Is my premise racist?

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Heather Lazarus

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I'm writing a mystery novel which will take place in California. I'm planning to have the murder be related to a drug ring connected to a school. I have a white MC. I'm worried that if my criminals are PoC, I will offend some readers. The last post I saw here was in 2017, and I have to admit that I feel the climate has changed since then... This might seem like I'm being rather obtuse, but since I don't live in the United States, I really am a little blind to the present realities...
Can anyone give me any advice?
 
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cornflake

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I'm writing a mystery novel which will take place in California. I'm planning to have the murder be related to a drug ring connected to a school. I have a white MC. I'm worried that if my criminals are PoC, I will offend some readers. The last post I saw here was in 2017, and I have to admit that I feel the climate has changed since then... This might seem like I'm being rather obtuse, but since I don't live in the United States, I really am a little blind to the present realities...
Can anyone give me any advice?

Why are the criminals all PoC? Why is the MC white?
 

PyriteFool

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Coming at this from a white, American perspective, I can almost guarantee that this set up will read as racist to a segment of readers (myself included).

Why are the criminals all PoC? Why is the MC white?

This about sums it up.
 

Heather Lazarus

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Well, the MC will hopefully be running through a series of books, and I have a clear idea of who I want her to be. Her love interest would be a PoC, but in this first book he's more of a secondary character. I had hoped to place the action in Oakland, California, in an inner city school. The areas I'm thinking about have established gangs there, and are predominantly PoC. I could change the crime entirely and avoid the issue, and I guess that's my question. Can a white writer write a mystery with a white MC and have PoC criminals in 2019?
 

KBooks

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Is there a reason you want the MC to be white and the criminals POC? (Oakland USD is only 10% white, btw.) I would find it quite problematic for you to make the plucky crime fighter white, and all the gang members she catches POC.
 
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lizmonster

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Well, the MC will hopefully be running through a series of books, and I have a clear idea of who I want her to be. Her love interest would be a PoC, but in this first book he's more of a secondary character. I had hoped to place the action in Oakland, California, in an inner city school. The areas I'm thinking about have established gangs there, and are predominantly PoC. I could change the crime entirely and avoid the issue, and I guess that's my question. Can a white writer write a mystery with a white MC and have PoC criminals in 2019?

You can write whatever you want, and you can also expect readers to call you out on issues like racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. This is the consequence of putting your work out into the world.

I'm an Old White Lady, but yeah, I'm side-eyeing that description. It's all in the execution, but "inner-city gangs" is an old trope that's often executed poorly, especially by white writers.

I'd also say, especially if you've never lived in the US, that culturally-ingrained racism is different here than it is in other parts of the world. If your story is going to deal with racial issues (and given the premise I can't imagine it could avoid them), you're going to need to do a lot of research to get the nuances right.

Like eqb says, it's not a 2019 issue. It's a realism issue.
 

Heather Lazarus

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Well, I want to thank you all. This has been super helpful. I tried to pitch it well, but you all have voiced what I had been worrying about. My MC is a retired teacher, and I had hoped to have had her work in an inner city school in the past, and I can see that it’s a minefield. I don’t plan to scrap the whole idea, but I think I will place her in a fictional town, and I’ll keep my problem kids white.
 

kuwisdelu

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How many of the PoC in your novel are criminals?

How many other PoC are in your novel as major characters?
 

eqb

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How many of the PoC in your novel are criminals?

How many other PoC are in your novel as major characters?

Excellent point. It's not so much that you've made POC criminals, but whether you've added lots of other POC who are not.

Making all your characters white is one solution, I guess, but you could also work to make the whole cast more diverse.
 

Heather Lazarus

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Of course there are other characters, victims, mentors, friends etc... which would be PoC. The main villian would be not be white but another evil character would be... But I agree with KBooks that it might make it difficult for my plucky white woman to run around getting information. Plus it would be really tempting to delve into her own prejudices and base her character arc on that, but then I think that might deter from what otherwise would be more of a cozy mystery... I can’t tell you all how helpful this has been, to be able to hash out ideas here...
 

Kat M

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Well, I want to thank you all. This has been super helpful. I tried to pitch it well, but you all have voiced what I had been worrying about. My MC is a retired teacher, and I had hoped to have had her work in an inner city school in the past, and I can see that it’s a minefield. I don’t plan to scrap the whole idea, but I think I will place her in a fictional town, and I’ll keep my problem kids white.

Is the setting of your story the same neighborhood/city the MC used to work at?

There's this stereotype of gang/drug problems being a city issue, but it can happen in the suburbs, too. I teach at a suburban school that is 50% white and we run into drug issues all the time (gangs, less so) from people of all races. You will need to research your area, though, as the suburbs, particularly the lower-income ones, are getting more and more diverse and you'll want your racial makeup of characters to ring true.

You might still run into issues of class, but if you did your research you could sidestep the racial issue. Which I *highly* advise you do, as tensions are still very high and very open in the United States, and I don't see that changing in the near future.
 

