Sometimes, as a white writer, you just have to accept that not every story is yours to tell. And that’s okay. It’s not oppression, it’s not silencing.

Even if it feels like the story ~came~ to you, that you ~have~ to tell it— you don’t. You don’t have to write it, and you CERTAINLY don’t have to publish it. Get that idea out of your head.

Jesus, this blew up fast? So let me say a little more I guess.

Like many writers, my imagination is always running wild. I get so many ideas. Stories are always at the tips of my fingers. Some of those ideas feature BIPOC characters.

Those are ideas that came to me. I feel a genuine connection to them. And, they are not my stories to tell.

They are not my stories to tell, and they are CERTAINLY not my stories to profit off of, which is what I would be doing, if I published them. I do not get to take up space that should belong to a BIPOC author.

I think white writers often get this sense of ownership over story ideas, like as long as they came to us and we love them, we get to tell them. We like to think that our love for them somehow detaches us from the economic & real life impact side of publishing. It doesn’t.

Our own sense of neutrality comes from white supremacy. It comes from the idea that whiteness itself is a neutral, and that it gives us unencumbered, neutral access to the stories of others. It doesn’t.

I’m not interested in Qs of “oh, so no one can ever write outside of their own identity?” That’s a philosophical question and I don’t care about it. What I care about is the financial repercussions of opportunities being taken away from BIPOC writers by white writers.

And I care about the emotional & psychological violence of marginalized groups not being able to own and control their own stories.

That’s something I became familiar w as a trans person. Seeing our stories only written by cis ppl, seeing them benefit from it for so long HURT.

That’s something I don’t think white writers think about when we take up opportunities to tell these stories— the actual PAIN it causes.

You might help a kid feel seen, but that doesn’t make up for the other side of hurt you’re causing.

Plus the obvious point that an author of color would make those same kids feel MUCH MORE seen, in so many ways— not just on the page, but in author events, interviews, etc. it is impossible to overstate the power & importance of seeing an author from that same community.

Since folks have asked: I honestly don’t think that white people should be writing books w BIPOC protagonists.

Not everyone agrees with that, I know. That’s fine. & I might be wrong! But that is what I think. Rn, I think it’s only taking opportunities away from BIPOC authors.

And I know it’s complicated because you don’t want an all-white world in your books, and writing only side characters who are BIPOC can be tokenizing. I don’t have all the answers for that.

But I also don’t think that’s the most important discussion atm.

What’s important is pushing the publishing world to become more equitable. Questions about our role as white writers should not be centered. Like.... we can just.... set ourselves aside for awhile, honestly. Idk.