Busting Writer Myths: The White Cast of Characters

C'mere for just a second. Sit down. I have a little trope to tell you about. It's called the Black Best Friend. It's not just for when the MC's best friend is black, but oho, let me tell you: every word of the trope's name is selected oh-so-carefully.

The term Black Best Friend refers to when the white protagonist has a best friend that is Asian, black,  Hispanic, Phillipino, any of the minorities.

Here are a few examples:

Ella Enchanted

Whichever Cinderella Story this is

Yes, even Percy Jackson. Crucify me now.

Doesn't mean I don't like these movies. I love 'em. But they have committed a crime here.

But it's only ever the best friend who is the minority. Very seldom is it the main character.

Let's talk for a second, my writer friends. I think white people are well represented in books. Very well represented. One could even say overly represented. I think a lot of this is just because it's what we tend to see, so we copy it whether we mean to or not. The most likely reason I tend to create white main characters is that, um, I'm white. But like I said, we're already well-represented in books.

So could we represent some other ethnicities as well? It's not like white people are going anywhere.

HERE's a diverse cast that doesn't feel forced.

Now let me start feeding you some ideas to diversify your cast.

• Switch it up! Make the main character the minority and have the sidekick be white.
• Have the main character come from an entire neighborhood that is black/Asian/what have you.
• If your novel is a fantasy novel, maybe the humans in whatever world you've created are all, for example, Indian in appearance. I'm thinking of doing this with an upcoming project myself.
• If your novel is sci-fi, perhaps some humanoid aliens look like people that are an ethnic minority here. Or you could even have an entire space colony comprised of American Indians or something like that. That just sounds fascinating to me.
• Have the mentor or another highly-respected character be the minority.
• And a do-not: do not make two siblings in your novel be two different races unless you explain how this came to be. The 2015 Fantastic 4 movie has me in a fit.

While diversifying your cast, however, there are two things you must must MUST remember!

1. Don't over-compensate and do the opposite. Create an Indian protagonist, a Hispanic sidekick, an Asian mentor, and pretty soon it looks like you're trying too hard for diversity. Don't be those people. If you want, you could even just pick one ethnic group and stick to it. This might even work better.

2. This second point is connected to the first: Don't make your diverse characters just token characters. Don't just make them black, Hispanic, Asian, whatever just for the sake of being diverse. Make their ethnicity play a role in the story. Have their culture be a part of their lives. Perhaps you could even bring it into the plot somehow.

yeah, like in this movie.

That's it for today. Soon we'll be talking about a different kind of diversity: Diversity of appearance. In the meantime, you can visit my Twitter and Instagram and enjoy the funnies I post there. See ya!