Anonymous asks:

I am working on a scifi dystopian story. In which musical artists are also turned into human weapons by the military to be used in an intergalactic war as part of their record deal, artists often being given or crafting elaborate stage personas to playone artist is a Black female rapper(L). Her stage persona is an unfeeling cyborg.
I want to use this zany premise to explore the dehumanization and exploitation popular artists face from both the public and the industry.

With L(and others) i wanted to address how BIPOC artists particularly are more often victims of this and in ways different to what white artists experience, L has more cybernetics installed by top brass and is caged by a persona that paints her as unfeeling/“more machine than person” despite how at odds it is with reality and L pushing back against it. A persona crafted by her record label so as to play to the harmful idea Black people feel less pain.

My main concern is that by making it so this character has more weaponry installed in her body then other artists it is unintentionally falling into the trope of Black characters being “stronger” or more “dangerous".

Would making it so all music artists have the same amount of cybernetics help alleviate this issue?(highlighting the choice made by the label to assign this kind of persona to her specifically when all artists have these modifications done to them as being a choice rooted in bigotry and the idea of the strong Black woman trope) or is there more that could be done.

Your story is the social commentary - so lean into it

Is “ making it so this character has more weaponry installed in her body then other artists unintentionally falling into the trope of black characters being “stronger” or more “dangerous"?

Yes…but let’s go back to the word unintentionally. Are you sure it is unintentional of you? Isn’t it your whole point to be intentional about this?

You seem fully aware of the oppressive aspects of what is happening to these characters, and I understand hope to address them directly and make a social commentary. 

So is this not an intentional choice from you and regarding all of the other stereotypical characterization (Strong, unfeeling, dangerous etc.)? 

And do you plan on addressing this in your story and the exploitation that is occurring to your Black cyborg woman character?

Because you must for this to work.

Everything about her existence seems to be social commentary. A story like this, with a character like this, must engage with and acknowledge the racist tropes, stereotypes and storyline being inflicted on your Black character (and any other BIPOC in the story). 

You say you want to explore the dehumanization and exploitation of your characters, so do that. And do it boldly.

Ensure there is the narrative that this is abnormal, oppressive and wrong. 

Of course, there is the side that paints this all as natural and just fine, such as the government, but there should be a strong opposing side (that carries your voice) running through this novel. 

The Hunger Games for example

Think of The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins.

While people are fearing for their lives, the whole premise of children fighting to the death is wrong, and we feel that from Katniss, Peeta, and the other major characters. Reading the novel, we experience contrasting opinions, acceptance and resistance, but empathize with the cause for justice and freedom.

The Hunger Games, people of the Capitol 

Then you have the villains of the novel, the “neutrals” and complicit. For instance, the elites in the capitol, the sponsors, game makers. Some people had sinister motivations; authority, power, greed, ratings! Hate. Some cared only for the drama and romance, and painted real peoples’ lives as entertainment. And lo and behond, marketing for THG movies did the same thing!

Moviespheregold: Team Peeta or Team Gale?

But you do not just get one narrative that paints the games as acceptable. Through your characters, readers can see the truth for themselves – the injustice of it all which the author wants you to see and feel.

The Hunger Games has some parallel to your story topics, particularly on propaganda and weaponization of human bodies. One might say Katniss is used in a similar way. There are even deeper layers here when you consider that Katniss may be Native American coded (based on books).

Another aspect that may help your story to consider

Rina adds:

One of the biggest principal themes Suzanne Collins focused on was the power of televised entertainment to drive state propaganda & complicity in the regime—Katniss’s body is distorted and disguised through the cosmetics and costumes to tell a narrative the Capitol wants to tell, and then again her image is remade into that of a soldier and her disfigurement exploited by District 13 to recruit soldiers in the war they intend to win for themselves.

