Advice/Help Is it okay to roleplay as characters that aren't a part of your race/ethnic group?

[le-toose]

So for some context, I was on Twitter the other day and I saw a post basically saying: "White people shouldn't roleplay as bipoc characters because they'll misrepresent and misportray them"

I've always roleplayed with many different ocs, a lot of them being bipoc. Although usually set in different universes and such. At least not in our own world setting. And the times I have its always been dystopian, like a post-apocalyptic plot, or using our world's geography as a blueprint but making it fantasy. Though since it's usually set in a made-up fantasy world, does it still kind of apply the same? Of course I wouldn't roleplay as a bipoc character trying to depict the bipoc experience.

I don't want to misrepresent or misportray anyone, especially minority groups because I know how harmful that can be. I do lots of research on the characters I create to make sure there wouldn't be anything I would be doing wrong or misrepresenting. I'm not sure if the post was about non-poc writing about poc's experience or not. And I wasn't able to ask if that was what they were talking about.

Tl;dr Is it okay for me (I'm white) to have bipoc characters? Is this like an unspoken thing that I just didn't know until now? Does this mean I should delete all of my non-white oc's?

Also I did ask this on another site but they recommended a roleplay forum to ask it on instead.

Edit: A big thanks to everyone who's responded with their thoughts and feedback!

 

[Comicwolf]

So for some context, I was on Twitter the other day and I saw a post basically saying: "White people shouldn't roleplay as bipoc characters because they'll misrepresent and misportray them"

I've always roleplayed with many different ocs, a lot of them being bipoc. Although usually set in different universes and such. At least not in our own world setting. And the times I have its always been dystopian, like a post-apocalyptic plot, or using our world's geography as a blueprint but making it fantasy. Though since it's usually set in a made-up fantasy world, does it still kind of apply the same? Of course I wouldn't roleplay as a bipoc character trying to depict the bipoc experience.

I don't want to misrepresent or misportray anyone, especially minority groups because I know how harmful that can be. I do lots of research on the characters I create to make sure there wouldn't be anything I would be doing wrong or misrepresenting. I'm not sure if the post was about non-poc writing about poc's experience or not. And I wasn't able to ask if that was what they were talking about.

Tl;dr Is it okay for me (I'm white) to have bipoc characters? Is this like an unspoken thing that I just didn't know until now? Does this mean I should delete all of my non-white oc's?

Also I did ask this on another site but they recommended a roleplay forum to ask it on instead. I'm sorry if this question

I think mostly its just their opinion, if it appeared recently then its based on how the times are now. You shouldnt have to delete your non white oc's just because of someone elses opinion and choices.
It should be ok to rp any type of oc no matter their abilities, personality, or race as this site in a way is to escape the realities like covid and etc.

 

[le-toose]

I think mostly its just their opinion, if it appeared recently then its based on how the times are now. You shouldnt have to delete your non white oc's just because of someone elses opinion and choices.
It should be ok to rp any type of oc no matter their abilities, personality, or race as this site in a way is to escape the realities like covid and etc.

What about in personal roleplays too? I just got on this site so I haven't really roleplayed here before. Most of where I roleplay is with friends on discord.

 

[Hirquitickitty]

That's insane! You can absolutely roleplay as someone out of your ethnicity or race, modern world or fantasy. I think it's silly that people think there's one right way to write bipoc or any race/ethnicity, it's based off your location and environment to decide how you act not your skin color, in my opinion it's more harmful to play into the idea that there's only one way to act if you're x or y. Don't listen to those people, they're gatekeeping for no reason. It's a fictional setting and a private matter how you roleplay.

 

[Comicwolf]

What about in personal roleplays too? I just got on this site so I haven't really roleplayed here before. Most of where I roleplay is with friends on discord.

One on ones?
Yes you should be able to

 

[le-toose]

One on ones?
Yes you should be able to

Ok thank you for your insight and response!

 

[Comicwolf]

Ok thank you for your insight and response!

Your welcome

 

[Chordling]

As someone who is Asian, I roleplay white people all of the time. I grew up in a white-American culture so that is what I feel comfortable with.

Roleplaying, like video games, is not reality. You can become whoever you want to be. That is part of roleplaying's purpose. You can break away from what you traditionally identify with (or not). The choice is up to you.

