Never ask me a question while I’m eating. My responsiveness drops to zero the second my plate arrives and all I want to do is enjoy my meal.
Yet it happened anyway. Right in the middle of dinner, someone asked me out of the blue what I thought about the lack of diversity in art and entertainment. Diversity, the word alone makes me itch. What irritated me even more was being asked for my opinion on a topic I never think about.
After a bit of dodging around the point, the real motivation surfaced. Because I belong to a specific ethnic group, the speaker assumed this under-representation must bother me. Brilliant. Suddenly I was sitting across from someone who had just neatly filed me under “minorities needing external validation to justify their existence”.
What annoys me most is when people decide how I feel or worse, how I ought to feel. When I dryly noted that I couldn't care less, the entire table stared at me in confusion. That bewildered look was shared equally between some non-white diners and the white guests so eager to pity the “underprivileged”.
I wanted to cut the conversation short and get back to my food. Do I feel under-represented? Not in the slightest.
I don't wake up in the morning as a colour. I wake up as a human being with feelings, experiences and identity as a woman, daughter, sister and friend. There are plenty of characters in books and films I relate to completely. Besides, dictating how artists, authors and directors should create their work strikes me as pure arrogance. The endless debate over whitewashing simply doesn't interest me. While people elsewhere fight to survive war and poverty, I am just grateful to enjoy a good book or film in freedom.
If the lack of representation bothers you, fix it yourself.
Nobody can tell your story better than you. Instead of knocking on doors in frustration and waiting for someone else to hand you a stage, become the creator. Write the books you want to read. Make the films you want to watch. Take the energy you waste on endless debates and pour it into your own work.
My main course was ruined that evening, but the person who asked made up for it with two desserts. A chocolate lava cake and a vanilla-lemon muffin can fix almost anything.