What makes a good POC representation?

 POC representation and why they are lackluster

By: Andy

Image taken from: Uganobo, A. (2017), Media representation of POC, [Image]. Sutori. https://www.sutori.com/es/historia/media-representation-of-poc--Jo7WzuYPfhch5EPHfCuKM3Ja

POC stands for "people of color", but what exactly do people of color encompass? 

This term is often used to represent pretty much anyone who isn't "white", it's hard to say that they represent a specific nationality since white people exist in many countries. Not because of their skin color you can automatically deduce their nationality. However, the term "white" was often linked to beauty for a long time. You would often see the hero being a male (later on female) character and the villain being a POC. As the media evolved so did their representations and nowadays we can see a variety of POC representations in media and books. 

It's no news that companies such as Disney included POC characters that were often extremely stereotypical and racist. We have a clear example of the Native Americans included in Peter Pan (1953), I don't think this representation could be any worse. I'm personally not part of this community and for this reason alone I can't make an adequate opinion if they did or not feel offended. However, the history of the slur used in the movie should've been enough to understand this was not the curse of action. It took Disney more than 30 years to acknowledge this and include a content warning of racism at the beginning of their movie, saying they couldn't change the past but rather acknowledge their mistakes. This is a clear example of one of the main reasons why POC representations are so lackluster. The lack of proper research before doing it. 

The following comparison of characters is my personal opinion on this matter, if your opinion differs from mine it's perfectly fine. I invite you to respectfully share your opinion on the matter if you wish to. This is also not written to create hate or lash out at the authors of this book, writing is also a complicated process, and mistakes are made. This does not mean they are justified but we have to acknowledge them. 

One of the best POC representations I've seen in books is Inej Ghafa, who is alluded to be of Indian Heritage, in the book Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. One excuse for the lack of POC representation I've seen is "it's a fantastical world, those countries don't exist". Bardugo makes this comment seem irrelevant. Her very much fantastical world has different countries that have inspiration from real countries. Inej is "Suli", who are a nomadic community of people. She is described as being "brown" with black hair and eyes. The book didn't make her a POC just for the need to have diversity. Inej's character isn't just there to showcase culture, but rather to showcase how her story is hers, regardless of anything else. Her personality isn't being POC, which I think is a perfect way to include POC. To not put in a yellow banner saying "THIS IS A POC CHARACTER, I'M DIVERSE". 

The way Inej is written is so natural and lacks any force to make her fit. She is a POC, but that's not her whole personality, she has strength and intelligence, and struggles just like anyone else. Her faith is directly affected by her culture and has a very strong interference with the job she is supposed to perform. SHE IS NOT A SECONDARY CHARACTER, she is not someone that stands in the background of the story. Her character is not there just to support the main story of someone else. There isn't really a full description of India's culture or religion, true. But the book wasn't about that, the Saints in the book are a strong belief for many and there is no cultural appropriation either. I think this is why Inej has had a huge success in the community. Again I'm not ethnically related to India so I wouldn't know how people from South Asia felt about their representation and would very much enjoy hearing a little bit from this community so you can educate us better than I could. 

And this is going to be a pain for me but one which I find questionable is Leo Valdez, who is Mexican. I AM ethnically related to him this time. At first, I'm going to admit I didn't see the problem with his representation. 

I want to make it very clear that I have nothing against him or the PJO or HoO books, I rather love those books and Leo IS one of my favorite characters. However, this doesn't mean I agree with the way he was represented. The first thing that bothered me was the way he was the only one, out of the seven who was not described as handsome or "good looking", (Frank gets a glow-up farther on), which would be completely fine if he wasn't the only one. But I think that the one thing that really bothered me was how he randomly blurted Spanish words such as "Mamacita", to Calypso or "Ese" randomly in sentences. First of all Mamacita is a term often used for women who have a rocking body, recently it has been used in "piropos" often disrespectfully to women in the streets. And "ese" is a way to refer to male articles whether they are an object or a person. Researching I found that it's also used to greet men in some Spanish-speaking regions. I could be wrong, but I've lived in Mexico for more than 18 years, and not once have I heard anyone greet each other this way, at least not in my region. But however, it's not the word per se that it's the problem, but rather the way they are used to force showcasing his ethnicity. He said these words at least 10 times in ONE book. It's too much I don't believe it's natural, they could've used any other terms of endearment for calypso and many other ways to greet people, and maybe it would've been believable. 

Another thing regarding the randomly speaking spanish is that many people think that Mexicans (Latino people) randomly begin speaking in spanish in any situation. This is not true, we don't. And not all of us have accents either. There is a saying that says that all people curse in their native language, which is the only way I could justify randomly speaking your native language, other than that I don't think it's excusable. 

Overall I think I covered in both characters an example of what can and can't make a good POC character, this of course can vary depending on the plot of the story and the ethnicity that will be represented. But the most important thing to remember is to always be respectful to the culture and its people. I would love for us to engage in a respectful and reconstructive talk about this matter and hear what you have to say. 

I will be making more posts about more POC and diversity in books, as well as cultural appropriation which I think is also a great problem nowadays. 

Thank you for reading my very first post and I hope you enjoy everything me and my colleagues have to share. 

Hugs,

––Andy