: Re: How do I respectfully write black characters in a 1930s Arizona setting? I'm writing a cartoon script aimed at a children/young-adult audience (similar to the audience of Steven Universe, Gravity

@Si5022468

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To start I will say I find it creditably difficult to write any character that is not my race, gender, age, or religious belief. Any negative trait that the character possess always feels like me making a stereotypical judgement about the entire group. Unfortunately like it or not my book can't be full of nothing but white, male 30 year olds.

So what can we do? First we should imagine all characters as people. If you stereotype someone as 30th man of color, that is what you are going to write. Picking your preferred stereotype does not solve the problem. While a percent of the population are pretty much a cartoon of their stereotype, most people are not. They hold a mix of beliefs. There are plenty of republicans there that accept 90% of the doctrine, but some may dislike guns, others may like abortion, and some may support welfare. In fact having at least one belief that does not match the party doctrine is more typical than fully lining up on all points.

So your characters can be the same way. Grab some ideas from bucket A, some from bucket B. Think about why they hold those ideas. What happen in their life to make them think one way or another. Also use multiple characters to show that there is a spectrum. Some could be happy and belie in the system thinking that it's the best it has ever been for their race in America, others may be pissed off. Show arguments, don't take sides. Let the reader decide who is right and who is wrong.

Your final goal is to not have the reader see the the author. They should see characters moving on their own motivations and beliefs, not some white guy in his 30s explaining his view of the world.

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