28. DIVERSITY

THIS WASN'T A TOPIC of discussion when I first joined Wattpad, but it recently became one and that's an interesting and exciting thing because it shows the evolution of wATTPAD and how there are so many amazing cultures and this is a beautiful thing.

This was supposed to be Chapter 30 - because I plan out my chapters and it just so happened to be 30 - but, I've recently been told something very interesting and really crazy, and I was completely.. confused.

It said this: Speaking of [Barbara Palvin], I was reading a book and the main character was black and I read the comments and one said "I'm just gonna picture her as Barbara Palvin" whaaaaattt

Some people wouldn't see this as offensive (someone that's ignorant, deaf, blind, and stupid) but it's completely fucking disrespectful when the author sets a character as a POC, and you completely white-wash them and make them into something else. IM NOT EVEN POC AND I UNDERSTAND THIS!!

I remember reading a book, and seeing one of the characters being black, and the author QUICKLY established that you can imagine the characters as whOEVER you want, but the race of the character were to remain the same. YES GO AUTHOR YOU DO YOU!

So, in honor of my outrage, I WROTE THIS CHAPTER SO HELLO LET US GO.

There are not enough POC in Wattpad novels. Of course, we have a vast majority of POC books and that's gREAT IT TRULY IS, but I think at least one POC should be in 85% of Wattpad books. 95% of those POC should be main characters.

"We have projects like #talkthepoc for that Mackenzie" Shut the fuck up, we shouldn't need projects for this. This should be something that should already be established and we shouldn't have to talk about it. Although those projects are great for promoting this yes yes.

AND WHEN POC IN BOOKS ARE WHITE-WASHED. HOOOEEE MY GOLDEN RETRIEVER.

That has got to be one of the most offensive things ever. To have a character's race ignored or be "white-washed".. You must have a whole lot of freaking nerve to do some crazy mess lIKE THIS WWOOOOOWWW. Thank America that I've never seen any crazy mess like this.

That's basically saying "I'm going to ignore your ideals for your MC and I'm gonna push mine onto her". That's basically a huge fuck you, honestly.

THEN, WE HAVE PEOPLE WHO WANT TO BASH THESE AUTHORS BECAUSE APPARENTLY "That's not culturally appropriate, you don't deserve to write about [enter specific POC group here]."

I'm just gonna let the people who do this shit rn know that not everyone is raised the same. Not everyone comes out of the womb educated on all freaking races, and you only know things you are told. All of that falls on the parents, not the children.

At least they are trying. Not a lot of people do that. Some people don't even consider POC characters because they don't want to be bothered with how much studying it takes and making sure their character is doing the right thing. Don't put an author down because of mistakes, because I want to see YOU write a story about another culture and make it 100% perfect.

Instead, encourage them! Just say, "hey, I just wanted to let you know that I am so-and-so, and this isn't correct. But WHATEVER AND WHATEVER THIS IS HOW IT IS"

I would be grateful is someone did this for me. Don't be a cunt about it okay, because I hate cunts. #TipsWithSenpai.

AND GOSH DON'T TREAT THIS LIKE IT ISN'T A HUGE FREAKING DEAL OR IT ISN'T TOTALLY CLICHÉ! Most of the super duper popular Wattpad books contain non-POC people(not to mention those books are trash, not that the race of the characters determine that) and I personally think the lack of diversity is a pretty serious thing.

If you haven't realized, Wattpad is a pretty huge social media platform and it is the largest platform for books and reading in the social media realm. Crazy, I know, but true.

If we can't even spark diversity on a simple social media platform, tHEN HOW CAN WE DO IT IN REAL LIFFEEE??

We shouldn't have people not reading books because of how the characters look.

We shouldn't have to have projects to promote diversity in books.

We shouldn't have to bash authors because they aren't appropriately portraying a culture. We should already know this stuff!

Lord, Wattpad. Get it together.

SO YEAH, if you see POCs in stories being white-washed, freaking sET THEM STRAIGHT THAT SHIT IS CLICHE.

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I wasnt gonna upload for another few days or so but I saw that comment and just went suPER SAIYAN AHAH. so yeah.

I didn't feel like I should have been the one to write this. I don't know how to explain it.

It's kind of like a turtle writing the biography of a fish. It's not right and the fish should be able to tell its own story you know. We shouldn't need turtle to call attention to the fish's story. I hope you understand my metaphor because I tried to explain it in simple words but it didn't work with me because I'm not simple.

I don't want to offend anyone and I hope no one thinks I'm a cunt because I am. I like cunt as an insult nowadays. If you can tell.