In My Dreams I’m Supposedly a Racist
And I got called out for it. Is that right?
It evolved like this.
I published the story below.
In it, I variably describe a central character as:
- “this nondescript Asian man”
- “this Asian man with his occidental eyes and his soup bowl haircut and his cream colored suit”
- “stocky-chunky, but not muscular, and short”
- “Non-threatening and silent [with] … smooth tan skin and … round eyes”
- [a] “calm dark-haired man with … round eyes and [a] ridiculous bowl haircut”
It is also worth noting that the story is plainly, patently odd with nonsensical and weird non-reality-based elements.
The story crescendos with me, bloody and/or fiery legs blown apart, falling defeated as the story’s central character defeats me in a fight.
The denouement … I awoke with a start from this dream wondering if I’d been shouting in my sleep.
In the story’s end notes I reiterate that the story is fiction, created from a vivid dream I’d just experienced.
Within 24 hours of the story’s publication, this came my way …
Why ... a typical Asian man ... short and fat?? ... This was honestly derogatory and somewhat racist at its core. ...Also great way to oust yourself as an abusive person. ...Without otherwise explaining or defending myself I answered …
“I hear you and recognized, pre-publication, that some might interpret the story as you did. It was however a recounting of a dream, admittedly a weird nonsensical event, and rather than change it to be pc I spelled it out as it transpired in my sleeping mind.”
I’m left with these questions and I’d really appreciate if you’d weigh in with opinions.
Can an author be — was I — racist, abusive or derogatory while writing fiction about a dream?
Since I was writing a fiction of sorts, although about a series of so-called real events that transpired in a dream, should I have changed certain elements of the story so as to remove any possibly racist themes?