Research more and read to study

I urge you to:

• Research even more into what goes into writing a dystopian novel with strong social anti-racist, anti-oppression commentary. I know you’ve done some reading, but I’d advise reading even more from a point of studying the craft.
• Read well-written dystopian novels for how to give this social commentary in your narrative. I have not read enough dystopian books, at the time of this post, to recommend much, so I’m going to leave it to some of our excellent mods (and you readers) to give your relevant recommendations!
• See recommendations near the end of this post.
• Know your history. Delve into some more research. At the very least, these quite dystopian things that are happening in your dystopia are unfortunately just reality. History. 

“When I wrote The Handmaid’s Tale, nothing went into it that had not happened in real life somewhere at some time. The reason I made that rule is that I didn’t want anybody saying, ‘You certainly have an evil imagination, you made up all these bad things.’ I didn’t make them up.”
- Margaret Atwood

As for L, your “unfeeling” Black cyborg

Show the humanity in this cyborg character. There should be a chink in the armor, a crack in the picture of her being unfeeling. Perhaps a depth to the rap where there is allegedly “not supposed” to be. 

Research the history of rap and hip-hop and you’ll know how on-point it would be to use her music as revolutionary in the opposite direction that the government wants to use it.

Give us some contrast, some clear defiance of the stereotypes.

It’s important that your story is bold with the fact that your Black cyborg is an embodiment of racism and oppression. She is assigned this false stereotypical, oppressive narrative. It’s not meant to speak of a truth of these traits simply being a fitting role for a Black woman.

Another important note: Black people, especially women, have been leading social movements for change and liberation from the beginning. Black women leading the change, and in your case, your Black woman cyborg, fuels another social commentary of us being the mules for the world, doing the revolutionary work. This is something else for you to recognize as you write.

~Mod Colette

A veteran’s perspective

I can comment with an auxiliary perspective as a veteran and artist (writer). You’re also tapping something interesting with the idea of the military using BIPOC bodies to advance their agenda at the expense of the individual service members. Historically, while many service members got hazed and experimented on, BIPOC service members were far more likely to suffer these abuses, and to a much greater extent. 

The American intelligence apparatus also has a history of using artists to their advantage – The CIA even created American LiteratureMFAs as a means of peddling American soft power. 

-Mod Melanie

Recommended reading

Keep reading

@hypertechnica asks:

Hello!! This blog has been instrumental in developing my writing, thank you all for your hard work!

In my writing, I’m very interested in exploring transhumanism and the general concept of “not feeling human” and the becoming, or the feeling of becoming, more, less, or not fully human in my writing. I’m also interested in mutation and transformation related body horror, as well as medical horror. My motivations for these are primarily borne out of my experiences as a trans, autistic, mentally ill mixed race person (white/Latine/Native American.) I’ve never felt fully understood, fully a part of anything, or even fully human, and I tend to write characters with similar experiences.

But I am white passing, and as a holder of white privilege, I’m cautious as to how I represent BIPOC in these kinds of works. I highly dislike writing stories with only white people or having POC be on the sidelines of the white main character’s struggles. But how does one walk the line between a raw, unsanitized depiction of a brown or black person struggling with their mental health and sense of self, and dehumanization and tragedy exploitation?

I don’t want to ignore how race affects that, especially when writing about my own experiences with forced assimilation as a native person. But because of the nature of me, a white native, writing about a visibly native person going through even partially race-related trauma, I want to be as mindful as I can be. I want people to see themselves in these characters, not gawk at their suffering, or worse, alienate the BIPOC viewers I was trying to speak to in the first place.

Grain of salt for all of this because these are not the kinds of stories I find catharsis in, despite sharing many of the same identities (and feelings of alienation/dehumanization) as you. However, some of my friends find extreme catharsis in these kinds of stories, so don’t let the opinion of those who would get triggered by this dissuade you from writing it at all—there will always be different kinds of trauma stories that resonate with different people, and that doesn’t make them bad.

That being said, I am currently going through the journey of unpacking a very similar narrative to this on a personal level with a very similar identity cocktail, so I’ll give it my best shot.

The Pain of White Supremacy

Let’s talk about the identity sacrifice that comes with white supremacy.

White supremacy is an extremely lucrative promise: give up huge swaths of your cultures and traditions, gain leisure that’s supported by a racialized underclass and live like a king. There’s no need to work in fields, do the ugly parts of childrearing, participate in endless work to make clothing. You just sit, and enjoy life, and order people around, while other people around you work.

