The whitewashing of black characters on Wattpad, and unfortunately almost every form of entertainment in this world, is an incredibly significant problem.
Nine times out of ten, when I read a book with a black female lead, her hair is described as being bra strap length, with loose, silky, and exotic curls. The majority of black girls do not have bra strap length, loose, silky, or exotic curls. We have kinky, frizzy, and wildly beautiful hair that defies gravity and rests on top of our shoulders. We have short hair that stops at the nape of our necks. We have hair that will only ever be silky with the help of a relaxer. We have hair that is completely disregarded. Let me put this into perspective. Nine out of ten black female leads have hair that nine out of ten real black females can't identify with. If there are one hundred books with black female leads, black readers just had the idea that their hair is not good enough pounded into their head ninety times. (I'm aware that there's nothing exact or proven about that math. I'm merely providing a visualization of the impact that these whitewashed, anti-black books possess.)
Being insecure about skin tone is something almost every dark-skinned black person can identify with. Colorism is a huge part of the dynamic of the black Wattpad community because it is a large part of our community regardless. Black people have the broadest range of colors, more than any other race, so to only write about those on the lighter side of the spectrum is insulting and hurtful. When only the caramel, redbone, and yellow bones of our women are written about, it reiterates the misconception that dark skin women are ugly solely for their skin. Dark skin girls are beautiful. Dark skin girls are deserving of love stories, teen romances, freaky werewolf mates, and everything in between. You're a colorist if you believe otherwise, and if you're truly not a colorist, do more than comment defensively. Write about us.
I want you to close your eyes (okay maybe not literally because you need to keep reading), and I want you to visualize black people you've met, black peoples you're friends with, black people you're family with, etc. Do the majority of the people you've visualized have bright blue and green eyes? Or perhaps they all have narrow, dainty noses that our white brethren tend to have? Now I want you to look at yourself. How many of you have those ocean blue eyes, and that little dainty nose? I'm willing to bet that at least seventy-five percent of you don't. The majority of black women do not have the traits mentioned above, therefore, the majority of our black characters shouldn't constantly have those traits. Simple.
The intention of this post is to inform black authors of their disregard for all black readers. You are only writing to a small percentage of the black community when you continually write stories about girls with different eye colors, super long hair, light skin, and tiny features. A lot of the time, you are disregarding your own selves and the descriptions of your characters, and their complete and utter contrast from who you are displays great insecurity. It displays internalized racism and anti-blackness that you may think is completely normal, but it's not. It's never normal to hate yourself so much, that you refuse to even acknowledge yourself. What good is it to write a story about a black girl, if you are just going to conform her to Eurocentric beauty standards? We don't have representation among white characters, and a lot of us don't have it among black characters. Be a part of the solution.
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My Message To Black Authors
RomanceA message to black authors and readers here on Wattpad.
