In recent decades, people were quick to point out any sort of prejudice within society. They may stand up for children, women, and different minorities. So much so, that people are starting to point out different instances of cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation happens when individuals adopt a culture different from their own. In mainstream media, there are a lot of examples of this, from white-washing to blackface and the like. Inevitably, scrutiny has also turned to fiction writers.

Of course, many writers will write characters that reflect their own perspectives. Allegedly, men will write about men, women will write about women. Even so, there are authors who will write from perspectives that are different from theirs. This could be found in different genres, such as romance, horror, and science fiction. It is understandable, since, as fiction writers, we want to spin narratives that are entertaining. But more than that, many writers will use pen names so that they can appeal to a broader audience. For instance, Joanne Rowling stylized her name to J.K. Rowling so that the Harry Potter series would be read by more male readers. Many women writers in the Victorian era would use male-sounding names so that they could be more commercially viable. A lot of erotica writers, some of which are men, use female pen names so that their works can be more comfortably read by women.

The controversy, however, comes when a writer decides to try writing about different cultures. This could happen when a Chinese person decides to write from the perspective of a white person, a white person takes on the eyes of a Hispanic person. In America, there may be an uproar when a white person takes the voice of a black person since, if not done right, this may create a loss of justice, an imbalance of power that’s been present since colonial times.

Kathryn Stockett’s The Help was a New York Times bestseller in 2009 and is a particularly infamous example. The book describes the perspectives of black women living in the American South during the 1960s. The book has two narrators, both of which lived during the reign of the Ku Klux Klan and racial segregation. In the afterword, the author wrote about how she was scared that she might be participating in cultural appropriation by writing “in the voice of a black person.” Eventually, she was proven right. Even though the book was praised to be comparable with To Kill a Mockingbird, the novel was condemned by many readers, scholars, and critics alike. The book has been accused of misrepresenting the black community as a whole, while perpetuating white goodness. The American Association of Black Women Historians has dismissed the book, calling it unacceptable for stripping away the accuracy of black women’s lives on the basis of entertainment. Because of this, many authors have abandoned novels who they didn’t identify with as their own because they didn’t want to be given what is known now as the Stockett treatment.

As writers, while we want the freedom to write about our stories and imaginations, at the same time, we need to be sensitive enough so that we don’t alienate our readers. Because of this scrutiny, we need to look at their own privilege and determine if any of our own biases are being poured into our writing. But more than that, it forces us to ask ourselves if we are engaging in wish fulfillment, rather than paying attention to the rich diversity the world has to offer. In other words, we have to make sure that not only are we sensitive to the diverse culture around us, but we also make sure that we are not replacing writers who are better equipped to tell these stories.