It’s as boring, hollow, and soul-sucking as it sounds. But many, many, many people make this trade off, because being the underclass supporting this leisure sucks so much and they want a piece of that leisure pie, because leisure is denied to that underclass and the underclass (read: mostly Black people) force ways to take it at risk of their lives. 

A strong aspect to this leisure is you lose most of the aspects of identity, period—humans are busy creatures, and we enjoy exploring hobbies, work, and doing things. Crafting things that reflect yourself, expressing your fashion sense, decorating your space in a way that shows you enjoy things, learning your own tastes via cooking, among others. All of this leads to developing the unshakable sense of pride that comes from expressing yourself regardless of what others think.

Having something that is your own identity that you don’t care how the world treats it is a necessary part of existing, and honestly I’ve found my favourite white people have actual tastes in fashion. Not “trying to look palpable” tastes. “I want to wear as many sparkles and colour as possible” tastes. Dressing fancy to make doing the dishes fun. Because they’re not pinning their entire identities on being good little white people, but are willing to develop a sense of self in a way that lets them weather the identity threat that can come with pointing out “hey, that hurt me.”

(sidebar: in my opinion so many white people, especially progressive white people, focus on “being good” as their primary identity marker, and this is one of the reasons they go nuclear as soon as you point out they did a racism. You threatened the main sense of identity they had, and they react accordingly via the backfire effect. It takes effort to combat this, both with doing things for yourself, and knowing that’s what you’re doing. Weird little hobbies are a fantastic way to start building resilience, instead of putting all your eggs in the “being good” basket. Also learn to take out the trash for your community. Dress up nice and make it fun, but care for the community)

White supremacy demands a very narrow ideal—bland, boring “uniforms” that are why every lifestyle influencer looks the same. Tradwives are a very specific look, as is “old money”. To be subversive in any way is to be crushed, threatened with being an underclass member who will lose everything “earned”. (but, by skin tone, white people have to be loudly in the way of white supremacy to get violence directed towards them*, and even then, it’s usually safer. Not always safer! White people have been killed for being against white supremacy, historically and in the modern day. But usually they’re given a chance to betray the underclassmen before that point, when BIPOC aren’t given those chances. White people are also far more likely to be made martyrs when killed for being against white supremacy, when Black people and other POC aren’t)

And then you get an identity cocktail like the ones you and I share. And we are never, ever going to get full humanity under white supremacy, but everyone compares us to the ideals of white supremacy, and here we realize we will never get the promise that our ancestors traded their culture for.

Now what? We’re stuck. (I don’t have an answer for this, by the way, other than attempting to go through delayed adolescence and try to reject all the culty white supremacist stuff. This is a highly individual path)

I know you feel this, somewhere, and that’s what comes out in your writing. Those feelings of disdain from white supremacy are very real, and they suck. I just needed to explain the factors more plainly so the writing advice makes more sense.

Factors for Audience Resonance

I think something you’ll want to explore before you go set these stories loose on the public—don’t avoid writing them, you can have personal projects that are as politically incorrect as you want, and obviously this is cathartic for you—is how this “lack of humanity from not meeting ideals” is a white racial trait that comes directly from white supremacy and is a cost of white privilege. 

The thing about being in this space of the fringes of whiteness—still white-ish, still passing, but with potential to be idealized white if you just behaved “correctly”, dehumanized to alienation if we don’t—is it’s not a dance all groups have to or can navigate. The farther you stray from Eurocentric beauty standards (pale, Western European features), the less potential you have to be viewed as white under this system no matter what you give up. As a result, they are more likely to create culture and identity that is reflective of themselves and their communities as a reprieve from white supremacy. Again, not all, some do actively try to align themselves with white supremacy because of what’s going on in their lives, but broadly speaking.

This leads to a much different flavour of trauma than a white passing individual, who is often navigating this subconscious “but, I could, if only—” and who has often been raised to give up as much of our identity as possible to be palpable to white supremacist ideals, or the child of someone who was raised that way who’s kinda adrift in white “communities”. It’s a much more active choice, to be far away from whiteness and still choose to be an active ally of white supremacy; it’s a much stronger rejection of community and bonds.

