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Diversity in fiction is important, but it shouldn’t be ‘forced’ or for diversity’s sake. One of the many things I love about Black Panther is that it doesn’t go out of its way to tell you that it’s about African people. It simply shows its pride for those of African descent. It uses good storytelling, strong character development, captivating visual scenery and effects, and sells itself on its own merit.
Afrika Wha?
Black Panther is a movie that tells a good story, and also happens to make every single melanin-induced person feel good about themselves. It makes me very happy knowing that my future children are going to watch Black Panther and see Africa portrayed in splendour.
When I was growing up, Africans were constantly made fun of by Caribbeans. Stereotypes of Africans being ‘jungle zulu monkeys’ and eating each other and swinging from treetops have run circles around my life. One of my favourite films, Mean Girls, does this no favours in its extremely narrow-minded European-American-centric portrayal of Africa.
Feel The Resemblance
Growing up, I read a lot of books with characters that didn’t always look like me. My mum often bought me books with Indian characters. These include the Bindi Babes series by Narinder Dhami or the amazing magic-realist novel Maya Running which I read multiple times. My favourite Disney princess as a kid was Jasmine, partly because she was one of the few brown princesses.
I believe (and always have) that the content of a person’s character is the most important thing. This overrides their skin colour. BUT, I think it is important to see diversity in fiction. It’s pleasant to see people with physical features that you have in the books and films that you consume. Children identify with people that resemble them (e.g. girls copying mummy behaviours, boys copying daddy behaviours).
Fact is, people create things in their image. Why should white people write about black people? Unless they grew up somewhere where there are lots of people that don’t all look like them, why should they bother? Why should I write stories set in Edinburgh? I’m not Scottish. It’s not ‘racist’ to draw on what you are.
Using Your Voice
White people seldom understand the long-standing feud between Africans and Caribbeans. But guess what; Africans probably don’t understand the long-standing war between Eastern/Slavic Europeans and Mediterranean Europeans. Or; Indians vs Pakistanis, Chinese vs Japanese folks, Australians vs New Zealanders, the English and the Scottish, Northern Ireland vs the Republican of Ireland, or the fucking postcode wars that occur between a person that lives in N17 London and a person that lives in N22 London. Hell, scratch that! In London, the person ACROSS THE FRICKIN’ STREET is your sworn enemy! But we all know that Londoners hate each other.
Who better to showcase this than London man Noel Clarke? Who better to portray African-American issues than Spike Lee? We are all capable of creating what we are. I write stories about young women struggling with personal development because, well that should be self-explanatory. This doesn’t mean that only black people should write about black characters. But if you really want to see stories about yourself, write them in. Our postmodern internet-connected world means that millions of content is uploaded globally from around the world. Naturally this means we have more diversity in fiction. We are wonderfully now more globally joined than ever.
Having said that, we shouldn’t chastise past work for not being ‘diverse’ enough. One of my favourite films, Titanic, has no non-white characters. But it’s a historical movie about Italian and Irish-Americans. Why would anyone be brown? Gone With the Wind is about slave owners. We can’t condemn something made in the past by modern standards, we should see it as an example of how far we have come.
Represent Me
I don’t know what colour the person who created Black Panther was (well, technically it was Stan Lee, but I’m referring to the movie), but thanks to them, black people have been given a moment to see ourselves represented in natural splendour. The women have their NATURAL FRICKIN’ HAIR, rather than weaves.
We need to see ourselves represented, but we can’t force other people to do it for us. We certainly can’t complain about lack of diversity in fiction and then not do anything about it. As Gandhi said; be the change you wish to see in this world. If you want something to happen, make that change. It starts small; if you wanted a better parent, be a better parent. If you wished you had loving friends growing up, be a loving friend as an adult. And if you want to see more diversity in fiction, write your likeness into literature.
Some American shows which do diversity well without pushing it on you: Dexter, Jane the Virgin, Community, Orange is the New Black.
