Erin L. McCormack
  • 2019 - my new novel, IN REGALIA
  • Home
  • About Erin
  • Works
    • In Regalia
    • Spanish Soap Operas
    • Blue Eyes in Black Wonderland
    • Dovetales - novella collection
  • Social Media
  • Order from Amazon.com
  • The Elm Blog
  • Antiracism Work in Life and Writing

Antiracism Work in Life and Writing

One of my writing goals is to portray and address racism in the lives of characters, an effort toward Antiracism – working to dismantle white supremacy in the United States. As a white child in the Northeast, I knew no people of people of color. During my young adult years, in college in California and working in Maryland and NYC, I felt the dissonance between how I was treated compared to friends and lovers who were not white. I knew that ugly, intentional racism was still alive, but couldn’t understand why the differences and separation between races persisted. Later I learned of systemic racism – voting obstacles, redlining in real estate, mass incarceration, etc. Finally, I became aware of my own racism – invisible, inevitable, and almost impossible to talk about. Even growing up in a tolerant, accepting family, I did not see my own privilege or question history or assumptions about “the other”.
 
Now I do. I better understand how racism works, its costs to a democratic society – and I see the need to act, through further educating myself on American racism AND the experiences of people of color: reading history, literature and blogs; visiting Civil Rights museums and institutes; attending seminars and workshops; allying myself with other people seeking to make change; by introducing myself and engaging people of color in social and learning situations. And through my books.
 
In my writing, I attempt to create situations where racism is always present: sometimes in the background, sometimes the source of problems, not always recognized by the characters. The main point of view characters are similar to me:  white, educated women of the current day, coming of age in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and displaced from their middle-class lives. Their previously isolated worlds have become populated with multicultural characters, lives intersecting to produce conflicts, discoveries - and changes, mainly through shared experiences and necessity. My goal is not simply to reveal misperceptions and injustices. It is also to show the protagonists’ personal transformation: their realization of common humanity; questioning values of the dominant society, and valuing the wisdom and traditions of other cultures, particularly those which have survived just as long on this earth; who are life-affirming and not destroying; and who are rising out of oppression.  

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.