If you read yesterday’s Magic Story, Laid to Rest, you probably noticed an “additional story contributions” credit for Monique Jones. (If you didn’t read it, go read it!) A lot of people are curious about what Monique’s credit means and how it came about. Monique worked for us as a consultant during Kaya’s development.



We went to MTG author Kelly Digges for his thoughts.

—–

Let’s talk clearly here: Kaya is our first Planeswalker who’s a black woman. As a baseline, we approached her as we would any other character. But we know that there are pitfalls specifically in representing black women in media, and we don’t labor under the impression that we know what all of them are or how to avoid them. Doing so effectively requires both critical and lived experience, and we don’t currently have anyone on our story team who has that specific experience.

Goal one in hiring a consultant—level zero, nonnegotiable—is to avoid those pitfalls. If we set out to show you someone who looks like you or lives like you on a card, the absolute last reaction we want to elicit is “Ugh, not THIS again.” We believe it is both right and good to draw on experiences other than our own to craft our characters, stories, and worlds, and we believe it is mandatory to do so in a respectful way. Consultants help us do that when our own experience falls short. We hope to broaden our team’s demographics in the future, but our audience’s will always be broader, and so consultants will always have a role.

Without a consultant, avoiding those pitfalls can quickly become an exercise in fear. When does cocky and tough go too far into “Sassy” and “Strong,” two tired and unwelcome clichés about black women in media? When is a brief reference to hairstyling a refreshing bit of representation, and when is it distracting and othering? If I had to rely on my own judgment about where they were, I would have had to play it safe. I would have been making decisions out of the fear of offense, rather than the pursuit of a great story. The result would have been a character and a story that was just a little less nuanced, a little less true, and a little less exciting for all our fans, regardless of race—but especially less exciting for the very fans who were supposed to be most excited by her.

With a consultant to cover the gaps in our own experience, we get to do something really cool, beyond just not offending people (which is cool, but like, good gas mileage cool, not sports car cool). We get to tell a story that (we hope) is good on its own about a character who (we believe) is compelling on her own, but that is better and more interesting because of the real-world representation that character brings to the table, and that carries additional meaning and weight for those represented. We get to not just not make people angry. We get to do what we always want to do: make people happy.

With those two ideas in mind—avoiding pitfalls as a baseline goal and telling an especially resonant and representative story as the stretch goal—I pitched the idea of a paid consultancy to R&D leadership. With their support and encouragement, I contacted the administrator of BlackGirlNerds.com and asked if any of their writers would be interested in a consulting gig. I was looking for someone who had both lived experience as a black woman and a critical eye on representation of black women in media. Thanks to her experience writing about many kinds of representation in media, Monique was a great fit.

The details of Kaya’s personality, voice, and values—as well as some elements of her yet-to-be-revealed backstory—owe a lot to Monique’s insights and opinions. Because I had her there to tell me where the pitfalls were, we got to edge a lot closer to them than I could have without her guidance. And that made Kaya and her story a lot better and truer than they would have been if I’d been left to chart the safest course on my own.

You can check out Monique’s thoughts on her work on Kaya at her site, Just Add Color.

-Kelly Digges