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You shouldn't worry about things like that. There are people who will call you a racist if the criminals are poc, but also if you feature more whites in order to make them the criminals. There are a group of people for whom "being outraged" is now a life pursuit. And if someone wants to be outraged, there is literally nothing you can do to keep that from happening. They'll find an excuse. So don't write for them, ever. Write the story you want. Do it well, and you will gain fans. Real ones.

As for your premise, I think it sounds great. A teacher working in the inner city and solving crime would be a unique twist on the usual story of the put-upon teacher in the inner city. Should the criminals be mostly poc? In that setting, how could they be anything else? It's not even about racism, it's about what makes sense. A story about the inner city where somehow the gangs are full of white kids in polo shirts? It's so out of touch with reality that people would simply be confused. Stick with what you've got. And, as I said, do not worry about the outrage mob.They're loud, but small, meaningless, and certainly disingenuous.

Good luck with the book!
 

cornflake

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You shouldn't worry about things like that. There are people who will call you a racist if the criminals are poc, but also if you feature more whites in order to make them the criminals. There are a group of people for whom "being outraged" is now a life pursuit. And if someone wants to be outraged, there is literally nothing you can do to keep that from happening. They'll find an excuse. So don't write for them, ever. Write the story you want. Do it well, and you will gain fans. Real ones.

As for your premise, I think it sounds great. A teacher working in the inner city and solving crime would be a unique twist on the usual story of the put-upon teacher in the inner city. Should the criminals be mostly poc? In that setting, how could they be anything else? Uhm, what? I live right here in the inner city, and I've heard tell tale of white criminals. It's not even about racism, it's about what makes sense. A story about the inner city where somehow the gangs are full of white kids in polo shirts? I feel like you're missing the point. First, gangs are kind of specific. My inner city is not so much with the gangs. However, there are gangs of all stripes, and just saying 'well there's a drug ring, so it's a gang, so it's PoC, doesn't make sense. You know who sells more drugs? White folks. More than 30% more likely to sell than black folks, among those aged 12-25. Soooo...yeah, drug dealers? White kids in polo shirts.

It's so out of touch with reality that people would simply be confused. Stick with what you've got. And, as I said, do not worry about the outrage mob.They're loud, but small, meaningless, and certainly disingenuous.

Good luck with the book!

If someone wants to write a book they hope to trade publish, it's only wise to consider whether it's premise, or major plot points, will hamper that possibility. The OP asked for a good reason, and while of course anyone is free to write whatever they like, that doesn't mean anyone will rep it or buy it.

Making the drug dealers the PoC who are also in a gang while the MC who runs around saving people/investigating is white is going to read as racist, and that's not likely to sell.
 
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Helix

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You shouldn't worry about things like that. There are people who will call you a racist if the criminals are poc, but also if you feature more whites in order to make them the criminals. There are a group of people for whom "being outraged" is now a life pursuit. And if someone wants to be outraged, there is literally nothing you can do to keep that from happening. They'll find an excuse. So don't write for them, ever. Write the story you want. Do it well, and you will gain fans. Real ones.

As for your premise, I think it sounds great. A teacher working in the inner city and solving crime would be a unique twist on the usual story of the put-upon teacher in the inner city. Should the criminals be mostly poc? In that setting, how could they be anything else? It's not even about racism, it's about what makes sense. A story about the inner city where somehow the gangs are full of white kids in polo shirts? It's so out of touch with reality that people would simply be confused. Stick with what you've got. And, as I said, do not worry about the outrage mob.They're loud, but small, meaningless, and certainly disingenuous.

Good luck with the book!

Mate, you might want to have a look at which section of the forum you're in. hth
 

ap123

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If you don't want to be offensive, yes, you should ask these questions/think about these issues when planning, writing, and editing your mss. There's a big broad field in between offending nobody and being offensive/racist.

Do your research, and work to portray your characters in as sensitive and authentic ways as possible. If any of your characters read as stereotypes, back to the keyboard.

*For the record, a white teacher working in the inner city and solving crimes is not a never-been-done-before plot. Doesn't mean it can't/shouldn't be done--everything's been done before ;) , but it isn't unheard of. My youngest's middle school math teacher has a (reasonably current) crime fiction series using this premise.
 

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If your white MC is solving problems her PoC students and community can't solve themselves, then yes, you're teetering on the edge of White Savior Complex-land.

ETA: I don't know if you've seen Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs, but it makes this same error. It's set in Japan, with a largely Japanese sensibility and cast of characters, but the catalyst character is a white female exchange student. She galvanizes her passive Japanese classmates into action, and even goes so far as to slap a Japanese scientist to make her see the light. I liked the film but couldn't swallow that aspect of it.
 
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If your white MC is solving problems her PoC students and community can't solve themselves, then yes, you're teetering on the edge of White Savior Complex-land.

