My friend Cameron left this wonderful and thoughtful comment:
I want to check this one out! And yes, representation is tricky. It's usually better when storytellers represent communities they're part of themselves, but that's not sustainable as a rule—it makes creators with marginalized identities solely responsible for representing themselves and absolves other creators of developing the empathy and understanding necessary to represent anyone but their own identities.
I watched the new A League of Their Own tv show recently and was pretty blown away at how they told stories about being queer, being assigned female, being an immigrant, and being black that were deeply empathetic, complicated, and centered on joy. Most of the main characters are marginalized in at least one of those ways, and many in multiple ways. And because they're main characters they get to be imperfect, and sometimes deeply problematic, which is a real tightrope walk when you're representing marginalized identities.
Then there's the new lord of the rings show, which endeavors to have racially diverse casting... At its best it's lazy and boring and at its worst it's trying to make allegories for real world issues that the writers are too clumsy to pull off. Which is a shame because I love LOTR want to defend it from all the bad faith racists who are complaining about black elves or whatever.
I'm curious about the writers' room for Woo. Are their autistic writers there? Do they consult autistic folks? Either way I'm interested in checking out the show and will put it on the list.
Pleasure visiting your patisserie!
As someone who loves to write character-based songs, this is something I’ve been running into a lot. What characters am I allowed to write? Whose story am I allowed to explore? What do you think about this?
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Back in 2018, I released a song called Tent City, which took the perspective of someone experiencing homelessness. I am proud of the song, which draws inspiration from some of my favorite writers John Prine, John Hartford, and Gillian Welch.
At the time I was working a catering job and had developed a relationship with a couple living in their car across from the kitchen where we packed up the food. There were always ample leftovers from the day’s meals, so I would usually bring them to the parking lot for anyone who wanted to eat. I was broke at this time and often fed myself with these same meals to save on groceries (and cooking - which I still cannot do) so I knew their value firsthand. Close to Christmastime, I was driving home from work when the couple flagged me down. The man wished me a Merry Christmas and gifted me a bag of expired Pumpkin Milano cookies he’d gotten from a local food pantry.
It got me thinking about pride; pride of place, pride in the ability to give, to have something to give away. That’s why, I think when I approached the character for this song I had them take pride in their home, Tent City. No matter your situation, a place you call home can feel comforting, and I wanted to show that this character found respite in a place that might look dire from the outside.
The chorus is
well it ain’t too pretty that old Tent City
but that’s where I lay me down to rest
It’s a welcome sight in the cold dark night
come rain of shine what I call mine
Come visit me sometime, in Tent City
I do wonder if it was OK for me to write this character without a personal experience of homelessness On the other hand, I think it’s important for artists and writers (and as a consequence, listeners and readers) to explore perspectives outside of their own. I think about novels featuring a myriad of characters. There is no way for a single author to have experienced all these perspectives, and yet novels can be huge touchstones for cultural understanding and change. Would we say a female author can’t write a male character? Or vice versa?
When I taught at song school this summer, I encouraged folks to write from the perspective of someone who they felt they could understand emotionally. A close friend, family member, or confidant, if not themselves. However, I don’t always follow this rule in my own writing, so that makes me a big ol’ hypocrite.
Anders Carlson-Wee and “How-To”
Back in 2018, one of my favorite poets Anders Carlson-Wee had his poem “How-To” published in The Nation. Anders is white (as you can see above), and the poem used AAVE (African American Vernacular English) as the voice of its character. Since I am also white, I will decline from having an opinion on his use of the dialect, but when I read it back in the day I did think that as a poem, aside from the vernacular choice, it was pretty phenomenal. By this I mean it could have been written from the point of view of a character not using AAVE and it would have worked equally well. I can’t find the poem anywhere on the internet, so it’s obviously been buried, but here’s a little run-down on the drama from The New York Times.
Writer and Columbia University linguistics professor John McWhorter wrote an article on the topic for The Atlantic, and I think his perspective is interesting. He talks a lot about a white fear of black language, and how that fear is racist in itself. He also writes:
That is, when a Carlson-Wee briefly explores the pain of a black homeless person and shows her using precisely the speech variety she actually would, or an Oscar Hammerstein knows that working-class black people in a parachute factory would not talk like the characters in his previous hits Oklahoma! or Carousel, it’s time for educated America to get past the cringe of seeing Black English depicted on the page by someone who didn’t grow up speaking it.
