Since it’s one of the most spoken-about topics at the moment, I thought I’d bring the diversity discussion to ShanniiWrites.
Diversity is an important part of stories because it helps us to represent the real world we live in. It is realistic. It is important. No, it doesn’t need to always be there for some sort of political message.
A black person doesn’t need to be a political statement just to be in a film. It is really disgusting to me when people imply that any minority character in a story has to be some sort of political propaganda. No, we’re people too.
Straight, white, cis and able-bodied isn’t the default state of existence and we need to stop pretending it is.
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Yes! I just wish some authors would realize that.
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I hate when readers say “they only added a black person to add diversity.” NO I added a black person because black people exist?!
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It matters by the individual I’ll say. Because some authors add Asians and other races just for the sake of diversity without giving them an actual personality. However, it doesn’t go for everyone. Theres a difference between adding diversity correctly to adding diversity just for the sake of people complaining.
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That’s true. But so many readers turn all diverse casts into political statements. Maybe we just wanna depict the truth for a change?!
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Hehe. Reminds me of someone. 
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Has anyone seen the way some YouTubers are speaking about diversity in stories? Like it’s a problem that there’s a black character in the new Star Wars trilogy? The last one was bad regardless of his race and it wouldn’t have been any better if he was white
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Some of them are just annoying with that and it exposes how racist they are at times.
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Well, it should be spoken, because it seems like some authors do not even realize the importance of it. More than that - the word “diversity” does not exist in authors’ dictionary! So, until they will realize the importance of diversity, we should speak about it more.
What disappoints me is the fact that some authors see religions as races (which isn’t true at all), so they do not even try to add religions. As you know (and I don’t renew you anything), Jews and Muslims get no representation (same about Christians), and until they finally get representation, authors do not put any effort - the question is: are the same authors even do researches?
I do not know if you have seen the repost that I did about representing Jewish people (the original is Mehasels’, but I added some things), but someone told me that “I can’t be angry or sad if they don’t show them at all”. Well, here is a mistake - I can be if I want to, even more - I have any right to be angry or sad about the fact that my religion gets no representation!! And so others whose religion get no representation. It is so frustrating that some authors make me feel like they don’t care about my religion at all. Like my religion does not exist.
About dark-skinned people (I don’t like to say “black”, so I said “dark-skinned”), do some authors give them an (ethnic) identity? I mean, dark-skinned people can be anything - besides Afro-American, they might be Kenyans, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Somalis - I don’t know, but I hope you can understand what I mean more or less. But, even when authors give some of their story’s dark-skinned characters an identity, they make them Afro-Americans (it’s not that I have any problem with Afro-Americans).
You are very right about it. Why? What are dark-skinned people? Potted plants or rotten eggs? With all due respect, we, the dark-skinned people do exist!
So, for those who think so - do not pretend as if there are only white people and the dark-skinned people do not exist in this world!
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This is all well said! I always say it’s fair enough if someone doesn’t feel comfortable representing a minority group in their story, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that there are groups of people who almost don’t exist in stories!
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I’m tired of people assuming otherwise. I don’t need to be a political statement to exist. Outraged.
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True. I just wanna read a story about my race without it being a political issue
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It’s all about how people perceive straight, white, cisgender people to be the “default” or “normal” MC who’s “for everyone” and then apparently minority MCs are a niche. That’s such a bad attitude to have!
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I don’t like it when people throw in a character who’s not straight/white and give them no personality whatsoever. It’s disappointing when people create stereotypical characters, like the gay best friend who’s really girly and the smart, shy asian girl. It’s even worse when people don’t represent diversity accurately. I’ve seen characters with hijab’s wearing shorts and crop tops, mixed race characters who simply look white and loads more. People should really do some research before deciding to add in some random, bland character for the sake of diversity. Make it natural, straight, white, cis is not the default.
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Definitely this! Bad characterisation is terrible enough when it’s on a character that’s already represented quite well. I’m not sure if it happens more on poorly represented characters or if it’s just more noticeable.
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I agree! I have also seen some ridiculous sign up threads for being a character in someone’s story, and they look somewhat like this:
Hi! I need some people to base my characters off of, here is what/who I need.
- Three black people.
- Four Asian people.
- One gay person.
Some poor Asian person: Hey, could I fill up a spot for one of the Asian people?
Author of post: Sorry, I have enough Asian people.
Like, what do you mean, ‘Enough Asian people?’ You don’t-
It maddens me and makes me laugh from the stupidity of it.
Diversity isn’t a checklist. Nature doesn’t go, ‘okay, there’s enough black people in this world, time for a white one.’
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I don’t get that. Who cares what race you are in real life? That makes no sense!
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