The Second Beat: Writing Discrimination

I’ll often find myself reading a novel that showcases one character discriminating against another character of a historically marginalized background. There is a moment where the writer makes it clear that discrimination is happening, and then… nothing. The writer moves on quickly from the scene, not holding space for what is happening, and why it is significant to the story.

I’ve seen this happen in creative writing pieces that haven’t been published and those that have — and quite often it occurs when a writer is writing outside of their identity. As I read such scenes, it feels like I can see the nervousness, concern, and fear the writer has about writing discrimination, and how quickly they want to move to the next scene so they themselves don’t have to sit in their own feelings of discomfort.

This is a disservice to the writer’s own creative writing piece and to the different communities they’re writing about. Why? If you’re going to showcase discrimination toward a character from a historically marginalized community, it shouldn’t be something that is pushed aside so easily. In doing that, you are sending the message that such discrimination is something to be ignored, overlooked, or isn’t a big deal. It also doesn’t allow the character who is the discriminator or the character who was discriminated against to reflect on what has just occurred. Your characters can’t grow, change, or develop if they don’t recognize what has happened.

And what about the reader? As writers we can’t assume that the reader even understands the discrimination you’re writing about. Yes, they’ll likely recognize slurs as discrimination, but what if you’re writing a subtle scene of tokenism or microaggressions? Many readers are not informed about their own biases or recognize certain actions as discriminatory, especially if they’re reading about an identity different than your own. Even if they are informed, I think you would be doing them a disservice in allowing them to quickly move on from a uncomfortable discrimination scene without reflecting on what has occurred.

So let’s talk about a writing technique that I call the second beat.

When you’re writing a scene that showcases discrimination, I encourage you to take a second beat. What do I mean by this? Depict the discrimination occurring, and hold the scene for a second beat. This may look like one or both characters recognizing what’s happening (or even another character not involved in the discrimination recognizing it). You can hold the second beat by lengthening the scene, building the tension, flashing back to a similar scene of discrimination, having your characters name what just occurred, or showing how uncomfortable the characters are through body language. There are a myriad of ways to write the second beat.

When you write the second beat, you’ll give your characters time to engage with the discrimination at hand, or at the least, really recognize what has occurred. Not only that, but you will be signaling to your readers to pay attention — that something is important going on. Your reader doesn’t have to understand the nuances of tokenization that you’ve depicted in a scene, but if you hold the second beat, they will recognize that something wrong has occurred. This will build more tension in the story and signal to readers that they should pay attention when something similar happens again, helps them to look at the characters in a new light, and informs them more about the story at hand. If you move on too quickly from the discrimination scene, they may not pick up the subtle hints you’re trying to give them.

Does the second beat mean that your characters have to deal with the discrimination at hand at that very moment? Of course not. Maybe you want to write small microaggressions throughout the book that build up over the course of the narrative for a big reckoning by the end. I’d still suggest the second beat for each one of those scenes. If you gloss over the discrimination each time it occurs, your reader may not even pick up what has happened, or you run the risk of not building the tension you aim to build. Even worse, you could be sending the message that microaggressions aren’t a big deal or that some are more ‘serious’ than others.

If you’re going to showcase discrimination toward historically marginalized communities, show these communities that you recognize the experiences they have and that you are writing about such experiences with care.

So write that second beat. Hold the space. Sit in that discomfort. I know you can do it.