diversity cannot stop with cis white women cause when you ask many of them about why diversity is important or how they make sure to include others they have nothing to say about it

Ever wondered how surviving earthquakes, outrunning tornadoes, and dodging a gun shaped a mystery writer’s mind? Discover Verlin’s extraordinary life experiences and how they feed the thrilling stories on every page.

Exploring Narrative, Healing, and the Human Mind with Verlin Darrow

Ever wondered how surviving earthquakes, outrunning tornadoes, and dodging a gun shaped a mystery writer’s mind? Discover Verlin’s extraordinary life experiences and how they feed the thrilling stories on every page.

Exploring Narrative, Healing, and the Human Mind with Verlin Darrow

Ever wondered how surviving earthquakes, outrunning tornadoes, and dodging a gun shaped a mystery writer’s mind? Discover Verlin’s extraordinary life experiences and how they feed the thrilling stories on every page.

Exploring Narrative, Healing, and the Human Mind with Verlin Darrow

Ever wondered how surviving earthquakes, outrunning tornadoes, and dodging a gun shaped a mystery writer’s mind? Discover Verlin’s extraordinary life experiences and how they feed the thrilling stories on every page.

Exploring Narrative, Healing, and the Human Mind with Verlin Darrow

Ever wondered how surviving earthquakes, outrunning tornadoes, and dodging a gun shaped a mystery writer’s mind? Discover Verlin’s extraordinary life experiences and how they feed the thrilling stories on every page.

Exploring Narrative, Healing, and the Human Mind with Verlin Darrow

South Korea To Adjust Visa Incentives To Attract Foreign Talent

South Korea is aiming high to attract more highly skilled professionals from around the world and it will soon introduce new visa programs for technicians and sector-specific workers, according to a news report by VnExpress. For insight, South Korea has a low birth rate and a rapid aging population.

To put things in perspective, posted below is an excerpt from the news report VnExpress. Some…

South Korea To Adjust Visa Incentives To Attract Foreign Talent

ВоОООот столько золотых билетов – Акции в «Пятёрочке»

Na! play & win

@emmawatsonupdates

@wizardingworld

@scotland

@usa

@canada-sexts

@australia

@uaegnomanat-blog

@middleeasternpoetry

@palestine

@israel

@belarussianbitch-blog

@ukinusa

@hindistancevizliraki

@arab-quotes

@mongolia

@iraque

@juiceybabe09

@sydneysweeneytodd

@disneyanimation

@gypsiescaravan

@camel

@cameron

@ibmconsulting @ibmblr

все. Волкам и шизам не давали апельсин.

Beyond the Checkbox: Reclaiming Identity in a Boxed World A philosophical reflection on leadership, resilience, and the human condition.
By D. L. Dantes | December 2nd, 2025

The way you would play with me like a child (sn love how they ran on the hollyweird sign in slow motion like they was on a playground

Beyond the Checkbox: Reclaiming Identity in a Boxed World A philosophical reflection on leadership, resilience, and the human condition.
By D. L. Dantes | December 2nd, 2025

Sick and fucking tired of white!y/n and black!y/n. When will writers accept that neither of these are ‘diversity’. A race isn’t needed in the story, it doesn’t need to be mentioned ever! Some readers fit neither of these categories and it’s soo easy to just avoid mentioning their race in stories not about their race.

This majorly applies to when writers include some sort of image of what y/n is supposed to look like. Stop that.

If you lean too far into ‘diversity’ it becomes the opposite.

What happened to UK in the name of multiculturalism, diversity is horrific. This country would soon crack within before Russian firing a single bullet. It’s weakest in its 500 yrs of history.

People out here would rather die than be gay bro. Like it’s not that serious

I love how diverse Gachiakuta is with it’s characters. Like what do you mean we got mentally ill teenagers, people of color who AREN’T stereotyped, women, at least one canon sapphic, a non-binary child, an SA victim, a crippled man, and like a whole bunch of other woke varieties if people. Gachiakuta truly is the DEI of Manga/Anime (affectionate).

Images of aforementioned characters below the cut along with names in the alt text.

Mentally ill teens (not depicted; Riyo Reaper):

ALT

ALT

People of color (yes I know Jabber looks a little pale, he’s light skinned but not white):

ALT

ALT

Women:

ALT

ALT

Canon sapphic:

ALT

Non-binary child:

ALT

SA Victim (I’m not putting her original outfit for obvious reasons):

ALT

And the crippled man:

ALT

dream:

I was a high school teacher
promoting diversity and inclusion
through music loops.

