I was very lucky this week as my novel Flight was picked by
EmpathyLabUK to be included in their Reading for Empathy Guide 2020 in the lead
up to #EmpathyDay on June 9th. Empathy is a skill that can be learned
and a vital one as it is part of emotional intelligence. Reading as we know can
encourage empathy as it is a chance to walk in someone else’s shoes, for example.
We all also know that the past week or so has been very
difficult for other reasons which we are all well aware of and should continue to
be at the forefront of our thoughts. I am doing my best to educate myself better
all the time on anti-racism. We can say we understand, but we can never
understand. We have to do things better and this includes as writers.
I
want to tell you a story that someone was telling me the other day. They told
me how shocked they were when discussing the situation in an appropriate way
with their child, who is 6 plus, and they announced ‘But all black people are baddies!’.
They didn’t understand this response as though they are white, they have
friends, relatives and neighbours who are BAME. Confused they questioned the child, pointing
out all the people they knew who were BAME and certainly weren’t baddies. The
child countered ‘But on the tv, they are always baddies.’ Out of the mouths of babes...
This made me think. I started to watch programmes differently
rather than just having them on in the background as I normally do. I began to
realise quite often how negatively BAME characters are portrayed. Rarely are
they the ones who save the day. Don’t get me wrong, I know this is not a new
argument and it has been discussed over and over again including on this blog. This is part of me trying to educate myself better. You see these scenarios played out in life too. In recent interviews time and
again we hear about PoC being stopped by the police because they happen to fit a
profile. There is an automatic assumption because their face might fit then
obviously... It made me wonder if part of that ‘their face fits’ is because of
the media representation which reinforces this systemic racism. But I am not
here to debate that. It is a subject far too big for my blog post but something we must
keep considering and working on.
 |
| Muhammad Khan |
I am here to think about the areas we spoke about leading up
to and during Empathy Day. How important it is to think about the characters you
are creating when writing. It is all too easy, and to a certain extent can be a
sign of lazy writing showing a lack of research, to slip into writing stereotypical characters. Be respectful and do your research. Now is the time to challenge
them and work hard to fight against those stereotypes. We need to write stories
that all children can empathise with giving them windows on other lives or
mirrors on their own. Muhammad Khan, so brilliantly put it as sliding
doors as well. Where the reader can walk through the doors and experience lives. We
have to keep writing stories that provide hope and look to the future.
As an author who happens to be disabled, I have a pie in the sky dream that we create a world where we no longer need the word 'diverse' with reference to books/tv/film etc as there is equal representation for all without question in all mediums. We can all dream, can't we?
Dr Vanessa Harbour
@VanessaHarbour
1 comment:
Congratulations for having your book chosen for Empathy Day!
A lovely post.
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