%. 

- And police kill Black people at disproportionate and much higher rates than they kill their white counterparts. 

(USA Today, 2020. Stats are from the U.S. Department of Justice) 

Now - this is not to justify violence and murder perpetrated by any race. However, it’s just incorrect to create a narrative of Black people being inherently more violent, particularly towards each other, when white offenders can be quite comparably as violent. Even still, you’re looking at just a portion of a population. These numbers don’t account for the everyday, non-murderous people going about their lives!

Solutions

This narrative, as is, is probably best handled by a Black author. In any case, a Black beta-reader or three should take a closer look. That isn’t to say this can’t be improved!

Here are some ideas to help improve upon this narrative:

  • Include positive representation. You absolutely should portray Black men of similar identities (for example, if he’s dark-skinned, not cis or straight, etc.) in a positive, non-stereotypical and non-violent way. Prominent positive and neutral representation is a must, in my opinion, to balance such harsh portrayals of Black men.
  • Clearly define the reason for his ways. It just being “the way he is” as if this level of violence and hatred is natural is not sufficient. 
    • Was he triggered or traumatized by something? 
    • Did someone or something make him this way? 
    • You’ve got elements of possession: You could definitely run with that being the evil influence over him vs. it having anything to do with his Blackness. Perhaps that demon was lurking around most of his life, influencing his personality and feeding and growing his negative emotions to the point that he was becoming a bad person.
  • Consider ways to make him “bad” that aren’t linked with violence. There are many socially unacceptable ways, both legal and illegal, that can make someone a menace. A villain does not always have to be flashy in his evil, aka a murderer. Think of the human ways that make someone unpleasant. They can be selfish, a cheater, a liar, condescending, disloyal and overall deemed “bad.” Someone can come across just as menacing on the pages without being violent.
  • Include violent characters of other races. And not just Men of Color, either. There should be white violent characters who commit crimes and brutalities as well. You also mention this story is “Dark” but that doesn’t excuse hyper focusing on violence when it comes to the Black characters and giving the other races different matters to deal with.
  • Or! Even better - give the violent ways to someone else. Or no one at all. As I mentioned “darkness” and evil does not always need to be connected to violence and murder. If you choose to still include it, that’s fine. I would still suggest considering if this plotline could go to someone else without diminishing the role of these Black characters in general.

I do want to add that Black characters don’t need to be perfect. I absolutely love a Black villain! Folks can appreciate a grim story as well. However, I believe most people prefer when that villain doesn’t feed directly into actively harmful tropes. We want to see serious narratives and horror done, minus the tired tropes. As always, it’s helpful when there are other Black characters of importance that help balance out the representation. 

~Mod Colette

tasmanianstripes Black men Men of Color Violent MOC Violent men of Color black on black black on black crime black death death death tw angry black man violent black man black women villains black villains Black stereotypes creator responsibility asks

xxpinkgalaxykidxx asked:

Hi! I was reading through your tag about the absent black father trope, and I was worried it was an issue with my story. It's a cosmic horror story, the MC is an African American male who lives with his biracial older brother. The characters are adults but have been orphaned because their mother and their father was in the military and disappeared overseas but I plan to have him come back towards the end. The story hinges on the characters not having parents, but I didn't want to cause any hurt!

Black Orphaned characters, parents come back

Absent Black Parent / Black Death

I don’t view parents dying as neatly fitting into the “absent Black parent” trope. It wasn’t their choice to be dead / missing and thus absent. It does make me side eye the author, though, who made the choice to kill the parent, usually a father. 

So in this case, my eyes are on the “Black Man / Person dies first” trope and Black People Dying tropes overall. The parents do turn out to be alive, so that’s a positive twist on the story! Still, that leaves them missing during the bulk of the tale and in their child’s life.

Improving the absent parent storyline / trope

I would recommend you emphasize the care the parents did take for their kids while present. Whether by stating it or in fond memories, your character can show us that his parents were there for him when alive.

Also, as they are in the military, I’d imagine they knew the risks of them not being there to take care of their children. That is, unless they served in an area where death was completely unanticipated.

My question are:

  • Who was taking care of the children before their disappearance?
  • Who was supposed to care for the children long term in case of death? 
  • Did those arrangements fall through? 
  • Or was the plan always for the big brother to take care of his little brother?

If the brother was always meant to take care of them - I would hope this brother is a willing caregiver and established adult, and not a child himself. 

