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How to write a black character when i'm not as educated as I should be

@Rover3672 forum 11 comments schedule
@Rover3672

Ok so one of my characters is black but it wasn't until I started to work on her character again I realized how little i know about black history and google isn't exactly giving me what I want so some help would be nice.

Basically the idea for this character is that she is a black women born in 1951 Canada, she was bitten by a vampire when she visited America in 1968 and has been a vampire ever since. The thing is that I don't know what most of her home/community relationship would be, where exactly she would be from, what her parents lives would have been like, and how that would have effected her growing up. ANother thing to add is that she is a lesbian, she never came out to her parents and was going to marry another boy but then she got bitten and that didn't end up following through.

I really want to be able to represent what I can and do it right, but the problem is because I'm not black nor have been taught enough about black history apart from parts of the basics of what happened in South Africa (Apartheid) and also Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandala and a bit of Rosa Parks (its been a hot minute but I could still tell you about them) its certainly doesn't feel like enough to write a black character when I don't know where to start.

Any and all advice is welcome, i'm all about doing things the right way and doing my research but here it seems better to ask other people of what they think is important for me, someone who isn't as educated as they'd like to be but also not have a fully white cast of characters to know about.

Sorry if this is too long but once again any and all advice, history facts, websites, youtubers or general tips are welcome.

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@threesacult group

I'm afraid I can't help much on the time period part, as I'm not as educated as I should be there either; but in terms of just writing her as a character, I can probably help a little. I pretty much said the same thing on the writing diverse characters thread (you can look at the full thing here if you want, since I wrote more), but basically: think of her as a character in her own right first, and a black woman second. Though being a black woman is sure to be a core part of herself, it doesn't count as a personality trait, so write her as her own character just as you would a character who isn't in a minority.
Another thing to think about is what mannerisms she might have from growing up during that time period, pop culture references, etc. This depends more on whether she kept her mannerisms from the 50s/60s, or if she updated with the times after becoming a vampire. That's another big thing that determines how much research you'll have to do to write this character: does the story focus on her becoming a vampire during this time period, or is it just backstory, if your story takes place in modern times? If it's backstory, and doesn't come up much, you won't need to be as detailed in your research.
I wish I could help more with the historical part, but I hope this is useful to you in some way. Best of luck with your project!

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@The-Magician group

I’d like to be able to help with this, but I seem to be stuck on the question of “Why was she engaged before she went to America? She was 17 and that’s far too young.” Of course, I might have misunderstood that part?

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@threesacult group

Maybe I'm misunderstanding too, but during the 50s/60s it was very common for women to get married really young, often as soon as they left high school. I think it's just a time period thing.

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@The-Magician group

Would that have applied to ethnic minorities though? Especially considering the amount of racism back then.

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@threesacult group

That's a good point. I don't think it'd be out of the question, but it's definitely something to think about. And I'm not sure how different it was in Canada, either, since I really only know about America during the time period.

@Rover3672

Sorry for the confusion! She was going to end up marrying for two reasons, the first is that I think for the time period women would still get married really young, I think it was around early 20s but the other reason is something that I've been playing around with a bit more. I think this boy would be her childhood friend, she is a lesbian but he was also gay so they agreed to marry each other in order to steer away any suspicion that could potentially put them in danger. OR if any of y'all have seen The Haunting of Bly Manor it would be a situation where she though she was in love with him but realized through their relationship that she was gay but never said anything out of fear of being hurt.

Its more of a recent backstory idea with this character so thats why it was so vague….

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@threesacult group

Oh, gotcha! Like a lavender marriage sort of deal? That makes sense.

@Rover3672

Yup! My thought was that these two characters are kinda childhood best friends who had a fairly close relationship so they agreed to marry each other, because of how close they are no one ever grew suspicious that they were both gay. Of course she never actually got to marry him but i thought it would be a fun little part of her backstory since it ties in with the era but also her personal story of becoming comfortable with her sexuality's, although within the story itself she has been apart of modern culture enough to not really give a shit

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@threesacult group

That's really cute! Their relationship sounds fun to write.

@Rover3672

Yup! Still kinda figuring out their dynamic especially for the era since it wouldn't be the exact same as modern times but I want this guy to be part of her backstory 110%