The Issue with Black Representation in Literature

Representation, though it has the promise and potential to be inspiring and life-changing, can also be a prison by which we trap expansive marginalised identities into a box. The representation of marginalised people in literature can be quite a complicated conversation we have, because there are a lot of questions we must consider. Who is qualified to represent who? Are we limiting writers if we say they do not have the capacity to represent certain groups? Are we forcing marginalised writers to stick to representing their own identity, if we say that no one else can? Is it wrong if your book fails to be ‘diverse’? Basically – what are the problems that arise when we speak of representation?

I feel I must start by saying Black people are largely underrepresented or badly represented in literature – especially classic literature. I do believe it may be asking too much of classic writers to break the conventions of their time so greatly and so publicly by attempting to bring Black people into history through literature. But I also think that very few non-Black writers would have been capable of this at that time anyway. Yet, knowing that they likely couldn’t have done much better, does not mean I will hold respect for classic writers who often represented Black people in very racist ways. This is not to diminish the literary achievements of said writers, but simply to say that Black people deserve better than that. I mourn to think about the stories we could have had, if Black people had the access to creating literature that white people had.

Now to think of our current day, Black people are being represented more by Black and non-Black authors. For some non-Black authors, it seems to be an answer to criticisms about books not being ‘diverse’ enough, and for some there is a genuine desire to represent their world truthfully. There is a way for non-Black people to represent Black people well, and that requires research and understanding about what Blackness is beyond a skin colour and beyond oppression. This is of course, something that Black people have a much larger capacity to represent. And the issue with non-Black writers giving their stories Black characters, is a lack of research and a lack of consideration about what it means to be Black in their world. As well as this, there is the damaging mindset that some non-Black writers have, that they are ‘giving a voice to people that don’t have one’. If this is the intent beyond a non-Black writer representing Black characters, then it is already clear that not only do they have a limited perspective of Black people as all non-Black writers will – but that they are reinforcing the silencing of Black voices in their text. Black people are telling their own stories and do not need non-Black to speak for them.

To be very clear, I am not saying that non-Black people should not write Black characters, but rather that if they do, they must do the research it requires to represent them well, and let go entirely of the belief that they are doing Black people a favour by including us in their work. Black people deserve to be represented as widely as possible so that young people have characters that they can more accurately identify with. We deserve to be represented in our varying sexualities and gender identities if we want to spread the understanding that a person’s Blackness is not negated by being a part of the LGBT community. We deserve to be written with varying experiences, whilst also making sure there is an awareness of how our experiences as Black people are a part of who we are. Non-Black writers have a tendency to give their stories half written characters for the sake of diversity, and reinforce stereotypes because it is easier than writing an original character. It is obvious when writers do this because they will either write a white character who has been described as having “chocolate skin” (by which I mean there is no signifiers of Blackness beyond this overdone and useless description), or they will write us the stereotypes we know.

I suppose my point is that people can write Black characters if they do the research it requires, but also to keep in mind that Black authors are writing their own stories and deserve to be prioritised when we are searching for books with Black representation.

• Krysta-Jo Mckenzie