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If I write autobiographical short stories about growing up in the Miami hood, I'd be considered problematic for merely documenting my lived experience. Back when I cared about publishing, I was a master of writing "token stories" that had the proper amount of urban flavor. /1
A token story, of course, is one that hits the proper POC tropes but doesn't dare overstep the bounds of what's considered correct by the Oberlin kids who run publishing and have never even interacted with actual brown people from the distant lands they claim to understand. /2
What happens? You start filtering all your stories through this "token story" model, defanging and pruning, until what's left is a perfectly acceptable, boring as shit facsimile of the actual story you wanted to write. This is what passes for craft now. /3
You know to toss in just a dash of urban seasoning, but nothing too spicy. Italicize 10-12 words, of course. They love to read those italicize words. A token story also requires that your character be combating racism or the patriarchy or the evil empire that is America. /4
What you can't do in a token story is have a character who's just living, hanging out. A token character must continually be fighting every single injustice thrown his way by his awful oppressors. He must be beaten down at all times. He must not have agency. He must suffer. /5
Every token writer knows this, of course. You must dance the token jig for them--and it can't even be a fun jig. It has to be this sad show of suffering. It's hard to imagine anything more patronizing and insulting, but this is what's expected of token writers. Be joyless. /6