The forces pressing down are the same. We are all living in a white supremacist system. But the promises are much, much different depending on potential to be accepted as white. If you or I stay quiet, stay bland, mask, white people have a potential for accepting us. The same cannot be said for a Black person. (jealousy of groups with unique identity is often why white people are such culture vultures; white supremacy has a distinct lack of identity, but humans like having an identity)

Meanwhile, Black or other “distant from whiteness” people are, often at best, just given the promises of being spared, and “one of the good ones”, and they believe these promises to parrot white supremacist talking points. They’re almost never spared, it’s temporary at best, but deals with white devils often look very good. 

Black people and other “unacceptable” groups have different dances when faced with being dehumanized by a white supremacist system. There will be overlap—I’m not going to pretend Black people reading this won’t resonate with your experience—but the end result of compliance will be much different. We can take the culture off, we can mask, and sure it’s a cost and it’s utterly dehumanizing but it’s an option. An option we have to reject to be good allies, because white supremacy is a delusion.

All this to say, there are character factors you can research to see why people would try to make these deals with devils, or how they would navigate recovery from being chewed up and spit out by these systems. This would allow you to examine broader factors that make the writing much richer, because you’ll become more aware of experiences outside of your own and infuse that in your work.

On Writing

I know this probably feels like it doesn’t answer your question, but what I’m getting at is: if you want other BIPOC to resonate with your experience, you have to recognize what aspects of your experience are racialized, and how different identity factors create different conversations with white supremacy. You also need to research what might make people make “non-progressive” choices, or how they might be preyed upon, or all of these things. 

By exploring those intersections and acknowledging your feelings come explicitly from your white passing trauma, and generational trade-offs ancestors made to try and get that leisure at the cost of their humanity, you give yourself space to fill in the gaps—how would Black experiences under such a dehumanizing system differ, where the threats and promises are much different? How do these same themes change when groups are trying to buy into whiteness with more notably non-European features, or when they reject it and learn to retreat into their own communities to build networks? What would make them neutral, what would make them targets?

You are writing stories about how it feels to experience white supremacy as someone who is white but will never be the ideal white person by nature, therefore losing status among white people. By understanding and respecting that, you in turn create a scenario where you can ask more questions about how others might experience these things, which can open yourself up for more representation and help you unpack white supremacy to be a better ally to those who never had the option to gain status under the system the way we do. The trade-offs to be white are not worth it, even though we might have to concede to them to survive sometimes.

I hope this helps you both heal from white supremacy and write better stories.

- Leigh

* this segment was written before the murder of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, when there hadn’t been a high-profile murder of a white ally in a very long time. ICE is an extension of colonial violence that seeks to destroy anyone against them, when white supremacy had, all of last year, been more about maintaining the illusion they were protecting other white people, or protecting “good” marginalized group members, from “the other” or “the bad ones.” It was never about that, but the PR was fantastic. White women in particular are told that they’re the most cherished, but they’re still not seen as full beings and often are disposed of as soon as they challenge the status quo—but that hasn’t been on display in a long, long while. Helpful, soft-spoken men are also seen as lesser, with white supremacy only wanting men to hold a specific type of violent power.

Over the centuries racism and white supremacy had circled the wagons around the concept of white people, offering promises of acceptance to white passing people, offering promises of acceptance to anyone who kowtowed to whiteness even if they didn’t look white, trying to increase its numbers. They hit a critical mass of numbers in 2024, and are now doing what I’ve been saying they’d do for many, many years once white supremacists and colonizers hit that critical mass: consume everything standing in their path, even if that’s other white people

And, like most overt white supremacists, they’re cowards seeking to dominate others to feel something. 

If you want to support Minneapolis right now, click here.

If you want to stop white supremacy, build community and let these bastards know they are small, pitiful, soulless people who are not welcome here.