Representation

Black fathers - Additionally, you say the brother is biracial. He’s a half brother to the character, so I’m assuming he’s Black, too. This helps to place another Black man’s fathering presence into the story. Black father representation is lacking at times. It doesn’t substitute the (assumed) death of the Black man, but it indeed does help to show some representation. 

As for the Black mother - Are there other Black women in the story? Not necessarily to be caregivers to the child, as it shouldn’t be their default duty to take care of other people, but just in general. When one takes away representation of a group via death or absence, I personally find it important to supplement it with more character(s) of that same race, gender, etc.

Parental influence while gone

If you saw it fit, you could still thread some of the parent’s influence into the story. 

Let’s assume they anticipated the possibility of dying.

  • What if they wrote letters or video messaging to their children? They could have made them for the children to watch or read when they hit special milestones in their lives.
  • What sort of inheritance or special items could they have left to their children that helps them at some point throughout the story?  
  • It could be something completely sentimental to remember them by. 
  • Or it could be helpful to the story, such as critical information, a key, a special weapon, map or magical item. 
  • Or perhaps they communicate and support the children in subtle ways, doing what they can while being help or trapped overseas.

Depending on the type of story it is, see how you can make the parents influence the plot even while “gone.”

xxpinkgalaxykidxx absent black father black guy dies first black person dies first black black women black men black stereotypes death death tw Black parents black family asks

Black stereotypes in superhero story: Single mom, Black death, and petty crime

@andromedahereicome asked:

I’m writting a superhero story. The “main protagonist” is a white female, but there are 4 black main characters (every character has an arc/arcs and play important parts, so the lines between main and side characters blur in my story). The 4 black characters are all related to each other: to put it simply, there’s a middle aged woman and her 3 adult/young adult children. The parents divorced (they kept good contact, and they took care of the children equally) and a few years after that, the father was killed in a hate crime.

 Which led one of the characters, a woman, to become a superhero and one of the male characters into a world of crime (the third character becomes a doctor, he’s not relevant to the question). Now that’s the part I’m worried about. He doesn’t commit serious crimes, more petty theft and “low level crime”. 

The thing is, he gets a massive character development, and eventually becomes a superhero of his own. He changes mostly on his own, but with the help of his family. The (white woman) protagonist has a few talks with him and the people helping him, but does not contribute actively to his change (both because I want his change to be mostly his own and to avoid the “white savior” trope).

Would that be ok? Would I be perpetuating harmful stereotypes about moc and crime? Would this also fall under the “missing father” trope? (Just to be clear, all of the afermentioned characters have careers, character arcs and generally private lives of their own and helping him isn’t all they do in the story.)

Avoid stereotypes in the first place before you fix them

There’s a lot of potential for stereotypes here. You seem to be on the right track for recognizing and trying to balance it out, though. I’m glad you’ve spotted the potential trouble areas. 

Not all stories need to be rainbows and unicorns with perfect Black characters with flawless lives. Still, it is best not to fall into the same tired tropes when it comes to Black characters. 

There’s plenty of ways to add tension and drama to stories without putting Black characters in the same circumstances that we see, again and again. So, instead of subverting stereotypes, I recommend avoiding them in the first place and finding other ways to stir up trouble for your BIPOC characters. Be creative and thoughtful in your outlining.

Potential stereotypes

  • Black Character Death / Black Man Dies First 
    • Your Black father is killed off. It being from a hate crime is obviously quite relevant to today and unfortunately too familiar, so that would benefit from proper social commentary. 
    • There’s also a potential absent Black father presence trope, although it isn’t neatly so; it was not his choice to die and when alive, he did care and support his children.
  • Single Black Mother - Not so much due to divorce, as that’s just co-parenting. However, the father is killed, leaving her to mother on her own. Does she get help? A new relationship, father or mother figure to assist? How deep is her burden without the father around?
  • Black Criminal - It seems his crimes are not out of need or to help others, but just for the sake of it. This can feed into a connection to Men of Color naturally being criminal. Please give a reason for his activity, even if it’s not “deep”. Albeit the crimes seem petty and not very violent, which is better than him being violent, still be mindful here. He does change, so that’s good. Still, non-criminal Black characters of the same identities is a must, in my opinion. 
  • White Savior potential - depending on how big the white woman’s influence is on the Black man to stop doing crime. I would hope he has more influential non-white people or reasons besides her encouraging him to straighten out his life and make better choices.
  • Superhero - Not sure of their race. But if they’re…
    • White: avoid white savior stereotypes. Since the hate crime inspired them to be a hero, there is potential for that issue. I think the character is better off being BIPOC.
    • Black: Avoid “sacrificial negro” and “Strong Black Person” tropes.
    • BIPOC: Avoid sacrificial tropes.

