Years ago I read an essay by Amy Tan wherein she addressed a complaint someone had against her writing: all she ever wrote about were Chinese-American women! It was sort of implied that she'd found a niche market and was cashing in on it (as if that alone were a bad thing). She explained, though, that she wrote about Chinese-American women because that was her experience; she didn't feel that she could write about what it was like to be an American Caucasian woman because she had never been one and did not know how it might feel different to be one. She went on to say that she felt that stories should have a universal appeal whether rice or potatoes were being served for dinner. (I'm totally paraphrasing here based on my memory-- truly I ought to go and re-read her essay and give you some direct quotes. But I'm lazy and this book is in the library; I will say that The Opposite of Fate is a wonderful read if you're interested!)
I think what she said makes a lot of sense. It's hard to write accurately about something with which you have no experience (although I guess there's a lot of sci-fi out there that does just that).
But the flip side of this is problematic to me. I've read books that featured racially ethnic characters (is that even the way you say that now?) and reviews were very critical that the (white) author did not get it right. The example that comes first to mind was a Korean-American woman who was incensed at Rainbow Rowell's portrayal of a half-Korean half-Caucasian boy in Eleanor & Park because she felt everyone was too accepting of Park! This critic promised that any Korean-American boy growing up in Iowa (I think?) in the 1980's would have been made fun of for being Asian and she was annoyed that this was not a part of the book. (And her review had plenty of "likes" so I don't think she was just one lone crazy voice.)
At the same time, another book I read recently had a character (who is supposed to be kind of a jerk, and who feels threatened by a biracial character) make some rude comments such as, "He's half-Korean. I wonder which half?" and I saw reviewers who were very unhappy with this character for being racist (and for the author for stooping to such a level).
So writers are in trouble for not being realistic when they don't portray racism, but are also criticized for including racism in their novels. Is there any way to include race that will not upset people? The only thing worse would be to not include people of various races at all (this is only okay if it's historically accurate, such as in a Jane Austen novel, I suppose).
One of the few examples I can think of where an author managed to successfully straddle this line is J.K. Rowling in the Harry Potter books. She portrays race, but so subtly that it rarely comes up as an issue-- for example, there are the Patel twins who seem to be of Indian origin based on their names, but Rowling leaves it at that. Also, these books deal with their own form of racism-- pureblood wizards versus wizards that come from muggle families-- so the kind of racism we deal with it sort of a non-issue.
But if you're not writing about the wizarding world, how does one accurately write about an ethnically diverse group of people without angering your readers?
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