Counter-Culture-Club

While preparing for the day, I thought about a blog post about something my writing partner and I have been discussing. We want to write a Feature film about Zombies, incorporating the origins of Zombieism through Voodoo as our twist.

With this concept, many concerns arise immediately, such as a couple of Caucasian women (one European and one American) writing characters who are people of color (to create a diverse cast) and also writing about ideas rooted in Caribbean culture, including Voodoo symbolism, magic connotations, ritual dress, and custom music. On top of that, the feature will be a horror-comedy.

When it comes to culture, where is the line between celebration and exploitation? And if I am not part of a specific culture, can I write about it or create a comedy without being insensitive or disrespectful?

If so, how?

The origin of my surrounding culture changes with the seasons.

Last weekend, the first NFL (National Football League) started, spawning the first misappropriation of football culture by middle-aged men in face paint, sporting Team jerseys over cargo shorts, saying things like, “Our team,” “We won!” or “We’ll get ’em next time!” while swilling beer at a tailgate party and without having set a single Nike shoe on turf.

Similarly, every September, downtown Salt Lake City swells with famous Aliens and infamous Fantasists outfitted up to their gills in expensive costumes to congregate at The Salt Palace Convention Center for ComiCon — it’s truly a LARPer’s paradise.

In both cases, costumes, masks, customs, and even languages are worn, performed, and spoken with all seriousness as a means of connecting to a community, they’ve even made it traditional doing it year after year!

In writing this post, I’m struck with how easily I can satire each of these major events, no problem — rowdy Sports Bar patrons yelling at mounted seventy-five-inch TVs with the Back-to-the-Future Delorian fixed squarely in my rear-view mirror without a second thought.

However, when a specific race comes into the mix, especially when there is a history of oppression connected to it, I shy away.

The biggest takeaway here is that I don’t want to write something hurtful or demeaning, and I would love some advice! So, give me insight, throw me the Hail Mary pass, or pass along the Sorting Hat, and let’s discuss!