Scary People

Image: AI generated cartoon of scary people.

One of the risks that storytellers face as they craft a character is building realistic individuals without falling into the use of tropes and stereotypes. Writers are taught to 'show, not tell' which means every phrase, image and word can be loaded with multiple meanings. What does it mean if a character drinks Bud Light or Rhinegeist Truth IPA? Is one a beer snob and the other a college kid on a date? Which one? Since I avoid light beer and IPAs, I'm not qualified to tell you, but you get the idea. As a storyteller, I don't want to tell you a character is a bad person or a good person, I need to show you, and the lazy way to do that is to rely on tropes and stereotypes. The risk of this is compounded when we write about communities and people to whom we have no connection. Research will only get you so far.

Writers are also taught 'write what you know' which can be very limiting. I don't even know myself, let alone anything else, so what am I going to write about? Having good beta readers who will point out when you veer into tropes and stereotypes is critically important. And yes, it stings when someone points that out but at least consider their point of view.

Maybe that is the reason I get annoyed when anyone becomes a stereotype in their own right. I'm sure we all have behaviors that are 'stereotypish' to which we are blind. (Feel free NOT to point mine out.) One of the challenges of the current administration is that they step fully into every stereotype of cruelty that they can find. They do it joyfully, celebrating the fact that they can. I haven't been able to decide if we are being led by a bunch of emotional and intellectual thirteen- year-olds or if this is the largest collection of non-self-reflective people ever gathered in the same place. It is just stunning.

This week's cruelty? The Navy is going to rename eight John Lewis class ships, named for civil rights icons and activists. The first announced is the USNS Harvey Milk, and of course they announced this during Pride month. Others to be renamed include USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsberg, USNS Medgar Evers, USNS Harriet Tubman, USNS Cesar Chavez, USNS Lucy Stone, and the USNS Doloras Huerta.

I have said before that you cannot change history by erasing it. Do they realize they are just elevating these people in our consciousness? (Writer's Note: I'm willing to bet most of you will google Lucy Stone just to find out why they hate her!) You might say this is no different than removing Confederate statues and names from buildings, but there is a difference. None of these people committed treason against the United States of America. They all confronted us in one way or another and fought against inequality and inequity, but that just makes them Americans. We must create and maintain a society in which we can do the hard work of looking at ourselves and our actions and reflect on whether or not we are living our values.

I guess I have to give the Trump administration that much: they value cruelty and racism, and they live it every day.

We cannot abide cruelty.

Win a free Kindle edition of Love: a novel of grief and desire: I work with Reader's Favorite on the Kindle book giveaway. If you go to https://readersfavorite.com/book-giveaway/love/1 you can sign up for the monthly giveaway. You can scroll through the list of giveaways (over 500 each month) or sort the list by title or author to find Love: a novel of grief and desire and put your name in for this month's drawing. Good luck!