As issues of race dominate the news, H.G. Ferguson writes in Playing the Race Card on how authors should approach this:
We should write about people, not race, regardless of genre, and avoid the stereotyping and, if I may be so bold, true racism that can occur when we do not…Three films speak to this question in a powerful way: Dances with Wolves (1990), Unconquered (1947), and The Last of the Mohicans (1992).
In Dances with Wolves we are treated to a presentation of “truth.” Every single Native person is portrayed as good…every single non-Native person apart from Dunbar and Stands with a Fist is depicted as either stupid, evil, or insane. This viewpoint, in a word, is a lie. Not all Native Americans of that era were good people, and not every non-Native person was evil. Why? Because people are people, and some are good and some are not. That is the truth.
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Darrick Dean 