Get your weird little hobbies, develop tastes that are uniquely yours, and start doing unglamourous things for your community with outfits that make you feel good and comfort food after to celebrate. The system collapses as soon as people stop trying to get this blood-tained promise—which includes playing hero in huge spectacles. You will never be good enough to be safe, so stop chasing dishonest harmony and start building who you are with the people around you.

(a lot of this post has been influenced by me reading the book White Women Get Ready by Amanda Gross, and Conspirituality by Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, and Julian Walker)

fatheriimaginedyoutaller asked:

Is giving a Jewish protagonist eyes that change colors when she’s using magic reminiscent of any antisemitic trope? To be more specific her eyes change from brown to pupilless black or white depending on what type of magic she’s using. If she’s using “tangible magic” (I.e moving an object with her mind) her eyes will turn white and if she’s using “untangible magic” (I.e reading someone’s else mind) they will turn black.

This sounds like a creative idea and there are no obvious problems jumping out at me. I felt a little bit of discomfort at the suggestion which I think on reflection comes from the similarity to rat eyes: 

(Image above shows a rat with black eyes, no discernible pupils)

But in the context of a well-rounded character, as long as she doesn’t have any other rodent-like features, I’m fine with it.

As usual, I’d ask you to watch out for tropes that can be tied into magic, such as using powers to control wealth, governments or the media.

It’s also worth saying that, from an Orthodox point of view, magic is not allowed as a separate or rival force to Hashem. It would have to be part of Hashem’s power, in the same way that Moses could manipulate animals, rivers, oceans etc using his staff, but this was channeling a miracle rather than performing magic.

-Shoshi

Note: Shoshi used the word “Hashem” above. For those unfamiliar, Jewish tradition has many different names and nicknames for God. “Hashem” is a name that is typical for casual use. It translates literally as “The Name.”  —WWC Jewish team

Are Black characters with wings dehumanizing?

Anonymous asked:

Hey! I have a current fantasy world in which spirits historically each bestowed an ability/power on groups of people around the world to help them, which could then be passed down to children. Most people don’t have abilities, but those who do broadly belong to the same race as others with the same ability, since this was before periods of extensive migration in-universe.

My specific issue is this - I have a few main characters for one story set in another country in this universe, two of whom do not have any ability and are non-Black people of colour. The third is Black and does have an ability, with the lore being that her ancestors and their (all-Black) village were granted feathered wings which she inherited. I didn’t realise it at first, but I’m now concerned about having potentially dehumanised her with this. She is, and is treated as, entirely human, and she is very central to the story, having her own arc - but while I’m not aware of Black people having been compared to birds unfavourably, she does still have a notable non-human trait associated with animals. There isn’t really room for any more main characters, so apart from having minor, ability-less Black characters, I wouldn’t be able to effectively offset this within this story.

It’s become plot-relevant that she can fly, so I’m hesitant to cut her wings entirely. There’s no mention of her or the wings being ‘bird-like’, and I’m thinking of including some non-Black people among the original people given wings and their descendants. If I were to keep this, would there be anything else you’d advise to avoid the insinuation of Black people as more animalistic than other races?

Thank you!

Black characters with wings are fine, in my opinion. It could be very cool and welcome to see a character like this. There are some things to keep in mind.

“I’m thinking of including some non-Black people among the original people given wings and their descendants”

Good idea. My perspective is to:

1. Not single out one group of people with animal or non-human traits without applying it to other groups as well. It doesn’t have to be wings too, but that’s one way to do it (i.e. Non-Black characters that have wings). 
2. Have non-winged, not animal-associated Black characters. Even in a limited cast with a briefly featured character, I think this, and the point above, makes a difference.

Regarding birds specifically: We’ve discussed Black characters and birds in Associating Black Witches with Black Birds

So have a read.

~Colette

A cheating Black queen, Black prince with wings and  fantasy discrimination:

@crowwearingahat asked:

I’m Mexican and my story has two plotlines, one is where a black prince has wings, and is discriminated against because of them. His mother, the queen, had an affair that she wasn’t proud of with someone who had wings. The characters with wings are treated like unpredictable wild types. He takes the throne from her when he realizes that no one would try to stop him due to everyone’s hate for the queen, and she’s imprisoned. I wasn’t sure if the wings, or overall narrative of his story would be a problem.