Whites writing Black English in 1895 almost always meant it as either disparagement or infantilization. Whites writing Black English since then, more often than not, deserve some credit for having come a considerable way. The vigilance, the hesitation, the antennas going up—all of this has legitimate roots and will persist. But this evaluation metric should not swat down all nonblack artists who depict black people speaking the way most black people—alternating with standard English—quite definitely do, will, have, and should.
Anders Carlson-Wee engaged in nothing we moderns need slur as “blackface.” To wit, while we must evaluate each case on its own basis, to the extent that any white person’s depiction of Black English of whatever quality or diligence elicits rolling eyes at best and social media witch hunts at worst, we have lost step not only with linguistic science, but also with what most would consider norms of how human groups co-occupy social spaces and learn from one another.
Aside from the racial issues that the poem presents, Carlson-Wee was heavily criticized for his use of the word “cripple” in the poem. To me, this is absurd. It’s not that I don’t understand that word to be offensive and ablest, but we have to allow characters to be offensive and ablest, don’t we? Would this character realistically be using the most up to date, PC language to describe a physical impairment? I’m just concerned that we are leaving no breathing room for art. Art necessarily needs to explore the good, the bad and the ugly. Alternatively, we could ban every poem and novel which is not a fact-based memoir?
I love Auntie Diaries by Kendrick Lamar, a song about his trans uncle and cousin. People were upset about it because the song includes constant slurs, misgendering and deadnaming. But he's depicting the reality of transphobia and homophobia in himself and his community, and *explicitly* condemning it. He even calls out his own double standard when it comes to who can use the F-word and who can use the N-word, a kind of empathy we've been asking of Dave Chappelle for years now.
I love the song because he's telling his story, not theirs. But we can't tell our own stories without referencing others'. Lamar perfectly depicts the kind of loving, clumsy process we should expect from our loved ones when we transition. It's not for trans people, it's for his fellow cis people. He's modeling his humble process for others, just like when he talks about his relationship with sex, misogyny, wealth, and violence. And like the rest of his catalogue, Auntie Diaries is triggering, and it upset a lot of people. But as a GNC person and ally to trans binary folks, I'm *so* glad the song exists. It might not even have Lamar's desired effect on the culture, but I think it's more beautiful and human than most politically correct art out there.
The original publication by The National now includes a disclaimer.
As a white cisgender male I feel among the least qualified to weigh in on political correctness.
Watching the IBMA livestream this week there was a vocal minority of trolls spewing vitriol in the comments about any musicians they deemed less than a true bluegrass act. I’m not clear what arbitrary measure consisted of true bluegrass. Are true bluegrass musicians only those on stage playing Doc Watson and Earl Scruggs note for note? Maybe the musicians the trolls liked were real bluegrass, and the ones they disliked (or the musicians who happened to beat out one of their favorites for an award) were not. So I think making any decision based on online backlash alone is dangerous, as undoubtedly there will be someone with something negative to say.
Renaming the Washington football team is an example of appropriate political correctness (in my mind), as changing the name made sense. There was nothing artistic about the name. Moreover multi-billion dollar companies have a tendency to land on their feet.
Less clear cut for me personally was Chris Rock’s joke about alopecia at the Oscars. The way it was handled only detracted from the issue. Having a spouse with alopecia, I found the joke tasteless and mean, as her alopecia is part of her appearance which she cannot control. Moreover the community in general suffers from bullying. The joke seemed to come from ignorance. I don’t think it was funny, but it did not deserve physical retaliation.
Along those lines the ablest aspect of the poem did not seem offensive to me. My father was a 100% disabled veteran, and I don’t think he would have found he poem offensive, nor would he have taken it personally. However if I had a disabled child who was bullied, maybe I would feel differently about the poem. It is difficult to say, as once the poem has fallen under this degree of scrutiny, it is hard to look at it with fresh eyes. On first read I had no issues with it.
On the other end of the spectrum, Tent City stems from personal interactions with the homeless, and gives a voice to an otherwise marginalized community. The song is not derogatory in nature, nor does it harbor any false pretenses or appropriation on any kind. I think it is unquestionably OK.
So I don’t know if I made any sense, but as always I found this week’s update interesting. Thank you!
Empathy, not just sympathy, is essential to all of us, and reading what others write, and writing it yourself, helps people experience it from a perspective they may not have been able to feel. It's absurd to require fiction to be restricted to the categories people attach to the author. That defies the whole concept of writing fiction. I've written characters who are female, who are Muslim, who are Christian, who are black, who are immigrants from various places. I just think it's crucial to have people of those groups read what you write and respond honestly. I started making an audiobook of one of my novels, and had the voices done by me (white male), a black male, a black female, and a white female. Part of doing it that way allowed me to gauge all of these people's reactions to what I had written and it was very positive.
