Dear Yassmin Abdel-Magied,

I don’t 100% agree with what you wrote; not because there is something I specifically disagree with, but because I am still just peeking into what the concept of cultural appropriation is and I don’t yet have all the instruments to shape my own opinion of it. I also have no idea of what actually happened during said speech, nor (to be honest) have I read anything by either you or Shriver.

As an aspiring novelist, I am very interested in making sure that I don’t misrepresent anyone or anything — primarily because it would feel like cheating my readers, which have the right to be offered a work as accurate and polished as possible. “Write of what you know” is the rule I stand by, and so either I write of what I have personally experienced, or I thoroughly inform myself on the subject. This is the reason why, despite hearing that my writing lacks ethnic variety, I don’t randomly include non-white characters in my work. If ethnicity were to become important for the plot, I would make very sure I inform myself as much as possible before typing even a word — and if it remains not important for the plot, I just stick to my experience of a white woman growing up in an (unfortunately) almost exclusively white environment. Representing an uninformed stereotype for the sake of being inclusive: that, in my opinion, would be the real mistake.

I understand that a big part of the problem you highlight is the uneven distribution of writing and publishing possibilities. Being able to write, and therefore telling one’s own story (not to mention making it known to a public of any sort) has sadly always been a luxury and, shamefully, still is a privilege today.

Granted that we all need to reflect and play our part in trying to solve the aforementioned issue, though, couldn’t writing of what we know be a first, rather simple step to avoid misrepresentation? Isn’t this basic rule of good writing already the key to respect what one writes about?