 

[Dr Laudanum]

So for some context, I was on Twitter the other day and I saw a post basically saying: "White people shouldn't roleplay as bipoc characters because they'll misrepresent and misportray them"

I've always roleplayed with many different ocs, a lot of them being bipoc. Although usually set in different universes and such. At least not in our own world setting. And the times I have its always been dystopian, like a post-apocalyptic plot, or using our world's geography as a blueprint but making it fantasy. Though since it's usually set in a made-up fantasy world, does it still kind of apply the same? Of course I wouldn't roleplay as a bipoc character trying to depict the bipoc experience.

I don't want to misrepresent or misportray anyone, especially minority groups because I know how harmful that can be. I do lots of research on the characters I create to make sure there wouldn't be anything I would be doing wrong or misrepresenting. I'm not sure if the post was about non-poc writing about poc's experience or not. And I wasn't able to ask if that was what they were talking about.

Tl;dr Is it okay for me (I'm white) to have bipoc characters? Is this like an unspoken thing that I just didn't know until now? Does this mean I should delete all of my non-white oc's?

Also I did ask this on another site but they recommended a roleplay forum to ask it on instead. I'm sorry if this question

Saying that someone can't write a PoC character because they are white is like saying that a man can't roleplay as a female character, or that a gay person can't roleplay as a straight person.

Roleplaying means to wear the shoes of someone different, it is almost like acting. Therefore saying that someone cannot create characters from a wide variety of backgrounds and ethnicities and/or races is narrow-minded and, in a way, elitist, obviously.

However, we also need to be aware that, in order to write characters that are different from ourselves, we must do some research, because misrepresentation can be insulting and it can only enforce negative stereotypes, which doesn't help anyone.

If you are writing PoC characters in another universe, it is up to you to decide the interactions between them and the rest of society, but as well as their cultural history. This cultural history and society relationships do not need to be the same as the real ones. If they happen to be different, I don't believe you are misrepresenting PoC people, as it is your universe, not the real one.

Putting these "boundaries" does exactly the contrary of what such person was attempting to prevent: it marginalises even more minorities/marginalised ethnicities/races. It's your roleplay, you choose who you want to roleplay as - no limits, if you're not harming anyone.

 

[le-toose]

As someone who is Asian, I roleplay white people all of the time. I grew up in a white-American culture so that is what I feel comfortable with.

Roleplaying, like video games, is not reality. You can become whoever you want to be. That is part of roleplaying's purpose. You can break away from what you traditionally identify with (or not). The choice is up to you.

Thanks for responding! This definitely helped me think about it in a different perspective. And also made me realize probably why roleplay is something I've always really loved doing.

 

[le-toose]

Saying that someone can't write a PoC character because they are white is like saying that a man can't roleplay as a female character, or that a gay person can't roleplay as a straight person.

Roleplaying means to wear the shoes of someone different, it is almost like acting. Therefore saying that someone cannot create characters from a wide variety of backgrounds and ethnicities and/or races is narrow-minded and, in a way, elitist, obviously.

However, we also need to be aware that, in order to write characters that are different from ourselves, we must do some research, because misrepresentation can be insulting and it can only enforce negative stereotypes, which doesn't help anyone.

If you are writing PoC characters in another universe, it is up to you to decide the interactions between them and the rest of society, but as well as their cultural history. This cultural history and society relationships do not need to be the same as the real ones. If they happen to be different, I don't believe you are misrepresenting PoC people, as it is your universe, not the real one.

Putting these "boundaries" does exactly the contrary of what such person was attempting to prevent: it marginalises even more minorities/marginalised ethnicities/races. It's your roleplay, you choose who you want to roleplay as - no limits, if you're not harming anyone.

This makes a lot of sense, honestly. And for sure, if I'm unsure if I know enough about a character I'm creating I'll just decide not to continue making them. Representation and depiction is very important. Since I (as an LGBTQ+ person) have seen a lot of misrepresentation of groups I belong to I would never want to contribute to the misrepresentation of another group.

Thank you for taking the time to write all of this!

 

[KatrinaPride]

twitter is an opinionated place, and by opinionated, I mean bigoted. Don't let them affect what you do for fun, besides, not to be racist or anything, but black people in my neighborhood treat white people about as badly as black people used to be treated [and still are in some cases].

