I see people talking about representation in writing. I want to talk about what that is and isn't to me.

Representation isn't taking a marginalized group and inserting them into your story to meet some quota. You end up excluding ANOTHER group and the story suffers

1/

So I don't write stories to put black people in them, even though I'm black.

Representation to me is noticing all the people that don't get their stories told, but were there all along. And just simply including what's already there makes your material better.

2/

'Cock-eyed' Charlie Parkhurst was born a female, but lived as a man and became a legendary stagecoach driver. Parkhurst was known as rougher than most of the people he worked around, and good enough with the steel to fend off outlaws.

3/

There were a ton of black cowboys, and Latino vaqueros. Simultaneously on the West Coast, the Chinese were a heavy presence during the Gold Rush. In the North, Cree/French tribe the Metis leaked down from the Northwest Territories into the Great Plains.

4/

So when you go to write that Western, all you're doing is including the people that were actually there that everyone has ignored because they didn't care enough to look. And your story will look revolutionary, but it's just telling the truth.

And that's real representation.