Despite already agreeing with the thesis, I found this challenging to read in a good way. I’m on the same “people should take inspiration from my heritage” camp, though this is me being Chinese. But when it comes to Arabic cultures, I find myself writing away from this domain.
And I think it’s a psychological thing. The pop culture impact of Edward Said’s Orientalism and the opticste of appropriation have made me wary of writing about cultures that I’m not a member of.
But it does mean that we’re letting the losers make it without challenge. As you said, we removed the “poison bread” but the baker is still around. And I can’t say I am happy contributing to the cultural homogenization of white people whenever I write a new game scenario and go “I don’t really know how to write anyone who isn’t Chinese or white, so I guess I’ll do these two ethnicities again”.
Reading this manifesto made me rethink my priorities. I’m still admittedly unsure how far I will extend myself, but it is clear that this is becoming a systemic problem for my own writing. Thanks for writing it!