Decentering Whiteness in My Writing

I read an important tip on Twitter last night that's transforming my writing: If you're going to describe skin tone on people of color, you need to do the same for white characters.

It's a simple, but revolutionary thing -- I have been making the assumption that I don't have to describe white people because it's assumed that white is the default. I didn't even do this consciously.

One could rationalize making white the default through statistics -- Most Americans are white, therefore. But that's doing a disservice to people of color, who still make a significant number of people in the world.

Worse, specifying skin tone for non-whites -- Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans -- while ignoring it for whites signals that minorities are "other", not of the group, something to be stared at.

So I'm making a point to go back into my writing and add descriptors of white skin. It has felt very strange, which is part of why I should be doing it. 

I have gone through one of my finished books and today I will do the other two. And then I will feel like I have done the right thing by my readers.

Originally published August 15, 2020