That’s a really cool idea re: having people read for feedback and audiobook reading- like having a writing room with lots of perspectives for a tv show. Thanks Ed!
After contemplating for a few minutes, I asked myself, I wonder who wrote "Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?" And who wrote "God Bless the Child?" Because I will not question anyone's background who writes, "The rich get rich, while the weak ones fade."
I love Auntie Diaries by Kendrick Lamar, a song about his trans uncle and cousin. People were upset about it because the song includes constant slurs, misgendering and deadnaming. But he's depicting the reality of transphobia and homophobia in himself and his community, and *explicitly* condemning it. He even calls out his own double standard when it comes to who can use the F-word and who can use the N-word, a kind of empathy we've been asking of Dave Chappelle for years now.
I love the song because he's telling his story, not theirs. But we can't tell our own stories without referencing others'. Lamar perfectly depicts the kind of loving, clumsy process we should expect from our loved ones when we transition. It's not for trans people, it's for his fellow cis people. He's modeling his humble process for others, just like when he talks about his relationship with sex, misogyny, wealth, and violence. And like the rest of his catalogue, Auntie Diaries is triggering, and it upset a lot of people. But as a GNC person and ally to trans binary folks, I'm *so* glad the song exists. It might not even have Lamar's desired effect on the culture, but I think it's more beautiful and human than most politically correct art out there.
Hi Rachel,
Here is a link with the poem: https://www.jehsmith.com/1/2018/07/how-to-by-anders-carlson-wee.html
The original publication by The National now includes a disclaimer.
As a white cisgender male I feel among the least qualified to weigh in on political correctness.
Watching the IBMA livestream this week there was a vocal minority of trolls spewing vitriol in the comments about any musicians they deemed less than a true bluegrass act. I’m not clear what arbitrary measure consisted of true bluegrass. Are true bluegrass musicians only those on stage playing Doc Watson and Earl Scruggs note for note? Maybe the musicians the trolls liked were real bluegrass, and the ones they disliked (or the musicians who happened to beat out one of their favorites for an award) were not. So I think making any decision based on online backlash alone is dangerous, as undoubtedly there will be someone with something negative to say.
Renaming the Washington football team is an example of appropriate political correctness (in my mind), as changing the name made sense. There was nothing artistic about the name. Moreover multi-billion dollar companies have a tendency to land on their feet.
Less clear cut for me personally was Chris Rock’s joke about alopecia at the Oscars. The way it was handled only detracted from the issue. Having a spouse with alopecia, I found the joke tasteless and mean, as her alopecia is part of her appearance which she cannot control. Moreover the community in general suffers from bullying. The joke seemed to come from ignorance. I don’t think it was funny, but it did not deserve physical retaliation.
Along those lines the ablest aspect of the poem did not seem offensive to me. My father was a 100% disabled veteran, and I don’t think he would have found he poem offensive, nor would he have taken it personally. However if I had a disabled child who was bullied, maybe I would feel differently about the poem. It is difficult to say, as once the poem has fallen under this degree of scrutiny, it is hard to look at it with fresh eyes. On first read I had no issues with it.
On the other end of the spectrum, Tent City stems from personal interactions with the homeless, and gives a voice to an otherwise marginalized community. The song is not derogatory in nature, nor does it harbor any false pretenses or appropriation on any kind. I think it is unquestionably OK.
So I don’t know if I made any sense, but as always I found this week’s update interesting. Thank you!
Thank you for finding the poem!!!
Empathy, not just sympathy, is essential to all of us, and reading what others write, and writing it yourself, helps people experience it from a perspective they may not have been able to feel. It's absurd to require fiction to be restricted to the categories people attach to the author. That defies the whole concept of writing fiction. I've written characters who are female, who are Muslim, who are Christian, who are black, who are immigrants from various places. I just think it's crucial to have people of those groups read what you write and respond honestly. I started making an audiobook of one of my novels, and had the voices done by me (white male), a black male, a black female, and a white female. Part of doing it that way allowed me to gauge all of these people's reactions to what I had written and it was very positive.
That’s a really cool idea re: having people read for feedback and audiobook reading- like having a writing room with lots of perspectives for a tv show. Thanks Ed!
After contemplating for a few minutes, I asked myself, I wonder who wrote "Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?" And who wrote "God Bless the Child?" Because I will not question anyone's background who writes, "The rich get rich, while the weak ones fade."