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It's not that you can't write about things outside of your social/cultural/racial/etc sphere, it's that no matter how hard you work to create something real and something good, it will always fall flat in comparison to something that came from the REAL thing.
I can write a beautiful story about gay men, and tragic romance between cancer patients, a romance set in the china; but at the end of the day, as someone who isn't a gay man, who isn't fighting cancer, who isn't Chinese, my story will always fall flat in comparison.
Nothing I ever draw will be able to capture the nuanced experience of being trans in the way that a trans person could. And if my art was good or valuable at all, it will be because I consulted with or received guidance from a trans person. This applies to all minority groups.
I don't know why people get so irrationally possessive over experiences that just don't belong to them. And again, it's not to say that you should never have characters that come from different backgrounds (cause that's already the issue we're dealing with)-
-It's just that your'e main priority when exploring these different backgrounds, should be to do them justice, and to elevate the REAL world people your'e representing in your work (i.e. paying sensitivity readers, doing research, being careful about boundaries, etc)
And let's face it, a lot of "good representations" of other cultures from white people, are usually very....barebones. Not to say that it's not important and not good, it's just that it won't ever be explored in a more in depth way.
I can make a hijabi character, and that's great and all, but then what? How could I expand on her personality? Her beliefs? How would I explore the intersections between her religion and her sexuality? Her way of thinking?
These are questions I can ONLY hope to answer with enough research, but a practicing muslim could answer easily.
(Scuse my clumsy wording here)
(Scuse my clumsy wording here)
This can also happen from WITHIN these groups. I consider myself brown skin, and can only talk about the experiences of dark/light skinned people from THAT perspective, and anything else comes from perspectives I have heard/studied about.
I think a big differentiating factor in something like that is your passion. A white creator will never be able to rival my passion for Black people and Black issues, I will always beat them when it comes to my drive to want to create beautiful Black stories.
I can write about colorism in my community, but will never be able to garner the same type of soulful response to it as the people who suffer from it can.
