Inneresting 45
issue 45
March 27, 2021
The danger of silence
Writer and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize included these remarks about how injustice persists:
“…[T]he world did know and remained silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere.”
Read the full speech here.
Whether wielding weapons or legislation, actions intended to harm a marginalized population begin with prejudiced ideas. These ideas grow from the stories a person has access to, and that have the potential to shape what feels “normal” to them.
When writing for an audience, no choice is neutral. Silence is not neutral. Stories can reinforce bigotry or stand up against it.
Words matter, because ideas become actions
Professor Rumi Chunara from NYU presented research in 2019 that shows a link between negative tweets about race, ethnicity, and national origin and the number of crimes committed in those cities based on the same prejudices.
Le’Shae Robinson writes about her experiences in digital advertising, pointing out ways that messaging and ad targeting reinforce negative stereotypes and promote inequality.
Representation matters in front of the camera…
Jon M. Chu spoke about his family’s reaction to his editing their home movies, and how it related to his experience seeing the audience reactions to Crazy Rich Asians.
Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy shares the story of making of her film documenting “honor killings” and violence against women in Pakistan. She discusses how bringing this film via a mobile cinema to small towns and villages in Pakistan led to shifts in culture as women’s stories were given space.
…and behind the keyboard.
“Who Gets To Tell Other People’s Stories” is a continuing conversation (like this example from Anna Holmes). For some perspectives on this discussion:
Alaina Leary speaks about the #OwnVoices movement in publishing, particularly with stories for younger readers, and the positive impact of stories centered on characters from marginalized communities written by members of that same community.
S.E. Smith writes about the way that the desire for Own Voices writing can make some authors feel compelled to out themselves in order to demonstrate their authenticity.
Author Alex Gino suggests the idea of “Near Voices.”
Gino goes further into the premise in this interview, where they explain the rationale behind the term:
"That doesn’t mean that cis people shouldn’t be writing trans characters. There’s a difference between writing a trans-themed book, or a book about transness, and writing a book that has trans people in it. Yeah, have trans people in your books! But don’t try to explain what transness is. That’s not the goal, it’s not helpful. Cis people often put a lot of their notions and centering of cisness in it.
That said, there are so many ways of being trans. I’m not trans the way my character is trans. My character is a binary, a trans girl. I am genderqueer, I am non-binary. So it’s not autobiographical, and it’s not ‘own voices’. Yet it’s still coming from within the community."
Ways to act
This is just a starting point:
Stop AAPI Hate has a list of ways you can take action to stop acts of hate against the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.
We Need Diverse Books offers resources to authors and ways promote books by marginalized voices to young readers.
The Loveland Foundation focuses its work on helping Black women and girls gain access to therapy and mental health services.
And that’s what’s inneresting this week!
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