Multicultural Characterization
By LMReviews on Dec 3, 2008 in Multicultural Writing
In talking to the visitors at my book signing, it made me think of something else. I thought it was odd that one of them had to ask if my book was multicultural. The reason being that she didn’t think my heroine was black enough and obviously my hero from the cover was Caucasian. I already discussed the narrow perception of ethnic appearance, but it also brings up another question. Certainly, if you see my book on the book shelf you have no idea that I am an African American woman. My name doesn’t give it away either. But since there’s no mistaking my cultural make-up when you look at me it seemed odd that the cultural make-up of my book wasn’t obvious.
I don’t know every African American author who has ever published a fiction novel, but I venture to guess that nearly every author black or otherwise tends to write a character that mirrors them or who they know. That being said, it would seem really odd for an African American writer to never write a book with African American characters or a Caucasian author to never write a book with Caucasian characters. But Caucasians don’t feel the need to discuss the ethnicity of their characters unless it plays a role in the events of the story. They don’t have to. If the author writes that the character had blond hair and blue eyes or brown hair, we know what the character’s complexion is. Ethnic writers have to make the differentiation because there is a growing multicultural audience that wants to read stories about people like them. I read the stories about the ethnic majority, and while we appreciate those stories there’s nothing like reading about someone we can close relate to because they know our culturally-specific struggles and obstacles. As a strong proponent of multiculturalism, I really love to see writers of one ethnic group incorporating accurate portrayals of other cultures in their stories. The stories we write should show an actual representation the different kinds of people we encounter given the time period of the story.
