Politically correct??

[Cehrabehra]

If you are writing a story is it okay to include racist dialogue to portray a character in a certain negative light or is that also frowned upon? Or do you just imply the racism and keep them silent even if if they were real and alive they'd use those types of comments? I see there being three levels - one being don't even address it, that's safe, two being imply it, pretty safe, three being to talk about it without actually using slurs, four being using slurs in the context of dialogue

thoughts?
Typed in ipone sorry it's messy

 

[MissMina]

I would be true to my characters and plot
But would not include gratuitous racism.

 

[yssie]

Honestly? These days, I reckon if you (the author) are of the race being slighted you can say whatever the heck you want, but if you're not prepare to be roasted - especially if it's your story's 'good guys' doing the talking.

 

[Cehrabehra]

Honestly? These days, I reckon if you (the author) are of the race being slighted you can say whatever the heck you want, but if you're not prepare to be roasted - especially if it's your story's 'good guys' doing the talking.

lol - no... I don't plan to specify a race, but I would like to make a particular couple as vile as possible - and I'm actually modeling them after people I really do know (pfft family even) who totally DO say these things. I have long wanted to caricature this couple in a very colorful way and it would only make them look bad and I didn't want to eliminate that negative quality of theirs and it would be pivotal to the story so if I don't do it I'd have to re-plot my idea (which is still pretty infant... but still...) I just don't want to offend anyone beyond them hating this couple. KWIM? This couple IS racist in real life.

 

[Cehrabehra]

Oh and I should mention this is historical fiction and the racism isn't directed toward any particular race by name. It's kind of hard to explain... bigotry may be more accurate really.

 

[swingirl]

My opinion is art should not be cleaned up. It shouldn't be PC. It's an expression and the artist should not worry about offending anyone. If they did we wouldn't have most of the paintings, literature, sculpture, poetry around today. So much of it has been controversial for it's time.

 

[Steel]

I would be true to my characters and plot
But would not include gratuitous racism.

Absolutely agree.

 

[zoebartlett]

If you are writing a story is it okay to include racist dialogue to portray a character in a certain negative light or is that also frowned upon? Or do you just imply the racism and keep them silent even if if they were real and alive they'd use those types of comments? I see there being three levels - one being don't even address it, that's safe, two being imply it, pretty safe, three being to talk about it without actually using slurs, four being using slurs in the context of dialogue

thoughts?
Typed in ipone sorry it's messy

I would be true to the era and the character's voice. I believe Kathryn Stockett's novel, The Help, has a few racial slurs (I*think*). Her book takes places in the deep south in the early 1960s, and it's about the relationship between African American maids and their female white employers. Of the levels you mentioned above, Stockett either used level three or four (since I can't remember if she actually used the male or female version of the N word). Yes, it might be shocking to some if you choose to go all out and go with level 4, but if it's true to the era and the tone of the times, and it's true to the voice you've given the character, I don't think you'd be doing anything *wrong*. Others may not see it that way, though, so you might want to be prepared to hear some negative feedback.

 

[Cehrabehra]

Interesting - I thought there would be more negative... if the plot ends up depending on it I'll just see where it goes and worry about it then... if the plot doesn't depend on it then I will probably avoid it... though really these people are bigots of some sort, I just know it lol

And The Help is a book my book club is reading in February. We have two african women in our group who have been living in america for about 20 years each and I love hearing what they have to say - They weren't in the group when I suggested the book, I hope they aren't offended by it!

 

[movie zombie]

i am almost at the end of the book THE HELP: without the racist slurs the book would have been meaningless: 1963 jackson mississippi was not a time or place of political correctness.

MoZo

ps btw, extremely good book and an easy and fast read....i can hardly put it down.

 

[AGBF]

I find this discussion interesting. I read, The Help without thinking about the issue, but was unable to teach To Kill A Mockingbird without setting off a furor in my eighth grade English classroom because I, a white person, said the "n word" outloud while doing so.

In some classes the kids forgot I was white. I remember once that a boy made a comment, got stared at, then said, "What's the matter? There are no white people around." Sometimes in classes with more white kids it was clear that there were two races in the room. (And it was alway two: people of color and white. Not black and white.)

Deb/AGBF

 

[Imdanny]

Dicey.

As a writer, I believe that there is nothing wrong with putting words like that in quotes (i.e. as you said, it would be dialog).

On the other hand, there are many people who don't want to hear or read those kinds of words, ever.

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Cehra, that's an interesting question.

I think for the purposes of your particular story, based on the info you've told us about the villainous couple, you'll be fine. And it's a question I've been wondering, because the book I'm contemplating, a slightly fictionalized account of the INSANE Korean community I've lived in and around, is probably going to be rather racist itself. I hope it doesn't descend to racism, but I will be poking fun at my own culture and the insane antics, so there is the possibility.

I think, as someone else already said, as long as it's context-appropriate and not gratuitous, it serves a literary purpose.