Previous answers on WWC can provide more ideas for balancing, softening, avoiding or subverting such tropes. Please explore the tags on the topics mentioned for more help.

General suggestions

  • Have a variety of Black characters who aren’t involved in a criminal life.
  • Black family depictions - Have Black family dynamics that don’t involve dead fathers or struggling single Black mothers.
  • Avoid the struggle novel - Do not infuse every Black person’s storyline with tragedy, struggle and unhappiness.
  • Give them happiness - Not everyone needs a happy ending, but I do encourage some of your characters to have happiness in their life. Layer their lives with the sweet and bittersweet.
  • Create 3-D Characters - Add depth to your Black characters. Explore their emotions and give them important bonds and relationships.
  • Do not treat Black life as expendable. Even in a story that involves a lot of tragedy and death, please ensure they are not sacrificial and don’t die disproportionally more than the non-Black characters.
  • Get a Black beta-reader(s). For a story this ripe in potential stereotypes, I feel as if you need even more than one to read over this story.

Again, it’s great that you can recognize the potential harmful tropes here. With that awareness, you can work towards improving or getting rid of their presence in your story.

~Mod Colette

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White Assassin in India/Tamil inspired country

Anonymous asked:

I’m writing a fantasy series, with four countries loosely inspired by/built on real-world historical cultures. One is based on ancient Scandinavia, and one on ancient Tamilkam (now southern India).

MC is an white assassin from the Scandinavia-based country who uses magic. In book two, she takes an assignment in the India/Tamil-based country. The son of a wealthy merchant hires her to stop his father from using a magic ritual to destroy a motha (there is valuable ore under the motha).

The son asks to be there to perform the proper funeral rituals immediately after death, but refuses to be the one to actually hurt his father. He already tried going to the local council, and pleading with the sanyasini to leave, but nobody believes his well-known father would do this, and he doesn’t know how else to stop his father.

MC does, with another (Latine-coded) character’s magic help, succeed in killing the merchant and stopping his magic ritual. The son performs funeral rituals and grieves, while the MC and other character have to flee due to the unrelated second storyline.

1. Would this be a white savior story? How do I avoid that?

2. How can I avoid portraying the Indian-coded people as only victims (plus one bad guy)?

I thought about having the son or another Indian-coded person help MC in the climax instead of the Latine-coded character, but that character is one of the main 3 in the series, and that moment is supposed to be a crucial piece in developing their relationship with MC. Also, it’s key to the plot that the merchant’s son isn’t a high-level magic user, so he wouldn’t be able to fill the same role in that scene.

At the risk of sounding negative, I’m afraid your current premise does read as a white saviour narrative. However, you can still fix that.

  • Reconsider if it is absolutely necessary to have the Latine-coded character help the MC while in India (why not give them a bonding moment on a mission elsewhere, or in a moment outside of a mission?)? If yes, then consider creating a third character- an Indian who works as a guide and a comrade in the mission. Removing Indians completely from the scene except for their capacity as a grieving, ineffectual son/villainous figure feels like ineffective representation.
  • Creating an Indian companion can drastically reduce the white saviour tone. They can guide your MC through unfamiliar terrain, get them acquainted with local customs and help them blend in so as to not arouse suspicion before the mission. In any event, it would be quite difficult for a Scandinavian to just waltz into Tamil Nadu and kill an esteemed merchant.
  • Consider your internalised biases. 
    • Is the son really helpless? 
    • Why write him thus? 
    • Why hire a woman from a far-off land, aren’t local mercenaries available? 
    • Why can’t an Indian assassin deal the blow, while your MC provides a distraction and/or performs her duty in a separate way, infiltrating archives for example, or trying to evacuate people from the ceremony? 
  • The only way I see this working out is involving many Indian people as accomplices in the mission. A spy guarding the doorway, a priestess whose loyalties lie elsewhere, a travel companion, a boatman who helps them flee. Don’t make them drip in adoration for the MC, that reeks of white saviour, rather show them eager to get rid of the merchant for their own, well fleshed-out backstories and agendas.
  • Lastly, a gentle reminder. The figure of the white female assassin killing/taking advantage of people of colour is a very harmful, yet popular trope that seeps through a lot of popular Western thrillers and fantasy. In Sarah J. Maas’ Throne of Glass series, two Black women violently die to further the emotional growth of white characters, one of whom is a white female assassin. In the Codename Villanelle novels, as well as the show Killing Eve, white assassin Villanelle mutilates Chinese men (in the books, this horrific murder takes place in Shanghai itself) and terrorises an Asian assassin, proclaiming her own superiority. In Jay Kristoff’s Nevernight series, a young white assassin takes sexual advantage of a Black-coded man to attain her personal goals under training and he is later replaced by a white person as her love interest. Trace your logic and ask yourself if a white woman murdering an Indian man and fleeing the scene is something that is absolutely indispensable to your story

