Offending people

Where does an author stand on offending people? What care should we take in today's society to ensure we won't get cancelled over something we've written?

I’ve got a diverse mix of characters. A few are Asian and European, and some are from the Americas, but being a white British middle-aged male, how do I ensure that what I write is faithful to those characters, their beliefs, and their heritage? It isn’t easy. The editor told me I needed to get someone from an Asian culture to give me an opinion on how Yang and Suzume might behave. Great advice, but I cannot afford to be hiring someone to do that. I was also told that when describing a scene with ‘figures from all of human history, I had in fact, just described white European history. The statement was correct. On reflection, I realised I had just written what I knew. That's unconscious bias, right?

I’ve found that one of the hardest things is trying to give my characters a voice that matches their background. Make them use phrases that are native to their country and not a Yorkshire colloquialism. I remember at one point I wanted Sam to say, 'No shit Sherlock' then wondered A) Would an American teenager say that? B) Would an American teenager even know who Sherlock is? I settled on 'Thanks, Captain Obvious'.