Blood will Flow

This is a very interesting discussion. I agree with many here that if we only wrote about our own experiences there would be a lot of very boring books. Fiction isn't the same as a diary. It is a creative endeavour. It uses imagination. It is an opportunity to explore being someone we're not.

However...the concerns about appropriation are also valid. I think, from what I've read, the concerns stem from the tendency of writers who are within the dominant group to assume knowledge they don't have, fail to research, fail to consult with the minority group/s in question and essentially produce awful, crude, misinformed stereotypes who the readers in the dominant group then use as their basis for what that minority is 'really like'. I think (hope) there is less of that these days because writers are more culturally aware/sensitive and...we're having these kinds of conversations!

Another aspect that I've seen brought up is that mainstream publishers are far more likely to publish white men than anyone else, so it tends to be their views on things that influence the perspective of the dominant group and maybe those white men should stand back and give the WOC the chance to tell their own stories in their own voices?

As writers though, many of us want to include a diverse range of characters in our fiction and I think we should. But it has to be done with a lot of sensitivity and awareness. I mean, you can't effectively channel someone who is 'other' than you if you're using an outsider perspective. Like, I'm white, so if I have a character of colour looking at herself in the mirror she's not going to notice her 'ebony skin' and her 'almond eyes' or whatever, because that's just her and has been since she was born.

Anyway, interesting topic and very well worth discussing. :)