Thread by @XiranJayZhao

so a few other POC authors and I have made threads on this recently and I've seen us get accused of promoting "nazi-level racial purity" in books and being ABLEIST for not telling white authors EXACTLY what to do besides this

those are examples of failing the challenge.

https://twitter.com/XiranJayZhao/status/1358827383210430469

White writers, you really wanna know what to do?

- Preorder and promote POC-authored books
- Don't act like white authors are the only ones who exist and thus it will be some sort of devastating blow to diversity in books if they take a step back from writing POC stories

1/?

- Understand the difference between writing from a POC perspective and having POC characters in your story
- Understand the frustration of white-authored POC stories getting more favored than #ownvoices ones bc they will inherently appeal more to the white gatekeepers

2/?

- Don't tone-police POC or throw severe accusations bc they are tired of talking over and over and over about this very well-worn topic
- Don't demand that POC educate you for free so you "don't get called out"
- DON'T RESENT POC FOR GETTING SUPPORTED BY THEIR COMMUNITIES

3/?

- Don't ask POC increasingly detailed questions about your own WIP in SOLE HOPE (key here) of getting a Not Racist stamp
- Don't assume a single POC can give you all the answers; we are in fact also concerned about writing harmful rep and not immune to criticism!!!

4/?

- Do NOT, I mean DO NOT make yourself the victim bc you feel like "white people aren't allowed to write anything anymore 😩😩"
- You are not being oppressed by being asked to step back
- POC don't need you to bestow us with representation; we can represent ourselves

5/?

If your knee jerk reaction to this discourse is frustration and anger, ask yourself - why do you wanna tell POC stories so badly when it's not yours to tell?? Why don't you boost existing and upcoming POC stories instead? Why don't you understand systemic power dynamics?

Anyway I am truly tired of talking about this, stop asking POC writers to comfort you about the diversity in your book when none of us are 100% comfortable with our own work. And stop harassing us bc you suddenly feel self-conscious about your Asian-African-inspired epic fantasy.

gonna mute this too because i know people are gonna harass me anyway. i've retweeted plenty of threads about this. look through my TL if you want more POC perspectives.

This is a learning process and it's okay to make mistakes, but don't take your discomfort out on POC.

OH I wanna add something important:

Don't bring up beloved works written from POC perspectives by white people in a WHAT ABOUT kind of way. Those books were published in a different time and no matter their quality, we can thrive to do better about uplifting actual POC authors

*strive, smh. can't lose my author cred over a typo 😤