One of the biggest controversies right now, especially for white writers and people who are not of the race that they want to write about, there’s a lot of talk about the hashtag own voices, which was originally about, you know, you’re Asian-American so you get to write a book about Asian-American history or whatever it is because it’s your own voice.
You know, you’re not a white author trying to write about Asian-American culture. You get to do it. That’s authentic. And then that scares a lot of non‑Asian writers who say “Can I never write about this? You know, I thought writing was using your imagination. We can be anything. We can do whatever we want.” And yes, I do believe that as a writer, you do have the freedom. Write whatever you want. You can write whatever you want. You can write about who you want. You can write about what point of view you want to write about. You have that freedom as a writer.
It’s not about freedom; it’s about responsibility. Should you? Why, as a non-Asian, do you want to write about this topic in history? What do you have that makes you the perfect writer for this topic? Now to give you an example, there are many famous writers, you know, even Pearl S. Buck, she was born and raised in China. She grew up there.
But at the end of the day, she’s white so she will not face the prejudices and the racism that a person of Chinese descent will. She has had certain privilege. She cannot walk in those shoes. So, you have to make sure that your privilege is authenticated and checked by sensitivity readers because there could be something that you may have missed. That is why we had a sensitivity reader for a lot of my books that are based on Chinese-American and Chinese subjects, especially with Vincent Chin because I’m not Chinese. I’m Korean-American. I grew up in Connecticut.
So, the fact that even I, as an Asian-American, doing own voices, still am accountable and taking in, you know, and saying I have to be responsible, if I can do that, so can other readers and so can other librarians and teachers. So, when you find a book that is a novel or a nonfiction book about an Asian-American, Pacific Islander event or a theme or fiction novel, you are accountable, and it’s your homework to go research as much as you can about that author, you know. If they’re not Asian, really find out, you know, why them? And why not this other author? We should be excited because now people are getting the chance to tell their own stories, and there have been beautifully responsible, authentic books written by non‑Asians that have been published that passed the test, but it’s time for us to also start doing that. We need those opportunities as well. And it’s not just about diversity. It’s also about equity. It’s about leveling the playing field.