dragonimp

Justine Larbalestier mentions in her blog that she's been criticized for making the main character in her YA trilogy (Magic or Madness) black when 'Reason being of Aboriginal ancestry doesn’t “add” anything to the story.' In other words, why make her black when the story isn't about her being black. To which I say: Why make her white when the story isn't about her being white? Sometimes race really is just a side-note. In this case, while a critic might argue that it doesn't "add" anything, it does make sense, because Reason's mother spent a lot of time among the Aborigines. (Actually, go read her post about it, she says it much better than I could.)

I think back to some of the concepts I developed as a kid and, my god, I would end up with the Multi-Cultural Group from hell. That's almost worse than having an all-white cast. It's not something I pay much attention to in Silver; the characters are all just there. Sometimes I worry that there's too little attention paid to race, but I'm using a first person POV, so if it's not something my narrator would take note of, it doesn't get mentioned. I think I get all the way up to, oh, chapter eight before I mention that one character has "coffee and cream" skin, and a few chapters later the narrator mentions that he has a Chinese last name. The only character who gets any significant amount of physical description is the one who physically stands out. Really, I'm much more concerned about making the characters believable to their environment.

Not everything is a racial issue. People get hung up on the weirdest things.