âI donât know how write___â
Even with research, itâs not that hard. Sometimes the âresearchâ is just common sense e.g black people tend to have textured hair â this hair is different to straight hair and requires different treatment â maybe you should edit your scenes where the MC washes her hair. POC are not any different to anyone else. Google is free people!
âIâm scared Iâll do it wrong and Iâll offend peopleâ
Unless you write a literal caricature, youâve got nothing to be scared of. POC are human. Again, Google is free!
âMy story has nothing to do with raceâ
POCâs purpose in stories isnât just to address race issues. Of course, racism, colourism, police brutality, slavery etc. are all very important, but POC are more than just their history. POCâs experiences do include racism but if you take that away, we still have our own hopes, fears and motivations which deserve to be told just like everyone elseâs.
âDiversity wouldnât work in my storyâ
âŚso black people canât slay dragons, solve mysteries, date people, find ghosts and save the world just like everyone else?
âBut [Insert Western Country Here] is mostly whiteâŚâ
The keyword here is mostly . It doesnât matter how many 70%s and 80%s you state - weâre still here! Areas within these predominantly white countries (such as my borough in good olâ East London) are full of POC but so many London based shows, books and movies love to pretend that these areas donât exist. The âmajority rulesâ argument doesnât make sense once you apply it to other minorities - redheads are a minority and yet they get representation. Blue eyes are a minority and yet they get representation.
Also âmostly whiteâ doesnât mean no one is LGBT, has disabilities, has mental illnesses, has different religions, speaks different languagesâŚ
âStop forcing people to write diversityâ
No one is âforcingâ anything. Itâs a suggestion. If you want to leave out certain groups then go ahead but you made your bed. If the idea of writing a character with a slightly darker skin tone than yours makes you feel that defensive, then you need to evaluate your biases 
âDiversity would be unrealistic for my story because itâs set in [commonly mistaken historical time period thought to be all-white because the POC are left out of the history textbooks]â
And again, Google is free! POC (more specifically black people) have a history that consists of more than just slavery and civil rights. Itâs not that hard to imagine one dark-skinned person in the whole of medieval Europe.
âDiversity would be unrealistic for my story because itâs set in [Insert Fantasy/Sci-fi Setting Here]â
âŚso itâs possible to have flying cars, dragons, aliens and magic but not POC? K.
âBut I donât see colour thoughâ
Then how and why are you leaving out groups of people based on their skin colour? Make it make sense!
âIâm ___ and Iâm not complaining about diversityâ
I used to be this person Iâm so sorry
** âWho cares about what colour the characters are? Race doesnât matter!â
I mean⌠it matters to the millions of POC growing up thinking they arenât good enough in fiction as well as real life, the people whose only exposure to POC is through media, the POC whoâve been stereotyped due to poor representation, the POC who are told they canât do something because their race has never been shown doing the thing they want to do, the POC writers who want to work behind the scenes to ensure theyâre represented correctly and the black kids who struggle to dress up every World Book Day because they canât name a single black book character⌠but go off I guessâŚ
That excuse is one of the excuses that I really donât like to hear. It canât prove anything, but their being close-minded. What makes someone an author is being open to different things, changes and ideas. Not saying âletâs point a gun on them and make them include diversityâ, no. But if diversity isnât included, then itâll only show that all the characters are the same.
Iâm Puerto Rican, so I rep mi gente.
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