And here is my ko-fi, appreciate a tip. 

- Mod Mimi

Asks Tamil Worldbuilding India murder murder tw murdered poc tw death white feminism trace your logic creator responsibility white savior tropes white tropes

nurselaney asked:

Hello, really appreciate what you guys do here. I'm writing a biracial Jewish-African British mc for a Harry Potter fic. I have some questions: 1) Is the use of "Merlin"or other Magical persons names as a swear ok or no? 2) In the 1st chapter, the mc's husband dies on Thurs. before Shabbat. No major holidays (I 1st had him die at a time that was during Sukkot so I changed it) but does this become an issue with funeral arrangements, if they live in a different country from the rest of the fam?

Verbal swearing and Jewish funeral customs (Black British Jewish Harry Potter Fanfiction)

WWC NOTE:

This answers questions about verbal swears and funeral customs. We at WWC, including specifically the Jewish team, do not condone the TERF-ness (or racism, anti-semitism, transphobia, or fatphobia) of JKR. We hope that the principles we used to answer this post will be useful for writers of other fandoms and for original fiction as well.

I’m 100% Jewish raised by Jewish parents and everything and because I live in the US South I have to consciously scrub the meaningless-to-me Christian swears from my speech, so yeah, the Merlin thing is realistic for someone who is even a little bit assimilated. JKR’s Merlin swears aren’t even religious in-text, either.

We bury our dead within three days of death, so this person’s funeral may either be Friday before sundown (a bit of a rush…) or on Sunday. This goes without saying but people have died right before Shabbat since as long as there’s been Shabbat and we’ve figured it out. (Maybe I’m misunderstanding the question?) If you’re worried about mourners from out of the country having to travel on Shabbat, make them not Orthodox/establish that they don’t strictly adhere to a traditional Shabbat. That doesn’t make them less Jewish. Or, they can be observant and miss the funeral but get there in time for shivah, the seven days of mourning afterward where you hang out and eat and be comforted etc. 

–Shira

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agentargus asked:

(1/2)I was one of the people asking about Muslim vampires, but going back and re-reading this blog, I’m better safe than sorry and I don’t need the character to be a vampire. That said, the character’s storyline takes place over several centuries (he was born in Lucero when it was still a primarily North African Muslim community in the 1280s and is alive in modern times. I can provide more info if need be.) What would make sense as a reason for a character to live that long that wasn’t haram?

(2/2) Everyone in the universe I’m writing in has some sort of fantastical or paranormal backstory so he wouldn’t be unusual in being immortal and/or long-living if that makes any difference.

Is an immortal North African Muslim haram?

Since I answered your other ask about vampires before reading this ask, I’ll provide you with more or less the part of the text that pertains to this question:

Death has a huge significance in Islam; death and the dead are sacred. There is no coming back from it […] Since living forever is, in Islam, one of Allah’s attributes, it can’t be a thing for any other living being, humans included. This, unless you give them an expiring date. And I mean – we believe that many Prophets, and subsequently, the people coexisting in their times, lived a lot of years. For example, Prophet Noah lived 900 years. And the life span of djinns (unseen creatures) is also much longer than that of humans. Your Muslim character can live 500 or 875 years if you want, just give an expiring date. Don’t make them completely immortal (which would be haram) because this life for a Muslim is just a walk, among other reasons.

After all, the reason you may have for your character to live that long is something for to sort out. It can be because they drank a poisonous beverage that altered the functioning of their organism or whatever thing you can come up with. I would suggest you beware of the reason and why. Don’t select the first idea that occurs to you. Analyze the other aspects of your character’s Muslim identity to see if the reason is valid or not. 

-Asmaa

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