I also have to advise serious rethinking of the book idea. Race is a extremely sensitive topic in America today. Even an ambiguous gesture such as a governor's wife giving students pieces of cotton can be (and is) taken the wrong way.

If you were a well-known right-wing figure, say Laura Ingraham or Ann Coulter, writing non-fiction, the fact of being perceived as racist wouldn't stop your book being published. Also, if you were writing something such as The Turner Diaries, a super-bigoted novel which became a hit with members of the far right, you could possibly make it (if you were willing to go that route). Fiction by an unknown individual that comes off as moderately racist is likely dead on arrival though.
 
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There have been two YA books that came close to release that were pulled by the authors over fears that they handled racial issues badly. A Place for Thieves by Kosoko Jackson and Wen Zhao’s Blood Heir. I am frankly astonished that they got that far and then realized there was a problem. So much better to find out by testing the waters in a forum like this. Wouldn't you think publishers and agents would be able to intervene earlier too?
 

Heather Lazarus

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I also have to advise serious rethinking of the book idea. Race is a extremely sensitive topic in America today. Even an ambiguous gesture such as a governor's wife giving students pieces of cotton can be (and is) taken the wrong way.

This was exactly why I was originally worried. I wasn't planning on writing a white saviour book, but just my orignial set up had me worried. In fact, I was toying with the idea that if I as a writer can easily be unintentionally racist, maybe it would be interesting for my MC to discover the same about herself, despite her good intentions. I have decided there are two problems with that, 1) I'm not sure I will end up doing the PoC characters justice, and 2) I think it might overshadow what is supposed to be a rather light murder mystery. It's easy enough for me to go in a different direction, which is what I think I'll do.
 

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This was exactly why I was originally worried. I wasn't planning on writing a white saviour book, but just my orignial set up had me worried. In fact, I was toying with the idea that if I as a writer can easily be unintentionally racist, maybe it would be interesting for my MC to discover the same about herself, despite her good intentions. I have decided there are two problems with that, 1) I'm not sure I will end up doing the PoC characters justice, and 2) I think it might overshadow what is supposed to be a rather light murder mystery. It's easy enough for me to go in a different direction, which is what I think I'll do.

What if you set your book where you currently live? Not that we can't write outside our own experiences, but with this one, you might have trouble if you're not familiar with the US.

Because the premise of teacher solves mysteries sounds really promising.
 

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I think it might overshadow what is supposed to be a rather light murder mystery.
I think you might be right. Drugs, gangs and social issues don't sound like fodder for a 'light' or 'cozy' mystery. IMHO, if you want it to be 'light', you've got to avoid the heavy stuff. And, if you're using an inner-city setting, with a white woman saving POC, and avoid the heavy stuff, people are going to say you're white-washing.

But, there are lots of variations. She might be retired from an inner-city school, have moved to a 'nicer' fancier area, and discovers the same problems there. Her knowledge might give her insights that the small (because it's so 'peaceful') police department doesn't have.
She's retired - maybe she's started her retirement by travelling (you're in Spain?), local colour, and, again, some things are universal.

(You might try it later in the series, once people are attached to your detective, and know more about her.)
 
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Heather Lazarus

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I think you might be right. Drugs, gangs and social issues don't sound like fodder for a 'light' or 'cozy' mystery. IMHO, if you want it to be 'light', you've got to avoid the heavy stuff. And, if you're using an inner-city setting, with a white woman saving POC, and avoid the heavy stuff, people are going to say you're white-washing.

But, there are lots of variations. She might be retired from an inner-city school, have moved to a 'nicer' fancier area, and discovers the same problems there. Her knowledge might give her insights that the small (because it's so 'peaceful') police department doesn't have.
She's retired - maybe she's started her retirement by travelling (you're in Spain?), local colour, and, again, some things are universal.

(You might try it later in the series, once people are attached to your detective, and know more about her.)
You’ve given me a lot of food for thought! The truth is she is retired and has moved elsewhere, but I hadn’t originally wanted to place a crime in her town for the first book. You’re making me rethink that- I could slot this premise for a later book.
Eqb suggested setting the series in Spain, but I feel that the constant cultural differences would be distracting. A trip to Spain could be fun, but again, for a later book.
I just feel so lucky to be able to bounce these things off you all! I would like to say you’ve saved me hours of anguish, but I have a feeling that the input I’ve received here has saved the series! Thanks again!
 

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I think you have to figure that the first book sort of 'sets the tone' for the rest. If you're generally going to set your stories in her new town, better to set the first story there. If you're going to be moving around a lot, indicate that in the first story: ie, 'she had retired, finally she could travel to her heart's content. But she would need a home-base. A nice quiet place where she could leave her stuff for weeks and not expect to be burgled.'
Then, you're open to small-town mysteries, or road-trip mysteries. But, if you start with gritty inner-city stories, people will expect more of the same. (Sliding one in later, when people are more used to/fond of her, will be a trip into her past.)
 
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