: Re: It seems safer to make everyone white then to be accused of 'racism' if I I make any of my pre-written cultures a different race I'm writing fantasy stories in different worlds which do not

@Ogunnowo420

Vote Up Vote Down

Some people will always find ways to be offended in what is written and will accuse you of racism, and that's a fact. This can potentially happen regardless of your efforts, so, just ignore them.

It seems to me that you are already being enough considerate of the themes you are going to write about. Arguably, the colonization scenario where A meets B and they are overall tricked by another C group is the more "risky", since colonization is still an issue in many countries, and its effects are still linger today. But stories (and video games) need to talk about touchy themes. As long as you are considerate, avoiding harmful myths like the "savages in good touch with mother nature" or the "enlightened colonizers", you should be ok.

As you mentioned the other setting is less related to race, yet there is no reason to avoid racial issues completely (as the Kingdom could be majority A and the republic majority B), but it's fine if things are mixed up. As J.D. Ray mentions, diversity comes also in culture, costumes and habits, so just remember to use that as well.

I'll drop here an example of a videogame that does both: Bastion from Supergiant Games. The two main factions in the history of the game are Caelondians (olive-skinned, white-haired people) and Uras (white-skinned, dark-haired). You can easily tell them apart due to their clothes, also: Caelondians wear western-style clothes, while Uras have wear a somewhat middle-eastern clothing. To be fair, while the protagonist (the kid on the right side of the image) is Caelondian, it doesn't seem to me that any of the races has been given a poor representation.

In my opinion, while it's good to ask difficult questions about difficult themes like racial diversity, this shouldn't be the focus of an author. If it doesn't make sense with your setting, you shouldn't force racial diversity just for chasing political correctness. In many cases, it like chasing a ghost.

(0)

Login to post a comment!