I have to reblog this because I absolutely love this post. So true. When I was younger, I used to look at futuristic movies and ask, “What the heck happened to all the black people? The Asian people? The anyone non-white people? Apparently they’ve all been eradicated.” The exclusion was so glaring, and yes, quite weird.

Says SarahReesBrennan:

Holy wow. Um… are you kidding? I can only hope so, and that this question was intended for the purpose of make me explode on the internet! Wish granted, my friend, wish granted. ;)

Yes, back a while ago the world and the fiction in the world was even more racist than it currently is. Isn’t that awful?

I dislike the term ‘politically correct’ because I so often hear it used with a sneer, and because the word ‘politically’ is so unnecessary. What’s wrong with just ‘correct’? As in, it is correct not to be sexist, it is correct not to be racist, it is correct to treat everyone with common decency. See? Works perfectly well.

It’s not a case of ‘everyone is weirdly adding people of colour’ now… it’s a case of ‘everyone was weirdly excluding people of colour’ back then. People of colour EXIST: not having them in fiction IS WEIRD. Imagining stories entirely without them IS WEIRD—why would you want to do it?

You bring up Merlin having a black Guinevere. Well, black people existed in medieval times, so why shouldn’t they be in fictional representations of medieval times?

Leaving aside the fact that ‘medieval Camelot’ isn’t set in medieval times—it’s set in a fantasy world with elements of medieval times and other much more modern stuff, and also… what am I thinking of… oh yes… MAGIC AND DRAGONS.

But clearly… Guinevere is the last straw! Dragons, sure, but black people, you go too far!

I suppose my answer to your question is a double yes. Do I ‘feel compelled to represent races other than white’ in my books? Sure: I absolutely think it’s the right thing to do, and that contributing to the whitewashing of our world through fiction is very wrong. I’d rather… not do something I consider very wrong…

But also, yes, they just come to me like that! Creation of characters is a tricky thing, since it is half subconscious and half not, and when I think about what makes for an interesting world, it’s not a world in which anything has been taken away rather than added. ‘A less rich world!’ is a really boring battle cry. ‘Less complicated relationships! Less interesting characters!’

I want to tell stories in the richer world, with the complicated relationships and the interesting characters—that’s more fun. What I write is all born from that desire. The characters who I write about are all born from that desire, too: it’s why they come out the way they do.

REBLOGGING… mahself because I just saw someone say they didn’t like Unspoken because it was politically correct. I still believe in what I said about political correctness here, so I guess I’m glad it’s correct. ;)

Well said, Sarah, well said.

WILLIAM FAULKNER

via http://www.advicetowriters.com

(via kadrey)