: 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

@Connie138

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Don't avoid entire groups of people because you don't know how to write them. Learn how to write them. It's part of becoming a writer. You must learn how to get inside the heads of people who aren't like you.

Do this by getting to know people who are different from you (in a million different ways). Spend time in places you might not ordinarily go. Pay more attention in places you are regularly in. Join groups in real life and online. Read. Read some more. Read blogs and novels and essays and articles. Grab some theme-based anthologies from the library and see how a couple dozen people from the same target group approach a similar theme in a couple dozen ways.

For every character, create a backstory. Don't use it directly in the work, but use it to inform your writing of this character. Even if they are there for just a moment. The backstory need not be elaborate, or even written down. Just something to make the person unique.

Think about your evoking the awful stereotype of "happy darkies"...think about the human beings in one of those settings. Even Gone with the Wind if you know it well enough. Don't try to remember actual characters, just the people that might have been there.

Okay, they're all black and living in X year and Y place...but how are they different? Not just age, gender, marital status, parental status, and so on. Not just job, social class, educational level, etc. But their hopes and dreams. Their hobbies. The chores they hate the most and why. Who their friends are. Which family members don't they speak to?

I'm not suggesting you engage in hours of research to come up with full backgrounds for 20 characters when you're just planning to have a 2 minute scene where 3 people have a single line each. But this sort of thinking is what's going to get you past the stereotypes and infuse your writing with the reality of American life (international life can come later).

Black people in 1930's Arizona will...exist. Some will be ***holes. Some will be lovely. Some will be college professors and some will be janitors. Just like anyone else. There will be some cultural shared experiences and that's what you need to learn about. It's not enough to say "write them like normal people" or something. You need to know the place and time you're dealing with. So research that and work your characterization around and through it.

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