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Cultural Appropriation: can a white writer ever create minority characters?
When is it okay for a white writer to create a black character? For instance, I'm white, but writing an urban fantasy featuring a bi-racial (black mother, absent white father) jazz musician who's down-on-his-luck... because he's a heroin addict like many jazz musicians. It's set in 1978, and (like me back in the late 70s/ early 80s) he's a huge P-Funk fan so he slips P-Funk-isms into his thoughts, like calling the antagonist, a white drug dealer he owes money to, as "Sir Nose d'Voidofunk." My question is, would folks see that as cultural appropriation? I'm interested because I'm a huge social justice progressive and yet often feel stymied by political correctness. My intent is to embrace Jimmy (who I really, really like despite his flaws). In fact, of all the characters in my urban fantasy world, Jimmy's the one most like myself (though I've never tried heroin and am a middling jazz guitarist at best). Thanks in advance. PS. Everyone wins. But in payment, I'll read your most recent work and comment. Please tag me in your comments.

A Question of Appropriation: When is it okay for a white writer to create a black character?

People are always going to find something wrong with everything. Conflict is a social need and people will nitpick everything for an argument. No one can truly please everyone, unfortunately.

My belief is that we need more culturally diverse characters, and that can be contributed to by respectful authors of any background. Yes, there are many things that a writer of the same cultural background as their character can appropriately say that you cannot, but honestly, as long as you aren’t being explicitly racist (which goes without saying) and making sure that you don’t try to make light of/gloss over the injustice that comes with being of a specific race, (although if in your setting that type of discrimination doesn’t exist, that’s alright), I don’t believe that it would be a problem at all. As long as you are respectful towards the subject, people shouldn’t have a problem with it, and if they do, it shouldn’t be your fault.

I know this is pretty much common sense, but much like writing about any experience that you haven’t personally gone through, you can do research to make sure you are informed and realistic, but there’s only so much you can do. If you’ve never truly experienced racism and being discriminated against, your novel probably shouldn’t revolve around that topic specifically, as some may see THAT as cultural appropriation.

Just a thought.