My name is Sky and I am a mixed-race person born in America. My mother was adopted from a foreign country at a young age to a Dutch family, meaning we were both effectively "raised white" with basically no cultural connection to our ethnicity. We have no accent, no particular foods or traditions (or at least not Asian ones), our race is virtually irrelevant to our lives.
I'm writing a book about an ethnically half-Filipino man. I live in a very liberal and diverse part of the United States, and my book is set there.
My character's race is not mentioned until halfway through the book, and it doesn't factor into his worldview except to make it match my own more closely. I'm not making him a token minority, I'm simply portraying him as I imagine him.
But I'm worried that people will accuse me of making him Filipino for the sake of having a poc narrator, and then not putting in the effort to study his culture and portray it appropriately. I'm worried people will think I'm simply projecting the "white culture" or whatever buzz word people are using.
I feel I'm writing the world as I see it, but I know many people won't believe that. Would it be ultimately better to just make the character white and avoid the whole issue, as I'm not adding anything to the "poc" conversation other than that some people are not affected by their race?
I'm writing a book about an ethnically half-Filipino man. I live in a very liberal and diverse part of the United States, and my book is set there.
My character's race is not mentioned until halfway through the book, and it doesn't factor into his worldview except to make it match my own more closely. I'm not making him a token minority, I'm simply portraying him as I imagine him.
But I'm worried that people will accuse me of making him Filipino for the sake of having a poc narrator, and then not putting in the effort to study his culture and portray it appropriately. I'm worried people will think I'm simply projecting the "white culture" or whatever buzz word people are using.
I feel I'm writing the world as I see it, but I know many people won't believe that. Would it be ultimately better to just make the character white and avoid the whole issue, as I'm not adding anything to the "poc" conversation other than that some people are not affected by their race?