Our Pain Is Not Yours To Convey

I never once said you weren’t entitled to your opinion, if you’re taking someone else’s analysis of a statement as an attack then that’s on you. I was just breaking it down to show how it supports the “but you can’t tell it if you haven’t lived it” talking point that has been repeated too many times in this thread.

This is a public thread as well, so someone else could read it and come to their own understanding of it all. They should be able to hear the sides of all minorities no matter how nonsensical.

So anyone who sticks up for Josie is Josie? So she’s not allowed to have people who stick up for her?

Ugh not you again :roll_eyes:

Stop trying to start arguments :tipping_hand_woman:t5: :unamused:.

Why don’t you go to the person who went off topic and mentioned her? I didn’t see you replying telling them to stop. You only have an issue when someone sticks up for Josie. Tell everyone to stop mentioning her on this thread since this is your post

I asked her really to see if she had any proof…yet you came to my thread wayy before this taking things out of proportion and trying to make this seem like it’s a thread about Josie… :roll_eyes:

Well ok

Check Pm I’m finna Pm you ! :relaxed:

The thing that is confusing for me as a ig is that some black people say that they don’t want white people to write about them at all, and some say that white people should be writing about them and portraying them so it gets really confusing about what I should and should not be doing. I mean, no matter what I do it looks like I’m going to end up upsetting at least someone.

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I agree that it’s not someone’s place to write about others’ struggles that they haven’t experienced. Even if I try to think of an example where a non POC person focused on writing about the horrible experiences of being POC… I can’t come up with anything.

A non POC writing about POC struggles feels like they’re just speaking over POC voices. There are plenty of stories out there written by POC about POC struggles, and those should be read and be let shine through. Even if it’s for the sake of awareness (which is a good cause, don’t get me wrong), stories written by actual POC can be promoted instead. Even with a lot of research, nothing beats actual experience.

Edit: I’ve scrolled through a lot of replies. i wanted to clarify my thoughts, because the line between insensitive vs not insensitive can appear blurry at first. Of course you can include things you haven’t gone through in your story. The issue is when you write about struggles you have never experienced first hand yourself and are writing it with the intention for reader to take something away from YOUR writing–anything from being the victim of assault to racism. Those things can HAPPEN in your story, but when the story revolves around that and is meant to allow the reader to LEARN and TAKE something from that particular struggle, then that’s when it should just be left to those who have actually experienced it to write that stuff.
Now in this particular context, when a white author is going into depth about issues POC experience that they don’t go through, it comes off as the author telling the audience how POC feel. A white person can’t tell people what POC go through on an in-depth level. That is for POC to tell people for themselves.

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Alright, as a black person I don’t want a white person writing about me. But I would like for black people to be included and repersentented ACCURATELY. Many authors tend to portray black characters wrong which is why some dislike white people added them,

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But what if an author has spoken actually spoken to a POC person then wrote about the experiences they were told? It’s like doing an interview. You are writing what you are being told. They are not pretending to know what they have been through. They are simply writing about someone who has been through it after asking them.

And this is why white people don’t tend to put POC characters in their stories because they know they will screw or up. But they still get stick for not adding diversity. So they can’t win

They can addd diversity but what’s the need for them to try talk about something they don’t experience and they can win since most of the trending section is white people stories.

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How about this? White people stick to white stories. POC, you show the white people how to do it. That way no one gets hurt.

Like someone said, while people always misinterpret and do it wrong so let’s do it this way and play it safe

You make no sense to me at all white peoples stick with white stories if white people would simply add the hairstyle made for black people on black people in their stories instead of making them look like trash we would not have a problem.

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Then they can write a report on it as a perspective into it from the OUTSIDE. Not from the INSIDE. Only POC people can know what it’s like from the INSIDE.

Agreed.
Until someone is able to physically transfer the way they feel/have felt into someone else, then there’s really not going to be an end to this topic.

That’s why I’m asking because that’s exactly what that person did who we are all bashing and they got hanged for doing it right.

Here’s my opinion:

For me as a black person, I do not like when non-black authors try to write stories solely based on racism because our trauma is not your entertainment. And Ik it’s not meant to be entertainment in their eyes, but that’s what it feels like.
I also feel like they shouldn’t write about it because they will never know how it feels. Even when they get advice.
And final point: it’s bad enough whenever black ppl get movies or shows on Netflix or streaming apps, it is trauma porn instead of genuine entertainment, we do not want to bring that over to episode. Period.
I hate reading slavery stories, I hate POC token besties, and I hate hate hate when authors don’t understand out issues yet try to portray them. And if something is offensive, take it down.

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Basically what you are saying is that white people should not put black characters in their story at all because it’s offensive. Gotcha.

White people, stop making black characters and stick to white characters only