Just do you, and if someone gets offended by it, they can buzz off.

 

[KatrinaPride]

as an extension, human's act like human's. There's no specific way a race of people act.

 

[nerdy tangents]

So I feel like context is everything. If you are playing someone of a different ethnicity than I would talk to people of that ethnicity before making your character.

Example years ago I made an Australian character. I went out of my way to do research and thought I had made a very respectful character. Turns out their was an actual Australian in the roleplay and they about died laughing at my character. I had apparently made them a stereotype without meaning to.

Granted the other person wasn’t angry, as the stereotype was not portrayed in a malicious light. But they did say that all that research I had done was basically useless.

So I think if you want to write an ethnicity outside of your own than just talk to people of that ethnicity. It doesn’t matter if the roleplay is realistic or not, it’s still good to check in and make sure you aren’t inadvertently contributing to a stereotype (even if it’s not a harmful one).


Skin color in itself is a different issue. If you want to make a bipoc without any of the real world racial or cultural connotations in a made up world than go for it. As long as they aren’t solely defined by their skin color ( don’t go on an on about the color of their skin and how exotic they are as compared to everyone else. That’s kinda gross regardless of the skin color involved but it’s especially gross with bipoc)

But other than that particular thing I can’t think why skin color in itself is an issue. Even different ethnicities aren’t a problem as long as you check in with people of that ethnicity to make sure you know the tropes to stear clear of.

 

[Tlon]

There isn't inherently wrong with writing about a character that is a race different from oneself. It happens all the time. Especially in science fiction and fantasy (some fantasy tropes are kind of gross but that's a different post). The thing that makes it problematic is when the race of the character is making clear reference to the lived realities of people of color in the world today - and getting them wrong. No one really minds if a white person writes a black character or a latinx character or etc so far as the character is true to life and a real three dimensional character in and of themselves. That is to say - they are characters that just happen to be black or latinx or etc. No one also minds it if a white person rights a black character grappling with the state of race relations in the world today. If they get it right.

The thing is that at the end of the day white people simply do not have the lived experience that people of color have and because of this it can be very obvious (especially to PoCs) when a white character is trying to come at the topic of race in a way that is incredibly clumsy and ham handed. It isn't that hard to tell most of the time. And it isn't their fault really - white people have no idea what black and brown lives are really like because the media never portrays black and brown lives - not with any real degree of accuracy, anyway. Conversely, this is also why black and brown people seem "wise" in a way that sometimes mystifies white people: people of color know the lived experience of both black and brown lives and they know about the lived experience of white lives because the lived experience of white lives is literally every where. Every major tv, book, or movie series is primarily about white people and from the white point of view. As a person of color you spend a lot of time looking at faces not like your own. White people don't have any relationship with another culture that is like this, and so they are not unlike a deaf-mute writing about music.

Tl:dr writing as another race is problematic when you are using that as a tool to push a message about race/racism since, unless you are practiced or have a lot of people in your life that are people of color, you will do it in a way that is obvious and that will cause a lot of groans from people who can tell. This isn't to say that you can't have an opinion on race, just that you can't use a character of another race as a mouthpiece for that opinion. It's deceptive and gross.

 

[Jet]

According to their logic

If a white person writes people of color = racist appropriation.

If a white person doesn't write people of color = racist exclusion.

Ignore that absurd dogma please, it works backwards from a presumption of racism. The actions you do don't matter, because the end result already exists. That philosophy looks for an excuse for hatred and nothing more.

The only thing that should be judged is the writing. If you write racist stereotypes for example, then yeah stop immediately. But that's not what's being argued here. The people arguing this shit, are the same ones who get mad that Game of Thrones is mostly white, even though the writer is the whitest of whites. No matter what happens, the conclusion already exists and nothing you do matters. The only option for you is to ignore it or argue against it, unless you want to exist in a perpetual state of self hatred.

 

[Crow]

Bottomline is - just do it. You shouldn't feel suppressed by the things people say. The point of roleplaying is to depict whatever you desire.

 

[Crayons]

Not only can you do it, but I would say that maybe you even should do it. It's good to be able to empathise with people who are not like you, just in general, but especially if you are writing. Roleplay is a safe environment to try these things out. No one is reading it except the other players (most of the time), no one is putting it on display or judging you personally for it. So this is the best time and space to explore the ideas of writing people who are different from yourself. This is especially true for anyone who wants to write published fiction in the future.

