No, you don’t have to just write what you know
Whether you see it as cultural sensitivity or excessive political correctness, there’s no way of getting around it: Writing from the perspective of a demographic you’re not from can be fraught.
So what are authors to do — limit themselves to writing what they know?
Not necessarily, says scholar Tresa LeClerc.
See what she suggests writers do when writing in the voice of a different background here.