The Ubiquitous Blandness of Whiteness

Think about the protagonist of your favorite story. A movie, book, TV show, any storytelling medium. I’ll give you a minute (because I get it, I love so many things that picking one is a true struggle).

Is he white?

If you’re American and have ever consumed media in your life your answer is likely, with a random 96% certainty that I pulled from the ether: Yes.

A Litany of Questions

Now think about that story, how often is his race mentioned? How often is his whiteness the driving force of the story? How often is his milky complexion compared to food or inanimate objects? Does John (or Ben or Henry or Bill) get a descriptor in which he’s identified by his warm unused copy paper?

Probably not. Because he is the default, you’ve read the first page and they’ve yet to drop any hints that he’s anything but white, male and heterosexual. That is what he is and what he will remain unless otherwise said. Now the real question is, why is that? And why did you, the consumer, not consider he could be something else?

The Universality of White and Male

White is readily accepted as what is, not what could be or what should be but simply what is. The sky is blue and grass is green and unless stated the lead character is white.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve referred to this character as “he” repeatedly. Because like white, male is also the accepted normal in fiction. Women rarely drive stories, and that is another issue deserving its own spotlight. Are the stories of more than half the world’s population unworthy of telling without a male gaze?

How “Make Your Own Stuff Then” is Not a Solution

I’m all for the subjugated being creative and making their own work. Do we solve this by creating our own stories, our own heroes, our own legacies, right? You want to see or read about someone who looks like you? Make it.

Yes, it is that simple.

No, it’s not the solution.

Let me explain. We can make all the media we want, day in and day out however the way we’re presented, people of color and black people especially is a form of systemic oppression. It’s that insidious side of racism and colorism (two distinctively intrinsically linked ideologies), so ingrained, so accepted that it’s not questioned by the perpetrators or those perpetrated upon.

What they need, these people who create the tales of ubiquitous whiteness, whether they (the creators) be white or otherwise, is to understand the why of what they create. Why is your protagonist white? Why is he or she your blank slate? Is the universal language born of worldwide colonialism? Self-reflection, taking a moment to consider the why of what you do, is where it has to start. You can’t solve the problem by inserting a brown or black girl into your story while raising your arms in triumph because you’ve managed to eliminate racism (yay, go you!). Ask yourself why she wasn’t a part of your story from the beginning, why a story with her as the lead isn’t important enough to tell simply for the telling of it.

Bye Bland Boy

We can’t simply make our own work and hope they catch on, we have to ask for some self-reflection on their part.

When you only tell one type of story, only share one perspective you deprive yourself and your audience from experiencing the full richness of storytelling. There is not only one way to tell a story, how I wish “mainstream culture” would catch up to that reality. Tell more in-depth, nuanced stories about people…other than white dudes without these stories being praised for their “otherness” and instead praised for how well they’re told.