Writing an IF with Race and Color in mind (Patreon)

A quick solution:

If you wanna keep things "realistic", a great way to do it would be what I, the Forgotten One by John Louis did!

If you wanna play as a specific race in a medieval world setting, then make almost all the characters that race for that kingdom or region. You avoid potentially breaking the worldbuilding, immersion, or whatever may arise with the typical culture war that occurs when this is brought up when you have a diverse cast of characters.

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Not quick alternatives:

BUT if your work deals with racism, bigotry, and xenophobia, then I think you have a chance to tell a story. Because remember, you are not writing a desertion or research paper that will be graded by a panel of judges. Nor are you a blog post writer, journalist, or reviewer.

NAY! If you are here and interested, that means you are of the mind to be an entertainer!

That means being a storyteller that can invoke emotions!

(Seriously, that is important as shit to remember!)

And very few things are as easily relatable to your skin and race, especially nowadays.

An MC of a different color from the environment around them can show prejudice, inequality, and racism. It is harder to do with a side character or an RO, but it is still possible.

A historical fiction or low/no fantasy fiction setting may seem like it isnt possible to do that and still remain "grounded, historically accurate, or realistic", but historically speaking, there has always been people of different cultures and colors in different parts of the world.

You just have to be sure to include snippets that explain, realistically, why they are there. Were they abducted and brought to a different region because of a raid or war? Are their parents or themselves merchants and traders who travel? Is the setting within a kingdom, empire, or republic that is cosmopolitan?

Don't be afraid to include some color into your worlds! But on the opposite side of that coin, if you really don't think your story will at all be about that, or you don't think you can tell a good story surrounding such things, then don't do it. Your main priority is to entertain and tell a good story.

Not everything needs to reflect modern sensibilities (diversity in media to reflect the globalist world we live in Hamilton, Bridgerton, Troy: Fall of a City) but everything needs to reflect modern values (do not promote racism, genocide, supremist ideologies)

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What're some things you can easily do?

1) You can easily avoid some obvious no-no's. IRL slurs, and the promotion of IRL hate thought and etc. It's obvious, and the public will rightly flame you for being a small brained bigot.

2) Hard stuff are the fetishizing terms that can at first deceive a well meaning writer. THIS is where you can fuck up without even meaning to. Stuff like using nuts to describe eyes (especially Asians and the almond eyes), or using terms like exotic or alien, and etc. HOWEVER HERE IS A KEY THING TO REMEMBER: A CHARACTER POV CAN USE THE ABOVE AND EVEN RACIST TERMS BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT THEY THINK AND BELIEVE. At that point though, it is a gamble on whether or not your audience has high enough media literacy to separate the author and the character's beliefs. If you're scared of dipshit readers and getting a hate train going, you can put a preface of "Hi, I dont believe the shit my characters believe in fyi!" you should be good. A great resource to help you navigate these tricky waters is the Tumblr "Writing With Color" Blog!

2) Avoid using "Asian" , "white", "African" and such simple terms. Asian alone can mean people that are from India, China, Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea, and etc. The same goes for the other terms. Instead use words that describe the skin TONE to give a general idea, and then go off from their to describe their build, height, and eye shape. More work, but also more precise!

3) Know your audience. Are they American? They're very sensitive to such topics. Thus informing yourself of the basics can pay off. If you are American, you should also be aware that most other countries really dont think about race and color as much as we do, after all a majority of other nations are very homogenous. Please consider that whenever someone replies, comments, or shares a thought regarding your work, especially if the topic is about race and color.

4) Know that you will NEVER be able to satisfy everyone. It took me some time to realize that, and I hope that any aspiring readers out here will take my word for it. You will mess up. And when you do, take the mistake and learn from it. Apologize if you mess up someone's culture, and at least hear them out when they comment on race or color in your story. But please remember there's trolls and haters out there that'll hate you simply for the joy of it. I believe in you aspiring writers!!!

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Kingdoms and Empires has many races and peoples inspired from the real world. Describing these characters can sometimes be tricky. Especially when it comes to the MC, as I have to be absolutely careful and neutral in how I describe some characters (as readers may self insert and it can hurt their immersion and enjoyment).

It may even be jarring when I switch POVs and another character will straight up say some shit MC wouldn't say. But I think that's what will help KaE be "good". So I think this information was worth learning.

Especially as the continent's phenotypes are diverse all across the board. There's Han Chinese (which is already diverse as well), African based (also very diverse), White ( also diverse as there is the Western, Northern and Eastern phenotypes) and much more! It makes sense for KaE to

There's racism, bigotry, and hatred in KaE, and some of it will be passive, lowkey, and hard to really say "hey that's racist!" just like there is in our real world.

Some of it will even be hard for some readers to really pick up on, especially since a character like Zera is "white" and handsome who "usually" wouldnt be the target of racism in our world.

So instead of modern racism, think more Roman Racism?? I think my Romaboo's will know what im talking about lol

ASK ANY QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE, I AM CURRENTLY IN MEXICO IN A VILLAGE, SO I WILL ANSWER WHEN I HAVE INTERNET