I keep seeing people say "But you *used* to say we could write PoC MCs as long as we weren't co-opting stories *about* being PoC???"

And yes, we did. Because y'all insisted you needed to so we tried to believe y'all could do it well. Now we know you can't. We learned. Your turn.

I know y'all are gonna be upset this wasn't said "nicely" so let me explain. I did sensitivity reads for 2 years. I've never read a well-done PoC POV by a white person.

Never. Not once. Why? Because y'all don't *get* us. You don't know how to write us without co-opting our pain.

"Then teach us!" I wish I could, but I can't! And frankly, I shouldn't have to. Why do y'all need to write stories *we* aren't allowed to write either?

Because publishing still bars us from writing our stories. You know that, right? And it's bc they'd rather let y'all do it.

But here's the thing: when we say "stop writing our stories" what we mean is, "you're going to get chances before we do, so please stop taking our only shot."

Bc we don't get to write white books. We don't. We only get to write our stories of pain & we only *now* get to.

We're only *now* getting to write our stories bc pub is finally seeing that we write them better, and even then, y'all still put out more books about us then we do.

So we can't stop you from writing our stories, but we *can* give you advice, which is what we're doing now.

Y'all can do your "research", but you will *never* write us better than we do. You won't. And when your book is embarassingly racist, we'll call it out.

We tried to help y'all, but you didn't want to hear us, so now you wrote a bad book and we're gonna call it that.

Because no hours of googling will teach you what life is like for the people you silence. If you want to know, let *us* tell our stories.

*Read* those stories. And one day, once you've read enough, you may start to understand the way we understand whiteness.

But darling, we ain't there yet. That world doesn't exist. You don't have the access or bandwidth to understand & write us. You've proven that.

So take a breather & let us give you that access by giving us the space we need to write. Then we can all share each other's stories.

And when publishing is actually fair and equal, you'll know how to write PoC without "research" bc we won't be silenced.

When the time comes, we'll be so commonplace that writing us won't be something you have to learn. Because we'll all be equal. We'll be present everywhere.

But until that day, you're just setting us back. You're just adding to the misinformation that makes more people write us wrong.

Because you won't write us right, and sensitivity readers can't save you. Let us pave the way *for once*. Accept that it's better for you to follow.