: Re: Should we avoid having a protagonist of a different ethnicity than ours if we don't know anything about their culture? Let's say I am thinking about making an Indian protagonist who lives in

The simplest answer is: Research.

There is no justification for not doing the research. If you know nothing of the culture, don't use it. If you want to use it, go learn about it. You are very highly likely to offend by having a character whose cultural heritage you are in the dark on. You are also very likely to need to rely on stereotypes to get you through the murkier bits of character development. Those stereotypes will almost unequivocally be offensive. And lastly, without understanding the culture your character will likely be inauthentic and flat (the least of your worries though.)

This can all be assuaged with research. Learn about the culture and then you can consider writing about it (with tact.) There is no excuse for not being willing to put in the effort to learn about a people before you have the audacity to write about them as if you knew them.

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: Re: Should we avoid having a protagonist of a different ethnicity than ours if we don't know anything about their culture? Let's say I am thinking about making an Indian protagonist who lives in

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