fuckyeahcharacterdevelopment:

No… as far as I’m aware, whitewashing is taking a poc from a pre-established piece of work (be it a novel, film or any other media) and consciously choosing a white performer/character to portray the original in your remake/reinvention or whatever it is you’re doing.

Some people would argue that writing a mixed race character is ‘copping out’ (‘why not write [insert race here] character instead of playing it safe by making them half-white?’, is one discussion I have come across), but other than rejecting that argument entirely, I also don’t believe we can apply it here as,

1. We can’t speculate on the other characters that exist within your work and suggest you aren’t representing poc because as far as we can see, your mixed race character is ONE character out of your entire cast and;
2. I’m pretty sure a good 99% of people who come into our ask box spend more time worrying about being offensive and/or aggravating the SJ community instead of just, you know, writing.

You can write a mixed race main character among an all-white cast. Does that mean you should? Can you think of solid reasons why all of your characters must be white or avoidably one race or the other? It’s something to think about, but NOT something to worry about…!

Consider representation in your writing, but don’t let worry paralyze your creativity. Instead, you should be practical and research. Listen, learn and keep an open mind.

– enlee

Mixed person here, and we’re people too! I personally get super excited when I see mixed race characters in fiction and media. And hey, if you have mixed race characters in an all or mostly white setting, that’s okay! Representation is great for everyone, but sometimes you can end up being the only mixed-race person or non-white person in your group of friends depending on situation or location.

It’s not a cop out, the Tumblr community and a good deal of social justice people just want you to think it is because they want us to say we’re white if we happen to have white ancestry on one side or that we have to pick one ethnicity or the other, without consideration of how we feel about ourselves. And that is incredibly degrading and disheartening. Trust me, I’ve been called white in the snobbish, condescending “I’m better than you because I don’t have white ancestry” kind of way, and I can’t even begin to tell you how hurtful that is. Don’t let people do that to your character(s), either. But, you can give them a bit of a struggle with identity, and that may make it more human and certainly relatable. 🙂

On the other hand, for those of us that have three or more races in the mix, picking an identity isn’t easy and it shouldn’t necessarily be black and white, and it isn’t easy for a lot of mixed race folks. I personally identify as one race when asked about it, but even though I did pick one identifier, I still like to give the other two races in my ancestral smoothie some credit. 

At the end of the day, anon, don’t let pressures from the social justice community get you down. Write, have fun, and let your character show you the way, too. Characters can do a lot if you let them and you’d be surprised at what you can come up with. 🙂