Tips on writing minority characters

I'm writing a work, which will feature Roma minorities due the place of the setting, also it'll access racism at some point while it's not the most important thing in the plot.

I have figured out some parts (eg. how not to make it cheesy), but at other things I have serious problems. First in Hungary, modern works mostly avoiding Roma characters, or writing them off from stereotypes.

I know their culture at some level (I'll do even more research in the near future), and I know it's not racist if I make them imperfect or if some of them are criminal. Is there some guide on the internet or can anybody give me some suggestions?

Just write them like any other character. "Minority" isn't really a thing. It's just a way of dividing between Us and Them. Characters don't have to be defined by their ethnicity.

They don't have to be defined by it, but it is a part of who they are as much as having long brown hair, or liking pasta. It is not a defining trait, like bravery or intelligence might be, but its still a factor.

If someone were to write about me, I'd like it mentioned of my sexuality. It doesn't define me, but its a significant part of who I am.

Seconding the above post. I'd like people to mention me as being pagan if I was being portrayed, because you can't tell it from looking at me, but it still drives a lot of my personality and worldview.

I should mention that a lot of people unconsciously default to seeing characters as white in their heads unless it specifically mentions otherwise, and hence a lot of people need you to literally say "X is Asian/Black/Latino/Roma" before they don't.

Not that people are stupid (hopefully), it's just that the White Default Protagonist mentality is so strong that again, some people don't consciously realize it.

edited 30th Jan '14 2:58:32 PM by Sharysa

Regarding the race assumption thing, that really depends on the character's name and the story's setting; along with other factors. For instance, if a story takes place in Los Angeles and a character is named Santiago Lopez, readers are likely to assume the character is Hispanic rather than of Spanish descent and are almost certainly not going to think the character is Caucasian.

As for the original question, I think that language is one of the more useful ways to give characters of a specific ethnic group (i.e. where it's to the point of mattering to the character's identity) some flare. Romani people speak like Romani people; much like how Cockney people speak like Cockney people. Slangs and loan words from their native language would help build the character's racial identity in a way that feels authentic and organic to reader immersion.

edited 31st Jan '14 1:00:40 PM by peasant

Right, forgot about the name thing.

However, a lot of full-blooded minorities in real life tend to have first names from the dominant culture instead of their ethnicity, and a lot of stories don't mention full names very often. For example, the protagonist's first name might just be Jane, and the story could go for a while without describing her physical appearance or mentioning that her last name is Yu.

True. But at the end of the day, these are simply different literary techniques available to an author to highlight a character's ethnicity. If an author chooses not to use a culture-specific name, there are still other techniques at his/her disposal.

edited 3rd Feb '14 2:52:17 AM by peasant

If it's important to the story that the reader know what a character's ethnicity is, then the author should mention it. Otherwise, you're not really losing anything if the reader assumes something else.

Whenever you write a character, try separately writing out every possible detail about how you picture them, even if the details don't get mentioned in the story.

For instance, take a hypothetical character, Mike, who is a Roma. Write out every possible detail about how you picture Mike, and things regarding his identity will pop up. Does he have chip on his shoulder because of regularly encountering racism (simple example, I know)? Even if no one says so in the story, and even if it's not glaringly obvious in the final product, knowing that he does can help one write him.

This place seems to have some helpful tips on writing in general:

http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/creative1/shortstory/

edited 3rd Feb '14 5:02:30 PM by stripes-the-zebra

It's important to remember that Roma are heavily discriminated against, to the point where anti-ziganism is part of the accepted mainstream in most of Europe. If you're writing in a contemporary, real-world setting, this will be an issue, and I advise that you do a decent amount of research on it. Consider, for instance, the Roma-are-criminals stereotype, which has a great deal to do with the way so many legitimate career options are barred to them.

edited 6th Feb '14 2:52:04 AM by Iaculus

What I'd like to know is what to do with the audience's prejudice.

