Can I ethically write sensitive racial and class topics I haven’t lived myself?

[Anonymous]

Im looking at writing a book losely based on a childhood friend of mine. I've changed parts of story as to not know its about her but I understand how sensitive some topics might be especially coming from a white women's perspective.

Here's s brief summary of the story please be honest

She is a mixed Indian-British Jamaican girl growing up on a council estate in the West Midlands. Her parents meet in a sausage factory, fall in love across cultures, marry young, and have two daughters. When she is eight, her father leaves, and her family life begins to fall apart.

Her mother’s mental health declines and money becomes tight. From a young age she learns to survive by adapting herself to whoever she is around. One of the main ways she does this is through her voice. She code-switches constantly, softening her Midlands accent in formal settings, shifting into a more polished London-style accent when she wants to be taken seriously, and reverting back at home. Identity becomes something she performs rather than something fixed.

She works hard and earns a place at King’s College London studying business management. London brings freedom and opportunity but also pressure, class divides, and financial insecurity.

She turns to social media, creating a glamorous online persona. She posts from wealthy areas, uses fake luxury items, and carefully builds an image of success. Her accent shifts again depending on the role she is playing — student, influencer, or “London girl.”

Her online image leads to a modelling opportunity that turns out to be linked to a sugar-dating network. Conflicted but desperate, she justifies it as survival and a way to support her family. She lives a double life of glamour and secrecy.

When her estranged father returns, she is forced to confront her past, her choices, and whether reinvention has truly freed her or simply given her new ways to hide.

[abc3643]

Sure. But, always do your research and, in this case, you might want to run things by people you know who are the ethnicity of your characters.

But, let me give you a different example...
I am male. Yet, if I was to write fiction, I am going to have female characters. This means I have to be aware of how females and males differ and not just in the obvious ways. At the same time, I don't want to be outright sexist or write unrealistic female characters.

Every writer faces issues like this. For example, JK Rowling, a woman, created Harry Potter, a boy.
So, don't be afraid to write, but if you are unsure about what your ethnic character will go through or what his/her background is, then ask and/or do as much research as you can.

[jennifer_bloom]

As an atheist, you do not have the authority to tell me I am practicing cultural appropriation by writing about the Jewish bible. I lived out psalms and proverbs and Isaiah in my own life, I suffered more Torah tribulations then 80% of all Jews and I fulfilled more Jewish prophecies then most Jewish prophets and I understand the Jewish Talmud better than 99.9999% of Jewish scholars, including the ones that studied at Harvard. I am just a Christian instead of a Jew.