If there's any place where you can write whatever the heck you want it's in roleplay.

Also Twitter is an absolute hell pit of this stuff, which is why I hate it even though I have to use it for my work.

EDIT: if you're concerned as a white person writing POC give this blog a read it's pretty useful.

 

[Phantom Thief of Hearts]

I think you can, I mean I do it all the time... I'm a Filipino and I RP as many different characters. Most of them White Americans, Japanese Asians, and maybe the odd Alien.

 

[BlossomsOfRainbows]

In my opinion it’s not too much different than RPing mental illnesses you don’t have. That might be a bad example but it’s what I can think of at nearly 5 AM. If you do proper research on things that may need researched and genuinely try to portray things accurately and without romanticism, there’s no problem with it that I see. I mean, you might not need to do a whole bunch of research on other cultures unless the plot centers around them, and depending on the RP focus race may not even matter, but the point still stands. I’m white and I RP a bunch of Japanese characters (mostly canon or OCs in a canonically Japanese universe) and there hasn’t been an issue so far.

Half of the point of RP is creativity and having the freedom to play just about any character you can think of. Race shouldn’t be a limit on that as long as you’re not disrespectful.

 

[nerdy tangents]

Tlon makes a great point too about lived experience. I grew up in "the projects" or at least in a setting that fits with what people imagine when they use that word. And it wasn't like what you see in the movies or read about in books (not saying those places don't exist just that it's not where I grew up)

But I did grow up dealing with random drive by shootings. To the point where any time my mom took us anywhere she would give us a speech about what to do if she was shot or attacked. (and looking back on it even that had a degree of privilege to it which I don't think she realized at the time)

Anyway as someone who has lived that experience it's really clear when someone writes about the "projects" having never actually lived there. Usually it's just because they use a lot of broad tropes from pop culture without realizing it OR sometimes because they sound like they swallowed wikipedia.

I'm not saying those are inherently bad things, or that you shouldn't try to write about experiences outside your own. I would just be open to a dialogue about it. Because the tropes/wikipedia approach certainly don't bother ME (I mostly find them amusing tbf) but I am just one person. It might be a lot more bothersome to someone else.

So as Tlon mentioned if you want to write skin color / ethnicity without grounding it in real life experiences go for it. If you do want to bring real life experience I would go the route of actually asking people with that experience what it was like. You aren't going to cover all variations of that experience but not everyone IRL is going to have the same experience. You can at least say - hey I'm going on the lived experience of X as they described them to me.

 

[Sara Sidereal]

So for some context, I was on Twitter the other day and I saw a post basically saying: "White people shouldn't roleplay as bipoc characters because they'll misrepresent and misportray them"

And from where do they derive their authority over you?

 

[Idea]

Do you have to be an elf to roleplay an elf?
Do you have to be short to roleplay someone who is short?

I wouldn’t say so.

People are people. At least in the elf’s case you’re talking about someone whois fundamentally different, but a person of a different ethnicity is just a person like you or me. The differences aren’t in the person, but in their life circumstances, the environment and people who surround them, as well as who they are as individuals.

And even if you ignore all that, ultimately unless there is some statement you’re trying to make, or you’re trying to insert your character in the real world (not a modern setting, but something much more specific, such as a specific location and time from real life) , ultimately we’re just writing fiction. Whatever your character is, they are not a statement that the people they happen to be framed as are the same. Of course, research is still something one absolutely ought to do, but one mustn’t forget that separation of reality and fiction.

Personally I don’t like to add ethnicities to the characters period. It’s not something I feel matters to me personally, and it’s not something I want to be a topic in my roleplays.

 

[Sara Sidereal]

Forgot to add: there cannot, by definition, exist a universally correct or incorrect way to portray any fictional character that you create.

 

[Jannah]

Yes. I do so all the time. I think the key is to just be respectful and avoid stereotypes. I guess if you absolutely MUST give the character a stereotypical trait then it's best to simply not make that particular trait a main focus. They should also be developed and treated like any other character. They should not be tokenized and should exist beyond just being there for the author to be like "hey! look how inclusive I am!"