A (white) friend has written a book where the MC is black, but she hasn't said so overtly. A couple of people read it critically and said the same thing, which was basically 'I think he's black, but is he? Cos you didn't make it clear'.

(a) is it important to make it clear?
(b) how is it appropriate to make it clear?

My friend referred to him running his hand through his Afro hair early in the book, and I think there are a few other vague pointers later on (I haven't read it all). Her readers seemed to suggest she should state that he's black, but I wasn't sure about that when he's the viewpoint character, since his colour is not part of or relevant to the story and thus he wouldn't be thinking about it.

I've never tried to write a central character who isn't white and English, because I am, and therefore in most cases I wouldn't feel confident enough to get the culture spot-on, so I haven't thought about how to handle it till now. My guess is that you allude to things which are cultural or physical and inherent to the fabric of that person's life, so it makes it clear in a seamless way. Obviously speech rhythms and accents can come into it sometimes, but in many cases not.

Any thoughts?

Not sure I've explained this very well, but I hope you get the gist of my question.

Deb

Usually it's portrayed by family/culture with references by the older generation to the home country, or to food or religious festivals. I don't think you have to spell it out in terms of hair or skin colour.
My son came home full of beans today and described his new tutor as young, slim with black sticky-up hair (gelled & spiked). I have to say that with that description we recognied him immediately even without knowing his surname was Patel.

- NaomiM

Thanks Naomi - that's what I assumed, but you put it so much better. I'll pass to my friend and see if she can do it this way instead.

Deb

Is it important in terms of the story/character etc that we know he's black? Because if not, I'd be inclined to just do whatever comes naturally, which may or may not mean spelling it out, depending on writing style etc.

For example, you don't always put in someone'e hair or eye colour, or weight, or height, but you might do. Sometimes you want more detail, sometimes you want to leacve it up to the reader to paint their own mental picture.

I think it's appropriate to make it clear if it's part of that person's self-image, just as it would be for one character who were tall/short/skinny/plump/rich/poor whatever, but not another. Some people are very conscious of the categories they fit into, and others barely know there are such things as categories, let alone that they might affect how they see themselves. To that extent, it's simply a question of what's that character like, how do they see themselves, and presumably your friend can decide that.

As to important, that's where the reader's reaction comes into it. Are most readers, for good or bad reasons, going to be uneasy with not knowing? If so, the writer has to decide whether to tell them. You could call telling them pandering to a mild form of racism that assumes that a character's race is too important to be ignored, as most readers would think a character's gender is too important to be ignored. Or you could say it was mealimouthed (which is arguably a different kind of even milder racism, if you like) to avoid the issue.

I don't know the answer, but that's how I see it.

Emma

I think a reader's reaction is important.
If they have envisaged the character as white all the way through, then towards the end there is something that spells out the character is black - something that could just as easily be put at the beginning - then the reader is likely to feel annoyed at being 'misled'.
Unless that was the intention of the writer in the first place; who perhaps wanted to avoid stereotyping their character early on.


- NaomiM

I have minor black and asian characters in my book Deb, and always make it clear, just as i have made it clear that Charley had red hair and the mistress has a big nose...

this is one excerpt when some older women are drooling over Tamsin's new boyfriend at a fancy dress party

Both women looked across at Devan, with his finely plaited afro hair, dark chocolate eyes and broad shoulders.

and Charley has an Indian girlfriend - it's clear enough saying her name is Manjula, but i commnet on her glossy black hair and mention her hubbie Sanjay...

i don't think we should hold back from describing all the differences between us... it is something i thought hard about, though.

Thank you all - your comments are all really helpful and much appreciated. You've really clarified the situation.

Deb

It isn't quite the same, but I have a first person narrator who is very overweight, and it is important to the story that you know that as early as possible. It is hard to get it in but in the end I had her naked on the first page, and I think it works. She also has asian neighbours, and while she never mentions their colour, she's racist in a well-meaning, sheltered way, and describes them as 'foreign' and 'ethnic' and makes a lot of the woman's sari and long hair.

Just a thought. If it isn't too relevant to your character then maybe have someone comment on it in conversation - you've got the potential for someone to be racist, or just complementary about some feature of his appearance.

I don't think this as an issue is much different to getting a picture of what first person narrators look like into any novel - it's always tricky, because you can't get them to do this:

'As I stood at the bus-stop I caught sight of my reflection in the car waiting opposite and I was struck by my wonderful flaming hair and size eleven feet.'

Lady B

I must admit that when I have black or Asian characters I have tended to use easy clues like names. But actually I think going all round the houses talking about characters calling their parents friends 'auntie' or having chapatis in their packed lunch rather than just say they are Asian (or whatever) can be a bit coy. It depends what is most natural in the context and I would not be shy of referring to hair or even skin colour, necessarily.

It's like, I remember once watching Question Time in the height of the early days of 'political correctness', and Robin Day (gosh, this is going back a bit!) wanted to call on a questioner in the audience with his hand up who was black - and was the only black person for rows and rows all around. Sir Robin kept on saying things like 'You, sir, the gentleman in the blue shirt' and the questioner could not believe he meant him - because the bloody obvious thing to identify him would have been to say 'you, the black guy'!! Things like that are silly, and frankly make me cringe.

Rosy

IKWYM Rosy - it's tricky, isn't it?

David Bumblebee often gets the sex wrong of audience members with their hands up, which is always good for a laugh, but probably not for the person in question...

Deb

Thank you all for some very useful comments!

Deb