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Help on sensitivity (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hey all, I'm working on an old western which has some native characters, predominantly of a fictional tribe. I'm wondering if you all think it would be understandable if people spoke (in dialogs only) as the times and used terms like "Indian" or, even worse, "Injun", or should I stick with using tribe names and the word "native"? Or something different altogether?

Thanks!

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

FWIW, either approach sounds to me like it could work.. But I'm not a sensitivity reader. Ultimately, getting one to put eyes on your manuscript is probably a good idea.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Basically this.

Although, given new writers are sometimes kinda caught in that they don't have funds to pay one for their time, a work-around for me in the past was research by finding and following activists in the groups I'm trying to portray.

Usually they've spent years and years talking about the topic, so I figure if I find their stuff and I just read ALL of it and do as much research on it as I do for anything else (and by research, I really mean by spending months reading up on the topic from good sources), I'll be closer to being in the right ballpark even if I'm not in a spot to pay a sensitivity reader b/c I'm dead broke myself.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

That sounds like a good strategy resulting in you really understanding the "source material".. more so than just farming the responsibility out to a sensitivity reader. However, for those who are lazy and broke, another option is to do a beta swap with someone who's in the group you want a sensitivity read from. Maybe you can't be too lazy for this option though, because trading manuscript critiques is a fair amount of work. But it's a different kind of work than doing a bunch of research, so it might appeal more to certain writers. Just thought I'd mention it.