For instance, would their inherent anti-Zigan outlook get in the way of sympathising with a Romani character or identifying with an Audience Surrogate who has no such prejudices against Romani people?

edited 6th Feb '14 12:43:51 PM by peasant

If that's so, fuck 'em. You ain't writing for the bigots, right?

Mind you, anti-ziganism is so embedded that it's highly unlikely for an outsider character not to have a weird opinion or two about the Roma unless (and sometimes even if) they've worked closely with the community for a while, done extensive research, or whatever. Humans aren't great at empathising with others' experiences, and the life for Roma is often so extraordinary that it can be quite difficult for an outsider to get it, particularly when you're constantly marinated in the cultural consensus that Roma are thieving subhumans. This does not make them weird, mystical aliens, obviously, but it does mean that the gap between Roma and non-Roma perspectives within your story is likely to be quite large.

Well, I'd say you are. After all, people write for others to read. And if anti-ziganism is so endemic, writing something that is outside the cultural norm runs the risk of alienating your readers and prevent the general audience from getting immersed in the story. This is especially if your work isn't one that is trying to focus on making a socio-political comment.

edited 6th Feb '14 5:40:08 PM by peasant

If you're writing purely for profit, I'd advise avoiding controversial subject matter altogether unless you're convinced of your ability to handle it. If you're not, there's no particular need to compromise.

If you are not trying to overturn the corrupt world order and help usher in a new age of peace, empathy and universal brotherhood, you shouldn't bother writing in the first place.

@ZI Ltoid 1991

If possible, maybe you could ask some Roma people themselves what they would see as writing characters of their background from cheap stereotypes? I don't know whether you know any Roma personally of course.

Alternatively, are there any Roma authors who have written on this topic? E.g. how Roma are stereotyped, how they are portrayed in fiction or how they are excluded from mainstream society? Maybe reading this kind of thing would also help.

I don't particularly care whether I help usher in the new age of corrupt world order or not, I just want to help people examine themselves...

a lot of people unconsciously default to seeing characters as white in their heads unless it specifically mentions otherwise, and hence a lot of people need you to literally say "X is Asian/Black/Latino/Roma" before they don't.

I remember reading through most of The Ear The Eye And The Arm - which is set in futuristic Zimbabwe - and not realizing how far my mental image was off until one character got specifically mentioned as white, and I had this giant jolt of realizing that the rest of the characters were black. In retrospect I really don't know how I missed that detail (especially since, in the same timeframe, I was piecing together characters for a few projects and had a habit of designating "good looking" by giving them dark skin, so my casts were anything but monochromatic).

In an even more extreme case, there's a bunch of people insisting that Aang from Avatar The Last Airbender is "obviously" white, despite the numerous clues that he's Asian and that the rest of the cast is also pretty ethnically diverse despite being cartoonified. Apparently these people think white is so default that any character without specific racial markings is white, even if the tale's done in a deliberate anime style (where the default would be, if anything, Japanese). So broad hints may not be enough for some.

(Also, this thread is reminding me of a comment I made in college, back when I was writing Hunchback of Notre Dame fanfiction: "I like to write about gypsies, vampires, mermaids, and other mythical creatures.")

Offhand I can't think of any good resources for info on the Roma, but as far as the flow of the language, I know there's a Romani New Testament at [[unbound.biola.edu The Unbound Bible]]; Faith Comes by Hearing has an audio version, but I don't know if they're the same version or not (there's nothing like reading a text and hearing it spoken at the same time by a native speaker). There's also a Wikipedia variant, which'll give you plenty of ways to look up more modern vocabulary in useful contexts.

Also, there's an episode of Criminal Minds that apparently approaches their culture from a position of "there's no harm in using horrible stereotypes that have gotten these people killed before, right?" I was reading a review of it the other day. You might want to look it up for a compare-and-contrast versus more realistic info you find.

P.S. Double-checking to make sure you know we have a Useful Notes entry on the Romani.

edited 14th Feb '14 4:48:58 AM by Kilyle

Ooh, that useful notes article mentions that "gypsy" is a slur. Good. More people should be aware of that. (-cough- lady gaga)