None of my books are published, but…

I was attempting (not very well, mind you) to write FM, MM, and FF love in High school. Due to being in a white bubble, where my parents didn’t attempt to meet anyone but white people and PoCs related to the white people they knew in their inner circle, most of my characters ended in this period to be white.

I mostly wrote romance, Science Fiction, and Fantasy and dabbled in Literature.

Around the time of late high school I became really distressed at the fact that my characters were not ethnically diverse since I was reading Egypt, etc, so there was a huge shift in focus and I added more PoCs.

First major FF couple was Indigenous (Roughly NE American) to same tribe, done badly. You won’t find this story. I might recycle parts of it at a later date.

So my second major FF couple was Black (Loosely Nigerian) and Asian-ish, not Korean. (She’s a variety of Thai that’s not well-known). Neither protags.

Third FF couple was white and Black? I think. But ultimately they got cut from the final draft. (That book went through lots of shifts so the original premise looks nothing like the result.) I replaced it by making the main character a different kind of queer, F Asian to Latino.

Fourth one, knowing I flubbed the first one, I shifted it to an open FF situation, different Indigenous tribes than originally.

I’m probably forgetting others. I tend to roll the die these days.

I have white/Asian, Black/Asian, Indigenous/Asian, white/white, Indigenous/Asian, Latine/Asian… but the Asian doesn’t stay in Korea.

I don’t tend to do main voices where I have no right to it. So I tend to do Jewish-ish Korean, and often Black since I have access to ask. I also have a pretty strict rule that I won’t write about the country unless there is someone I can ask or a way to research specifics.

I also tend to roll the die on queerness… which makes it wildly unpopular with agents to have all of these PoC queer characters running around in my work. Sometimes, though, agents and readers still don’t think a character clearly presenting as demi is “really queer” and if that character is cis, with another character that’s clearly queer, but is het presenting, I still get reactions from people that it’s not a “really queer” story. Yes, it is.

I have the entire rainbow of LGBTQIA running around, though out of respect I’ve not done the Intersex in depth, but still put in their PoV. (There is an explicit ask from Intersex people to wait until more has been published from them before making them a main character.)

I also put in disabilities and neurodivergence, because in my real life, I see people who are say Black and disabled. Latine and have an ND. And besides, I am PoC, queer, disabled, ND and so on.

I don’t see it as one at a time. I see the intersection and I play with it. And the intersection opens a lot because I see people like me who treat their intersections differently and then I get to think about why that is.

That said, despite all of that, I’m not a huge fan of including adoption bar none without examination into fiction. This is hugely unpopular in my fiction thusfar and I’ve been rejected for criticizing the adoption industry. I feed my frustration by suggesting ideas to Korea about adoption and then boasting to the US that SK is doing better (because fundamentally you want to confine FFY and adoptees to the memoir section and not pay them otherwise).

People think it’s weirdly token, too, that I would:

• Read widely as I do.

I read/consume horror (limited because I dislike the whole surprise, I’m adopted and the son of the Devil shtick. Most of the time you AHs never ask an adoptee or take the adoptee’s side. FFY and adoptees are not people you take your parenting anxieties out on. Stop it.), mystery, romance, Science fiction, fantasy, nonfiction (of course—more fiction authors need to be interested in nonfiction for the plot bunnies.), Literary (though I think it should be compressed into the other genres naturally for several long-winded reasons), and Historical Fiction.

I also consume media as widely worldwide as I can. If it has subtitles, then I’ll likely watch it, even if I disagree with the fundamentals.? Trashy, abhorrently bad, and B-movies, I’ll definitely consume that too.

I have a floating thesis about Zimbabwe’s films but I wanted to talk to Zimbabwe people about their media first before I do that.

• Include more diversity when I’m stuck in a story.

It’s my reality? I don’t do it without some knowledge of the intersection and I spend an inordinate amount of time on research which often ends up as one or two sentences. TT I don’t do it for the bonus points, I research the intersection itself until I’m sure.

For example, the reason a lot of people want to write transracial adoption seems to be to pull one of those soapboxish things, but then they have no knowledge of actual adoption and all of the drama that brings.

OMG, this white child adopted to Black family is not racist and is going to lecture at another white child about Black people in a non-systemically aware way (I read the requests. It’s always a Black person in a white family or Black person in a white family and about overcoming racial differences. Elew. Blindside that. It’s terrible).

• Criticize the industry for a lack of diversity and doing it as woah, one at a time, that’s too much.

I read extremely widely and take notes on the market. The largest PoC to PoC FF market is Black to Black.

Interracial Romance tends to be white and Black with white and Asian next in line. Latine and white is last. Indigenous? Pacific Islander? West Asian? The market thinks they all died after YA. Central Asia. Nothing.

