Sometimes I think about the “rules“ of writing, particularly around show don’t tell, and it’s here where you can see the obvious way in which western culture and whiteness in particular has been centered.

Storytelling in Black culture is an oratory tradition. I mean, that’s how it started with most of the world, but then the written word, colonialism, speak the King’s English, blah blah blah happened.

And people tend to forget the impact slavery had on our storytelling traditions. I mean, for hundreds of years it was illegal for Black people to read and write in this country. Yet our stories persisted.

Plus we didn’t exactly, you know, free time to sit around editing and revising and drawing things out narratively. These were tales told in stolen moments on the porch of a slave cottage, or around a cooking fire.

This did not diminish our capacity or talent for storytelling, not in the least. Our stories are not somehow lessened by this. I’m just pointing out that our “style“ of storytelling is drastically different than what has been developed and then maintained by these “rules.”

Just something to keep in mind when you talk about the “rules“ of writing. The idea behind a central way to tell a story because it makes it easier to digest for a particular audience rubs me the wrong way.