Discussion: Sick of Authors Looking For Reasons Why Not Include Diversity 😒

The Hangout Discuss
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Where to begin :thinking:? Excuses. Excuses, excuses, and excuses everywhere - sighing. Frankly, I am soo sick of authors trying to make ridiculous excuses why not include diversity. You know the so-known excuses? I have seen many people justifying them not adding diversity by saying that they don’t represent (insert religion/race/sexuality) because they “have never seen ones, so they can’t represent them properly”, or they don’t know a (again, insert religion/race/sexuality) one. Like, really? Just because you don’t know or have never seen, you can’t show them in your story? Save it :roll_eyes:. Today, we have what is called internet and you can do an action, which is called “research”. You can find great articles that can explain very good about what you want to represent (as long as the written things aren’t based on stereotype).
You can also ask people who know about a certain (insert religion/race/sexuality, etc). It makes your research be more helpful.
No diversity makes a story look so unrealistic, if you ask me :roll_eyes::unamused:. All I can see in many stories is many characters that are the same. :roll_eyes:
The whole thing is pathetic and silly. What annoys me is after them making excuses, they come with their nasty attitude and claim that people are whining. Excuse you? With all due respect, people have any right to ask for representation and expect them to add diversity. So, you say that you don’t want to do so? Then, I say that people have any right to be angry and sad for you not caring about them. So, do yourselves (and other people) a favor and take your nasty attitude to another address!

Another absurd excuses that I heard from a user: “When I will see in your stories Serbs and presented as they really are, then I’ll think of adding more diversity in my stories.” Like, who even said that people ask for diversity by representing a specific ethnic group? And that’s not the point of diversity. Besides, it’s not like the person is doing anyone else a favor by not wanting to represent other religions and racial groups just because people don’t represent Serbians. Jeez… :unamused:

I am not saying that we should point a gun at those authors who don’t diverse and make them add diversity, not at all. But, what I am trying to say is, if you don’t want to add diversity, then don’t, but don’t come and try to make excuses.
I’ll just put it this way: some authors don’t add diversity, either because they dislike the whole idea of diversity or they are just afraid of not getting many reads. I don’t know.

All I want to tell them is:

Just spare me your excuses :anger::rage:!!

What about you guys? What is the most ridiculous and absurd excuse you have ever heard or seen? (Doesn’t make sense that I an the only one who is fed up with the excuses that many authors make)

Note: Please keep the comments respectful. Everyone has their own opinions, and I am stating my own. And no inappropriate language.

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“ThErE iS nO dIvErSiTy WhErE i LiVe”
I hate that excuse so much. So you’re saying that everyone in the the country or city that you live in is exactly the same as you? :unamused: yeah right.
I mean fine I get it, you don’t want to include any diversity and we can’t force you to do. But just say that instead of making up stupid excuses

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These are the same people claiming they don’t see race. :rofl:

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Exactly.

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It’s ridiculous to think diversity is unrealistic in any setting. Diversity can be so many things, such as religion, race, sexuality, disability, etc. etc.

If your country doesn’t have a lot of racial or religious diversity, you can be damn sure it has people with disabilities or of different sexualities. Then you get the people who set stories in places like London and don’t realise how diverse large cities are. They have almost every kind of diversity. People of different religions, sexualities, many different physical and mental disabilities, different cultures, ethnicities, races, everything under the sun.

So enough of the excuses, people. Let’s just call it what it is. Bigotry. Racism, homophobia, ableism. Call it like it is

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Fantasy authors. They have every mythical creature in their stories BUT people of color, etc. :woman_facepalming:t4:

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Yeah, even though you have the perfect setting to have as many different races as you want and NOT HAVE TO EXPLAIN IT

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This also goes for Episode authors who do fantasy. They do a lot of race coding but say that they’re not people of color…:face_with_raised_eyebrow: Or inspired by them…

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And races have religion. About the authors who write fantasy, just because fantasy isn’t realistic, it doesn’t mean that they can’t make their stories look realistic at some points.

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Really? :woman_facepalming:t4::woman_facepalming:t4:

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As a fantasy author, fantasy authors annoy me the most. So you’re telling me that your medieval-style world has dragons and warlocks, but black people are too unrealistic?

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Of course they are.

And it’s too much effort to add in religious allegories that aren’t massively disrespectful to everyone and their mothers, of course

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Bad Boy Bachelor had a Jewish Mc. And it’s a featured Episode story. :relieved:

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I have to be honest: when it comes to religion, it’s much harder. I have all of these Jewish and Muslim and Sikh etc characters in my story and people never find out because people don’t walk around saying “Hi! I’m Jewish and my name is Mazal” I do try to add things like mentions of Ramadan etc though

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I hope that the way they dress gives away my more devout characters, but I think that people assume anyone wearing a headscarf is Muslim :grimacing: so it probably looks like i have 12 Muslim characters and no other religion represented

Idk if she looks Jewish

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I add Voodoo/black magic lol. It does have some doing with Christianity. People have said others do get offended by it–like from Disney movies doing it.

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It’s hard to do right, especially for Christians because the Bible condemns magic. It’s not impossible, though

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So, maybe you can also make a scene when a character says, for instance “next week I will be with my family for Hanukkah” (if the character is Jewish). And if the character is Muslim, then you can make a scene when the MC meet a Muslim character and he/she offers a cup of tea, for instance, and the other says that he/she can’t, because he/she are fasting", and the MC asks why, and the character says that it is Ramadan.
I am just giving options for a way to metion that the character is Jewish/Muslim.

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I have a character who says “I can’t come out tomorrow. It’s the Sabbath and I’m going to be with my family (not the same story)” So I’ll see how people react to that when it comes out :stuck_out_tongue:

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