: Re: Is it wrong if I kill off a black character? He is one of two supporting characters that die in my screenplay. My wife says I shouldn’t make him black if he’s going to die. Would it

@Eichhorn147

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There are two simple rules when it comes to writing which trump all else:

Always write for the reader (or in this case viewer).
Never let anything get in the way of your writing.

The second rule is what we are dealing with. This rule follows the theory that you should never compromise your writing - even a little - to achieve some other goal. You write the best you can, and you don't let anything get in the way of it.

If your story is best served by killing off a black character, and if changing that character's skin color would harm the story even a little bit, you don't change it. Period. That holds true if the character is black, white, Asian, Caucasian, gay, straight, man, woman, or any other so called 'group'.

Now, will people take offense to it? Certainly. No matter what you do, someone somewhere will take offense to it. That's called writing for the general public. It is literally impossible to do something everyone agrees with. Especially these days.

Don't let those people dictate the quality of your writing. Write for the people who can see past the political haze they surround themselves with, and appreciate the story you are writing, for what it is. Unless you are writing a political story. Then you might need to consider things differently.

Now I understand where you are coming from. With the news the way its going, anyone can make literally anything be racist. You don't want people to miss your story because they're searching for a way to accuse you of being racist.

This is a gray area. You have to determine what community will be reading (or viewing) your screenplay. Are those people likely to see it for what it is? Or are they likely to be so obsessed with today's politics that they latch onto the word 'black' like an over-sized piranha and search desperately for anything they can interpret as racist overtones?

If the majority of your readers are politically-minded, then yes, it might be a good idea to change skin color. You have to balance lessening the power of your story against alienating your readers. If, however, your readers are not necessarily politically-minded, then simply write the strongest story you can.

That's really all there is to it. Best of luck in your endeavors!

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