More on Writing About Culture Different Than Your Own
There’s an on-going discussion on the Sur La Lune discussion boards: White people using stories from other cultures. Respect is key, appropriation rots and pay special attention to Nalo Hopkinson’s replies. Take away message: not much different than you’d expect. Be respectful and do it anyway.
That aside, I still have qualms about attempting to portray the “African-American”experience (what ever that is, since I’m sure it differs from one individual to the next). A bit tough, since one of the top three novels I would like to be working on has an African-American woman as the main character. I hesitate to attempt to describe life as a woman from my own micro cultural background (middle class white Albuquirkian) encounters it, much less a woman of African heritage.
The trick seems to be dispacement in time. If its in the distant, beyond remembered, past or future, all of us have to use our imaginations to reach it, so we all have a common approach.