YA Highway: Field Trip Friday Special Edition: #YesGayYA.

I’ve been thinking a lot on how to respond to the controversy regarding Sherwood Smith and Rachel Manija Brown’s claim that an un-named agent offered them representation only if they either deleted a gay character or turned him straight. It’s a controversial story because they spoke out, people got outraged, the agent in question was accused, and defended themselves, saying they had never made such an offer or such a demand. So many pundits have now weighed in that whatever the truth ultimately was, it has been lost in the blogosphere, never to be seen again.

There are many things I COULD say about this, but I’d like to start by saying that of course I KNOW that many such conversations have taken place with agents and publishers. I know because I’ve had such a conversation (more on that later). For now I’d like to add that just because an agent or a publisher questions or rejects a character who is gay and/or black, doesn’t mean they are homophobic or racist. Agents and publishers are business people. They make their decisions based on the vicissitudes of the market. If they believe that “gay” books or “black” books don’t sell as well, they probably have evidence.  Do I like it? No. Can I do something to change it? Yes. I can go out an buy every young readers’ book with a gay or black character. And so can you, and you, and you.

If I don’t really care for some of these books, does that make me a racist and a homophobe?  I hope not.

It is not up to the publishing industry to attend to the issue of tolerance in our world.  I repeat IT’S A BUSINESS. However, it does seem in the case above, that the agents in question had other problems with the manuscript, and in general, had no difficulty in representing a YA book with a gay character, business or not.

So…I get that there aren’t enough homosexual or other minority characters in books for younger readers. I’d like to do what I can to remedy this. I don’t know about gay characters so much; I’ve never written one in a young readers’ book. I don’t know that I would write a gay protagonist. I’m not gay, so…I’m not sure it’s my place.  I certainly wouldn’t write a book ABOUT being gay. I’m not that interested in books about homosexuality, so why would I write one?  Also, what do I know about it? There is a market for such books of course, so SOMEBODY should be writing them. It’s possible that I would write a book about, say, space travel, and have the protagonist or one of the major characters be gay if it felt right. I would hope that wouldn’t prevent the book from being published. I guess I’ll have to wait and see.

As for black or other racial minority characters, that’s a whole other issue, because there is also an argument for white writers like myself, NOT writing black characters (I’m not sure if this argument is ever used with regards to gay characters; I hope not). I have come up against this argument. There is also an excellent blog post about it on YA Highway.

Here’s my experience:

I often write characters of color, and am just finishing my first book with an MC of color (Jamaican Canadian), although I have a screenplay with a black MC. WHY? Lots of reasons. Often the character will just pop into my head – why fight with the muse? I try not to stereotype, but I also try to respect the history of race, if appropriate. Sometimes the plot requires it – for example my new book concerns a sport played (in Canada anyway) almost exclusively by people of color.

Sometimes I write about racism, but I write it as a horror and a burden for everyone, a dangerous disease that infects and harms everything. I try to steer clear of black vs white because to me, that’s not real.

BUT I’ve been burned, not for stereotyping, but for “appropriation”. A manuscript (set in Australia) was shelved for years because of this until I took it out, “bleached” it, and now it’s back on the market, whiter than white. Why?  There was an Aboriginal Australian character in it, and the plot involved the theft of a piece of Aboriginal art.  I was told by agents that publishers won’t buy books by white writers that included Aboriginal characters and content. One agent  I consulted had the gall to blame it on librarians and teachers! It was a supporting character, a beloved schoolteacher, very positive and real, based on a professor I’d had in my undergrad degree.

The final consensus seemed to be that readers of color wouldn’t read characters of color written by white writers.  I hope this isn’t true, even for MCs much less supporting characters. Wouldn’t that result in racially segregated literature?

My community includes people from dozens of different cultures,  I like to reflect that in my writing. But can I reflect my history?  The first Chinese family I knew owned a corner store. Stereotype? Yes. But real.  The first African kid I knew had a father who was a doctor. Stereotype? No. But real.

Can I write about my sister being mugged by black kids in Boston?  Real. Can I write about the First Nations people crowding the streets outside the methadone clinic in my city? Real. Can I write about my brilliant but rather odd and socially awkward Korean student? Real. Can I write about the lovely Philippine lady who cleans my house and listens to my ranting and tolerates my sloth? Real. Can I write about my inspiring Aboriginal professor?  Apparently not.  But real.

I write fiction – I can turn my cleaner into my lawyer, my student into a popular sex god, the black kids into Mormons, the First Nations people into a busload of tourists, but why should I have to? Do we expect writers of color to adjust their experience to fit some acceptable protocol?  To suggest it would be nowadays construed as horribly racist. Not only that, but to expect this would be a terrible infringement on the artistic freedom and expression of a marginalized group.

And here’s where the conversation drifts into “white privilege” , as if I, simply by virtue of being white, am assigned more authorial privilege than, say, Toni Morrison (who has a freakin NOBEL prize!) or Sherman Alexie (National Book Award) or Alice Walker (Pulizter Prize) or Kazuo Ishiguro (Booker Prize) or Gao Xingjian (another Nobel) or V.S. Naipaul (another Nobel)  or Rohinton Mistry (another Booker) or Junot Díaz (another Pulizter ) or Jhumpa Lahiri  (another Pulizter). I could go on. Now understand, I’m not saying that writers of color don’t face barriers. Of course they do. I’m just saying that THESE writers are clearly facing, right now anyway, less barriers than me. Maybe they have extraordinary talent and I don’t. But being white is not helping me, either way. So why can’t I write what I want?

The argument goes a little like this: “white writers are at a position of advantage, so therefore any restrictions put on their content by disadvantaged groups are fair game.”  Is this like handicapping a race-horse? And anyway, like I said, I’m white. Uh, in what literary universe am I privileged? 99% of the agents and publishers who read my work have no idea what color I am. Even the agent I mentioned above had no idea of my heritage. For all she knew I COULD be Aboriginal (I’m not). She assumed I’m white (I am) because I guess she assumes most people who write books are white (they are). Here’s the irony.  If I WAS Aboriginal, the book would probably already be published (although people would have asked me why my MC is white). People LOVED it. They just couldn’t publish it. So, sorry, where’s my privilege? And sorry, are there or are there not enough characters of color in young people’s literature?

White CHARACTERS might seem to enjoy privilege, but anyone can write white characters, if they feel like it. (Although Toni Morrison might scratch your eyes out if you even suggested it to her, but then again, she doesn’t need to). But think on this: I rarely mention a lot of physical detail about my characters. Mostly their race doesn’t matter to me.  If someone wanted to cast an Asian or African actor in something I wrote I wouldn’t care a jot. I’m not blind to race, of course I notice it, I just don’t find it that important in my storytelling.

So, here’s my take. My instructions for writers (white or not)  attempting characters of color or other minority groups – write well. Two dimensional stereotypes aren’t good writing.  My Korean student – he also loves show tunes and working on the school musical. My cleaner? Her kids go to private school. The Black kids and the First Nations people?They have three dimensional stories. I will have to find them somehow, before I write about them. Stereotypical plots and characters aren’t good writing, no matter the color of the MC.