Their developing relationship feels like another dimension of the story. I imagine he's coming across to Lili as pretty normal. But this, "She might’ve sensed my awkwardness in our first meeting and arranged Eric as a test to see how I’d react. She knows he spoke to me, because she told him what to say." (a paranoid conviction with no basis) and the unwanted thoughts continue. His competitive suppositions about Eric could just be the natural jealousy he alluded to or an aspect of his paranoia. I think it was brave of you to go down this route of a relationship story with a Black girl, touching on some of the fetishizing and social cultural inheritance than can complicate hook-ups as well as committed relationships. I am curious about what conscious motivation you had for deciding Lili would be Black but I'm happy to wait till I've read much more, because then I'm sure I'll be able to make more sense of your answer.
Please don't feel discomforted by the question though. There are zero white people in my novel - but hey, it's Trinidad - with a white population of less than 1%, unlike the US Black population of about 20%. On the other hand, the characters I do have don't reflect the Trinidad population exactly either. It's a very multi-racial and mixed up place and with a small cast of characters, it's easy to not be all-inclusive.
I'm not discomforted at all by the question. The only discomfort here came in writing this in the first place, so I do appreciate your encouraging comments.
Listing what's true and what's fictional would taint the reading experience, but I can say column A is much larger than column B… So it wasn't a decision to make Lili Black, but rather a decision to include this experience. It's so much more specific and impactful than making up an easier-to-swallow example of unwanted thoughts.
Of course I was scared of backlash and being taken out of context—which could totally still happen—but so far the only readers to suggest I cut or tone down this aspect were white. One was a beta reader with Tourette’s syndrome who said they didn’t think other readers would understand the concept of unwanted thoughts.
Hey, thanks for that. A friend of mine wrote a trilogy which culminates in around 2082 or so, in white supremacists attempting to eliminate everyone else. Though my friend looks white, her actual heritage is mixed, so she too would have been eliminated in this world. Of interest, the white supremacists are a KEW (Kingdom of England and Wales) alliance with the USA. I can’t recall who Canada and Australia were aligned with in the story. Anyway, my friend points out to me that only white readers suggested she temper down the extreme racism and genocidal ideology of the white supremacists. People of colour were like, ‘Yeah, we could totally see this happening. Write it because it’s honest.’ The dystopian sci-fi trilogy is called The Beautiful Ones and is inspired by concerns about overpopulation.
He probably doesn’t even like her paintings!
I’m on board for how this is starting to get out of hand.
Good, because it gets worse!
Thanks for reading, Alex!
Their developing relationship feels like another dimension of the story. I imagine he's coming across to Lili as pretty normal. But this, "She might’ve sensed my awkwardness in our first meeting and arranged Eric as a test to see how I’d react. She knows he spoke to me, because she told him what to say." (a paranoid conviction with no basis) and the unwanted thoughts continue. His competitive suppositions about Eric could just be the natural jealousy he alluded to or an aspect of his paranoia. I think it was brave of you to go down this route of a relationship story with a Black girl, touching on some of the fetishizing and social cultural inheritance than can complicate hook-ups as well as committed relationships. I am curious about what conscious motivation you had for deciding Lili would be Black but I'm happy to wait till I've read much more, because then I'm sure I'll be able to make more sense of your answer.
Please don't feel discomforted by the question though. There are zero white people in my novel - but hey, it's Trinidad - with a white population of less than 1%, unlike the US Black population of about 20%. On the other hand, the characters I do have don't reflect the Trinidad population exactly either. It's a very multi-racial and mixed up place and with a small cast of characters, it's easy to not be all-inclusive.
I'm not discomforted at all by the question. The only discomfort here came in writing this in the first place, so I do appreciate your encouraging comments.
Listing what's true and what's fictional would taint the reading experience, but I can say column A is much larger than column B… So it wasn't a decision to make Lili Black, but rather a decision to include this experience. It's so much more specific and impactful than making up an easier-to-swallow example of unwanted thoughts.
Of course I was scared of backlash and being taken out of context—which could totally still happen—but so far the only readers to suggest I cut or tone down this aspect were white. One was a beta reader with Tourette’s syndrome who said they didn’t think other readers would understand the concept of unwanted thoughts.
All reactions have been interesting.
Hey, thanks for that. A friend of mine wrote a trilogy which culminates in around 2082 or so, in white supremacists attempting to eliminate everyone else. Though my friend looks white, her actual heritage is mixed, so she too would have been eliminated in this world. Of interest, the white supremacists are a KEW (Kingdom of England and Wales) alliance with the USA. I can’t recall who Canada and Australia were aligned with in the story. Anyway, my friend points out to me that only white readers suggested she temper down the extreme racism and genocidal ideology of the white supremacists. People of colour were like, ‘Yeah, we could totally see this happening. Write it because it’s honest.’ The dystopian sci-fi trilogy is called The Beautiful Ones and is inspired by concerns about overpopulation.