The wings aren’t the issue. Take care that the bestial and barbaric descriptors do not only apply to characters that have Black characteristics. 

-Norma 

The wings

Since wings are associated with being unpredictable and wild, please make sure that Black people or other People of Color are not the only characters with wings, or a characteristic with similar stereotypes. Also, if he clearly isn’t an unpredictable or “wild” person, in spite of what people might assume, that would help prove that the wings = wild is merely a stereotype. 

The adulterer queen 

I am a bit concerned about this hated queen - there’s a plotline in which a woman, a Black woman in this case, cheats or is the other woman. Due to her actions, she is hated and disgraced. Meanwhile, Kings and men who do the same are not reprimanded harshly, if at all, for their affairs, mistresses, or even for having “bastards.”

The queen did a bad thing, but be mindful not to veer too close to racialized misogyny. It’s fine to have Black characters who are not perfect, likable or even sympathetic. It gets uncomfortable when the narrative harshly punishes (Black) women for their moral crimes to the point that she is dehumanized. Although, the narrative could address the harshness and what might truly motivate it. 

If the people are angrier that she had an affair with a winged person particularly, then you could show that it’s more about who she was with (due to their prejudice) vs. making her out to be an irredeemable, flat character with no defining traits or arc besides being a cheater and a villain of the people. We get that she cheated. Now, I’d also want to know how she rules her land, treats the people around her, deals with diplomacy, etc. 

Just allowing her to be a person beyond a cheater does not mean you’re trying to make her sympathetic. It merely shows us that she’s a human too, and allows readers to feel how they want to feel about the character without being pushed into the direction the author wants them to go (in this case, of passionately resenting her for being a cheater and giving us little else). I personally think it makes for a more interesting story if she isn’t just shown to be this flat villainous person, but someone who has to wake up everyday and rule, while being hated for her mistake, and the resulting actions and emotions that come from that.

On that note: The son clearly has little loyalty to the Queen mother, nor do the people. What makes her winged son someone they can accept as their ruler, assuming they do? 

Thanks for asking!

~Mod Colette

@chickenturtlemonkeytime asked:

I note on your site that using “wooly” to describe Black hair “is generally not acceptable anymore and comes off as dehumanizing due to Animal connotations.” But what would you think of describing a Black girl as “a precocious eight-year-old, with her black curls tied into pigtails that flared like an exploding poodle”? I’m basing this description on a childhood photo of the next American president, Kamala Harris.

We aren’t fans of this comparison. It’s a bit uncomfy, the comparison of a Black girl’s hair to a dog, even if it’s not meant as an insult. Black readers may take it offensively, some might not care, but it’s personally enough to cause pause for us. 

How necessary is this particular comparison? I think it’s meant to convey a child-like, playful nature to her hair. You can do this in other ways without the comparison to dogs or other animals. How about describing the movement? Or simply using non-animal comparisons? 

Some examples:

“Her black curls were tied into pigtails. They bounced as she skipped around the yard”

“Black curls swinging like robes of black licorice around her ears” (btw - it’s okay to compare hair to food, just definitely avoid it for skin!)

“Her black coils swirled around her ears in twin pigtails.”

“Her black curls tied into pigtails that flared like pom poms around her small face”

“Her black braided pigtails danced around her. The colorful beads at the tips clicked to the beat of her skips”

These examples were pretty slapped together, so perhaps you can think of some better ones!

More reading: Ways to describe hair

~Mods Colette and Alice

Commentary

kermitheechalamet said:

in high school a friend once told me that my locks reminded them of a komondor dog (those ones that kinda look like mops) and i know she meant well, but it upset me so bad to be compared to a dog. unless the person specifically welcomes it, such as in the case of fursonas, i would 100% not recommend comparison to animals even if its something you think is cute.

also “exploding poodle” is a weird and kind of horrifying thing to imagine lmao. if you want to use something specifically childlike id go with maybe clouds or dandelions or something