On Diversity Within Diversity

Photo credit: OregonDOT on Flickr
So I’ve been thinking about diversity within diversity; about the way we represent minorities and diverse peoples of all races, sexual orientations, disabilities and neurotypicalities.

I am, by no means, a voice of authority on this topic. Or any topic, really. It’s just something I’ve been thinking about and something I’d like to work toward.

What I mean about diversity within diversity is this: I think it’s absolutely fantastic that writers are pushing toward writing diversity into literature, and I love that so many people are supporting and sharing the importance of including diversity within our work, but sometimes, when we do that, we forget to look at the people themselves. We see the race, or the disability, or the sexual orientation, or the neuroatypicality and we forget that two Hispanic asexual men may be vastly different from each other, or two teenagers struggling with OCD may have hugely different symptoms.

Sometimes, we look at a representation of a minority, and we forget this is one person in a community of people who are gay, or black, or chronically ill, or blind, or a combination thereof, or whatever the case may be. Sometimes we forget that the community of that one sect of people is just as beautifully diverse as the world as a whole. Diversity within diversity.

I came across a great example of this a while ago, in a post from Marie Lu on her half-Asian, blonde-haired, blue-eyed character, Day. Here’s just a snippet of it (which I emphasized with bolding), but if you’d like the real the full post, which I think is really thought-provoking, it’s here.
“I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I didn’t mean to create Day to fill a quota or to make a statement. I didn’t mean to ‘hide’ his Asian-ness behind a blond-haired, blue-eyed mask. To think so is to discredit the fact that many people of color exist on a gradient—we are not always so noticeably Asian or Caucasian or Hispanic or African-American, etc. I’ve received quite a few emails over the years from parents who have hapa children with blond hair and blue eyes, and it makes me smile. Day is half-Asian and half-white, but he is not defined by it, nor does he dwell much on it. He’s just….Day.”
This is something I’ve barely touched on in my work, but I’d like to work on more going forward. It’s something that I think is important, because not every OCD person feels the need to count everything and keep their pens lined up, and not every asexual is uninterested in sex or relationships.

It’s important, because people are made up of much more than labels, because people are people first, and every one of us is different from another.

What do you think? Do you know of any books that show diversity within diversity?

Twitter-sized bites: 
"Sometimes we look at a representation of a minority & we forget this is one person in a community..." (Click to tweet)  
Are your characters diverse? Writer @Ava_Jae shares her thoughts on diversity, labels, and individuality. (Click to tweet)

19 comments:

Jen Donohue said...

Elizabeth Moon wrote a book called "The Speed of Dark", which is about an adult with autism who works at a company which accommodates adults with such needs very well, and the offering and implementation of a "cure" (and the ramifications therein). I'm not sure if that's the "correct" example, exactly, but it came to mind.

ryla said...

A lot of gay people encounter bullying growing up, and a lot don't. I didn't, and I always looked for a story of triumph in books that had gay protagonists. I never really found it. I think some writers would look at a book that normalizes divergent sexuality as misrepresentation, but isn't everything else about fiction and fantasy an art of misrepresentation? That's why the book I just finished (and submitted to some betas) has a cast of diverse sexual orientations without a lot of the tragedy that's sort of become the 'gay side character's' personal cliche.

Ava Jae said...

That's so interesting—sounds like a pretty heavy (literary?) book. I haven't heard of it, but it sounds like it could possibly be close to what I mean...out of curiosity, is there more than one character with autism?

Ava Jae said...

Hmmm. From what I've seen so far, a big issue a lot of writers seem to be facing in trying to include diversity is tokenism, which I think is what you're referring to with the 'gay side character' cliché? This is something I'm still learning a lot about myself, but I think the key to avoiding having the token minority character is what you described—having a diverse cast each with their own experiences, so that one character doesn't end up as some kind of representation of a whole...if that makes sense.

M Kinnel said...

Your response hits it on the head.

Ava Jae said...

Oh good! Thank you. :)

Jen Donohue said...

It was shelved in SciFi, if I remember right, when my library had it. Yes, there is more than one character with autism. The company at which they work has kind of an "autism team", and then things like a "stim room" for them to go to should the need arise. (if I'm remembering right)

Ava Jae said...

Huh. That's really interesting. I may have to check that out.

ryla said...

Tokenism! That. That's the word I need to use, the connection being when tokenism seems to outshine a character's diversity within a minority that might just have a stereotype (or expectation) looming above it.

But yeah, you made total sense. :)

Rainy Kaye said...

So true. And sometimes you're surprised by what road you eventually take :)

Ava Jae said...

Also true! Great point. :)

David Fuller said...

I agree, the drive to include diverse characters in fiction is important! I think one approach to avoid tokenism is to really flesh out any characters with different backgrounds than the writers', and engage with communities who know about those experiences while writing. Do research of all kinds. It's hard, but without really trying to represent those differing aspects of the character, you run the risk of just "othering" the character.
Daniel José Older has a great piece on this for writers -- if it's OK, I'll include a link to it in the comments here.

Ava Jae said...

That's totally okay! Share all you'd like. :)


Also, I think you're absolutely right. Your suggestions are fantastic, so thank you for sharing!

David Fuller said...

Here's Daniel's piece. Great advice and much food for thought:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/danieljoseolder/fundamentals-of-writing-the-other

Ava Jae said...

Oh yes! I think I've seen this before. Thanks for sharing, David!

Rowenna said...

Really excellent points! I know that I like reading both stories about diversity and stories that just happen to have diversity, if that makes sense--just because a story features a black, or gay, or Asian, or deaf, or {fill in the blank} protagonist or supporting character doesn't necessarily mean that that story is *about* the experience of being black, gay, Asian, deaf, or {fill in the blank}. Every story and every character is different--just like every person in the "real" world is different. Thanks for this post!

Ava Jae said...

Thanks, Rowena, and you're so welcome! I agree—I also enjoy seeing books that aren't necessarily about diversity, but include a diverse cast. It's encouraging, to say the least.

the one and only ME said...

I've always said that people are people first, then they are themselves...influenced somehow by the mix of genes dealt to them, but definitely not defined by that. Always wondered why some people don't "get it."

Ava Jae said...

Exactly! Your background/ethniticy/religion/sexual orientation/gender/etc. all play into who you are, but ONE of those aspects don't define your whole person.

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