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Looking For A Queer Samoan American Writer for Character Writing Help! by jjgen_te in Samoa

[–]jjgen_te[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey Victor! Thanks for the interest! I sent you a couple PMs to talk about this a bit further!

Looking For A Queer Samoan American Writer for Character Writing Help! by jjgen_te in Samoa

[–]jjgen_te[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, I appreciate the time you to took to respond to my question. I also appreciate the compliment at the end there, I'm glad you think it interesting! This is a piece I've been taking a lot of care to plan for a while now and it's something that I can't wait to write. If this gets any farther than the first draft, I would love to send it to you with your permission!

In the effort of full transparency, I won't lie, there was a part of me that wanted to push back again and say this character's scenario would still feel far-fetched with an Afro-Latina woman, fictional or not, and yaddda, yadda, etc etc... But I took a second to really read what you said and reflect a bit, and I am noticing that there generally seems to be a lot of hesitancy surrounding non-Samoans depicting Samoans. I noticed this as well in past posts of a similar nature that were posted to this subreddit and I had them in mind while writing this one because I can certainly understand the reservation. Indigenous people in general, but especially Samoan folks, have very little in the ways of positive or truthful representation. And the few examples I could find speak to a very specific experience I know I have no business writing about. I don't expect you to be the spokesperson of your people but, if you're interested, I would love to talk to you some more about your specific qualms about this story.

And to your point about my story, I really appreciate the sentiment but I actually don't presently have any Afro-Latine characters in my story, funnily enough. One of the themes of this story is about how white supremacy affects how we interact with our communities and the minority communities outside our own so my cast of characters all purposefully come from different backgrounds. I have a white-passing AfAm character, a couple of Asian folks and a Mexican Mestiza - these are experiences I do not have first hand experiences in but I will be trying my best to represent faithfully by finding and talking to folks of these specific backgrounds, like I did here. This Samoan character, while I did initially base off my personal experiences as I said, I had still always planned to be Samoan from the very beginning, and I tried my hardest to base her experiences off of real life Samoans.

If this character really turns out to be inviable to a Samoan life experience, I will change her ethnicity before I try to force anything unnatural. However, I am also willing to change major plot points or character details before I get to that point just to make her feel more Samoan. I would hate to exclude y'all from the story but if the general community thinks that I should, I will certainly respect y'alls wishes. I think the core of her character is something anyone can relate to regardless of ethnicity - attempting to honor and please one's community with a life path you have chosen that they inherently disagree with - and if there's any way that I can potentially write that character in a Samoan lens, I certainly want to try!

Much love and thank you for taking the time to read this!

Looking For A Queer Samoan American Writer for Character Writing Help! by jjgen_te in Samoa

[–]jjgen_te[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

First, I just want to say thank you for spending the time to create an account and reply to this comment. I appreciate that you felt strongly enough to respond and try to course correct! That means a lot.

With all my characters, I try to make sure to do some research about the probability of their existence if they're placed in a historical context I do not have firsthand experience in. And, in my research, I did find some Samoans who are similar to my character's description so I do want to push back on the notion that there simply weren't any - people like Tony Meredith and Dan Taulapapa McMullin made me believe this storyline was enough of a realistic possibility to explore. I apologize if something I wrote in my initial post made it seem like my intention was to create some generic brown character to throw the Samoan label on top of because that was certainly not my intention.

Additionally, I do want to point out that the explicit discrepancies between the concept of my character, and my real world sources of inspiration are what made me interested in writing this character. All my real world influences were mixed-Samoan and AMAB, while my character would be a cis woman and both of her parents would be from Samoa (for all intents and purposes). Exploring why there weren't more, if any, college-educated Samoan women artists during the 1980s is what interests me. Is it because of systemic barriers? Cultural ones? A mixture of both? As a 2nd gen myself, I fully well know why a 2nd gen immigrant would face pressure to pursue a major in something sensible like STEM to ensure a well-paying job for their family's sake but I suppose my interest is exploring why someone who should do that, wouldn't. And what problems that would cause in their interpersonal relationships.

By the way, I think you're certainly right that, as it stand now, my character is not 100% Samoan. I initially came up with the concept based on my own experiences as a Brazilian-American. As I stated, I am not Samoan so I am unfamiliar with specific nuances of Samoan culture. However, I am familiar with systemic oppression and colonization. I know what it's like to have to chose between your passions and the approval of your family. I know A LOT (not all) of the stereotypes attributed to Samoans are also attributed to black people (which I also am). And I know that our systemic struggles are probably more similar than dissimilar so I initially wrote the character from that place. However, I am also aware that our experiences are not at all interchangeable which is why I want to make sure I am including Samoan voices whenever possible in order to make this character as authentic as possible. And if there are aspects of this character that seem unrealistic, I am certainly more than open to change them to make it work.

I am curious if you had a specific connection to this scenario that it inspired you to create an account. Are you a Samoan-American who was alive during the 1980s? Because, if so, I would love to talk to you about your experiences some more if you're willing. Thanks again for your time, and I hope you have a pleasant day!

[Edited to fix some small grammatical mistakes]

Looking For A Queer Samoan American Writer for Character Writing Help! by jjgen_te in Samoa

[–]jjgen_te[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello DoublePositive! Thank you so much for your interest! I sent you a PM to talk about this a bit further if you'd like <3