Sunday, April 10, 2011

Why Jensen Isn't Black ...

My sister asked me this question. And the answer is ... drumroll please ...
Jensen is not synonymous with Kimberly. Seriously, it's just that simple. Jensen is exactly who she needs to be, which is other. Now, if I ever decide to write my memoir, I can assure you that Kimberly will be black lol.

But it kind of bothered me when she asked that. I never thought it would be an issue because it's fiction, not my life story. But now I'm wondering if people will be put off because Jensen's skin doesn't match mine.

This is all based off of the book cover of course, which I love. It matches a particular scene perfectly. But it just made me wonder, should you only write stories about characters of your own race? Am I wrong to write about faeries because I'm not one? Where is a confused emoticon when I need one? All I have for now is this :/

4 comments:

  1. The good thing about writing is that you're allowed to do anything. If Caucasian people can write novels with African protagonists, what's the problem in the opposite?
    Don't worry about that. Your MC is who she needs to be. :)
    - EEV

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  2. I'll go you one, better, Kimberly: I'm a middle-aged black woman, and my two viewpoint characters are white, 14-year-old boys. ;)

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  3. Eev - That's how I always felt, but hearing my sister question it bothered me. *shrugs*

    Anonymous - I smiled reading this and it makes me feel better knowing I'm not the only one who thinks we should about to write what we want. Respectfully of course.

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  4. I love that you posted this, because I have been struggling with the EXACT same thing. (Although I've found this post a little late lol). The main character in my series is not black either and have faced the same question. I don't think I handled it as well as you did though, because I went through a period of re-evaluating everything I've done up to this point. Had to realize that I can't make my characters (who are real ppl in my mind) be something that they're not just because of a few comments. Thanks for posting this!

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