White to white dominates the market in all genres. *sighs*

And I get bored and hope there is something more for me to read than the usual. That’s why I criticized Regency Romance for being too white.

Look, I’ve been raised in US whiteness. I know it’s only white people from the US that have this odd dream of white people have a time period that has a utopia of only white people. (This is part of white supremacy thinking. White Jews out there, this goes to you too. Stop supporting N*zism with the whole “White people are Caucasian because people don’t have a color.” BS. You don’t think I was listening? Oh really?) But I’d hoped that we’d gotten past that without the whole master-slave psychology. (ELEW SQUICK and WHY) (Al Andalusia is still one of my favorite time periods in Europe. The weirdness of the Mongols too.)

I interacted with Nanowrimo people who pushed on me hard about the existence of PoCs, and I’d mock them outright because several of them would think that PoCs only existed after the 1950’s civil rights era. I’d show them dot maps of the last census and they’d freak out. They’d try to argue that Australia is only white people. And I’d be pointing out population movements off of wikipedia and they’d be clutching their pearls. They’d try to argue that “The South” which has the largest population of Black people was “only white these days” while people actually from the south would say, “Ummm… nope that’s not true.” So when they couldn’t get that, they’d try their hardest to argue against MedievalPoC’s blog and send them death threats for posting paintings of things like the Chevalier. You white people trying so hard to dream of a white utopia of only white people is weird.

I wrote in Black traders, West Asian traders (You do realize how huge Asia is compared to Europe, right?), Polynesians, because that’s historically accurate to our world. And on Nanowrimo some people would be freaking out and say things like, you know what I’m going to move my village away from the ports and all traders. So then I’d point out Rromani, you know, exist and they’d freak out again. Really? Is it really that difficult to try to communicate with people unlike you?

Someone actually lectured at me in one of those rounds that “But, but you must be comfortable writing only Asians.” No… Seriously? I would choke. Korean history also has other races and ethnicities throughout it. And unlike fellow Koreans, I celebrate it. (I still support the Evenk/Siberian hypothesis, even if we’re not 100% sure). My eyes lit up when Koreans automatically in one of their historical shows put in a Black trader. (They couldn’t access West Asians at the time.)

Diversity is my jam because it’s my reality. I’m sure it’s yours if you weren’t so afraid of it.

People also forget Pacific Islanders exist… (Well, I include them) and those get zero. Samoa? C'mon. Japanese shows have more Samoans than American shows, who have a larger population of Samoans. (I read a paper on Samoans in the US. American Samoa is one of those territories US forgets exists.).

So off of that, I do market analysis…

So when I ask for a certain book type, I’m rolling the dice on what is most likely to be published next because the US market is soooo restrictive in ways other markets are not.

When I requested Korea think about the migrant workers, they jumped on it. They did it next drama. And then Japan also jumped in and pointed out those issues.

When I requested the US publish more adult diverse fiction, they are still hemming and hawing about how difficult it is when the next generation that was used to it are now adults.

I like the hedge my bets and hope the largest percentage will get published.

Despite market restrictions

I get bored writing only white people who are abled in a Hallmark Lifetime movie situation. It’s not what I experience and the best I can do is make fun of it. I only think of satire even though I watch them a lot.

But me, I pretty much ignore all of those market restrictions. I don’t give a shit if you think the K-drama fans are only into K-pop, which isn’t true. You know how I know, I asked. And when I put forwards a 100% K-drama scenario and you don’t recognize it as such, but claim you know K-dramas, but ask me what Oppa and Nuna are, I know you really didn’t watch K-dramas. Seriously? Where is the conflict? So you didn’t watch K-dramas if you’re asking that question or understand the market they carved out. (and failed to realize I’ve been feeding them ideas for the last 15 years-ish)

Because fundamentally, all of these restrictions (Such as OMG, sapphic is icky because women run the Romance section, except in Fantasy Romance which is why I’m begging you not to take it away and honor the fact it was a refuge for queer people), and write whatever the shit I please and I would encourage you to do that too. One day diversity will win and I’ll get to see an in-depth examination of Latine identity and indigenous identity through story, I’d really be pleased. But the US market isn’t even close to the level of diversity I’d ache to see because the US market is still fundamentally worried about privileged people ’s opinions first, diversity second.

Sometimes I think a totally anonymous author system like in China might be wiser because that’s how most of the time they get to slip in the diversity past the censorship board. More PoCs get published when they have white names and magically write their own races well (though I had to drop one book when they wrote only to the stereotypes of their own ethnicity to bend to whiteness, which didn’t feel good. I get why they did it, I just didn’t feel good about what that said about our market.)