Evening all...
Slightly delicate subject for me to finish the day with, I look forward to seeing what the replies are like in my lunch break tomorrow.
The next project I'm going to write is going to have a plot that involves people comitting credit-card retail fraud. Since this is an area in which I have extensive experience, I feel obliged to 'tell it like it is'.
However, in doing so, I don't want to come across as racist or culturally intolerant. I am going to have the story focus on, other than my main character, three fraudsters, each involved in varying degrees in the scheme and other area's of criminal misdealings.
Now, I could - I suppose - have them all with different ethnic backgrounds, however, I know for a fact that these fraudsters tend to clump together, often I find myself speaking with the same group of people, though they are using different names each time.
Around 90% of the fraud we receive is not committed by (and I say this not to be racist or controversial, but because I know it to be true) White British people.
Most are people who have come into the country illegally and need to steal to get by. The remaining 10% of the fraud is the occasional dodgy delivery driver and the opportunist fraudsters who usually only do it as a one off because some mug left his wallet on the bar when he left.
Problem is, in this day and age, you can't say anything anymore without fear of offending somebody, so I wanted to ask: Is it right for me to have a group of criminal characters from African or Islamic origins?
I want to write something gritty and real. What I don't want is to piss people off by saying, 'look what these horrible layabout foreigners are doing to the honest hardworking white-man'.
I hope I'm making sense, It's late and I didn't sleep well last night... But I'd appreciate any and all insight into this issue and look forward to reading them tomorrow.
Thanks in advance,
Rob.
Slightly delicate subject for me to finish the day with, I look forward to seeing what the replies are like in my lunch break tomorrow.
The next project I'm going to write is going to have a plot that involves people comitting credit-card retail fraud. Since this is an area in which I have extensive experience, I feel obliged to 'tell it like it is'.
However, in doing so, I don't want to come across as racist or culturally intolerant. I am going to have the story focus on, other than my main character, three fraudsters, each involved in varying degrees in the scheme and other area's of criminal misdealings.
Now, I could - I suppose - have them all with different ethnic backgrounds, however, I know for a fact that these fraudsters tend to clump together, often I find myself speaking with the same group of people, though they are using different names each time.
Around 90% of the fraud we receive is not committed by (and I say this not to be racist or controversial, but because I know it to be true) White British people.
Most are people who have come into the country illegally and need to steal to get by. The remaining 10% of the fraud is the occasional dodgy delivery driver and the opportunist fraudsters who usually only do it as a one off because some mug left his wallet on the bar when he left.
Problem is, in this day and age, you can't say anything anymore without fear of offending somebody, so I wanted to ask: Is it right for me to have a group of criminal characters from African or Islamic origins?
I want to write something gritty and real. What I don't want is to piss people off by saying, 'look what these horrible layabout foreigners are doing to the honest hardworking white-man'.
I hope I'm making sense, It's late and I didn't sleep well last night... But I'd appreciate any and all insight into this issue and look forward to reading them tomorrow.
Thanks in advance,
Rob.
