Now that I take a second look, he does appear possibly Latino? When I wrote it, I thought he was just a well tanned muscley white dude. That would make me definitely guilty of whitewashing (sorry, that’s shitty to do) but there was no racial TF intended there. And no, you aren’t being overly sensitive–but on the other hand, my stories are intended to disturb. This just wasn’t the way I’d intended to disturb people, so my apologies.
Speaking of the hitchhiker story, the “before” picture is a handsome jock who looks Latino, which would make him one of the few POC in your stories. By the end of the story, an old white redneck basically brainwashed and enslaved him, stripping him of his body, mind, and identity and transforming him into just another redneck. I usually enjoy your stories but this just disturbed me since I’m Latino myself. Am I being overly sensitive?
Published
Bracken's Corner 