I think she's talking to me

[salinea]

From oyceter RaceFail '09 : this hurts us all:

SF book fandom, where are you?

Although a few authors and editors have come out against what WS and KC have done, where is the rest of the fandom? Like Jane says earlier, "Where are the con-comms, going apeshit to distance themselves from these serial fails of race and culture? Where are the guests-of-honor, specifically inviting underserved communities to visit at an upcoming con? (Where are the "discount if this is your first con evar" programs?) Why aren't the SF organizations like SFWA (okay, bad example) having a cow and putting out official position statements on outreach? Where are press-releases from the publishing houses, explaining their diversity efforts (in their lists and in their workplaces)?"

Why the resounding silence? Editors, authors, fans—all the people who were not talking about RaceFail and what people in their field were doing: where are they?

If the prior months of RaceFail were "both sides behaving badly" (which I disagree with), what is this, and why has no one said anything?

Mely previously wrote, "Is group protest always right or good? No, it's not. It's a way to establish and enforce community norms, and it's only as right and good as the community norms are. It can be profoundly oppressive and profoundly abusive. But silence in the face of injury is also a way to establish and enforce community norms. You don't opt out of a community by remaining in it and never commenting on its big controversies; you just opt to abide by whatever party wins."

What SF book fandom is telling me—a woman, a person of color, and a long-time fan of SF books and a con-goer—what you are telling me is that you don't care. That these are, in fact, your community norms, that you are all right with people who have more power in your community (by virtue of profession, race, and gender) using that power to harm other, less powerful, members of your community. That you are fine with the erasure of women, of people of color, of those without the same professional privileges you enjoy, and that you are willing to stand by silently and let people be hurt. This is how it affects us. This. And this.

Your silence speaks volumes.

So.... what am I, as a fan and reader of SFF books, doing?

Am I linking you to the People of Colour in SF&F Carnival's 12th issue, which was released this week and which much like the awesome Feminist SF Carnival links to various discussions and essays on PoC characters and themes and how they're treated in various SFF media?

Am I linking you to the Asian Woman Blog Carnival which is doing a call for submissions and themes suggestions for its first edition?

Have I mentioned the Remyth Project, which is about PoC writing and creating about their mythologies and legends, so often erased, colonised, appropriated by others?

Being aware of the bias in the publishing industry and book store chains that will make it so that books by PoC and books about PoC are less likely to just come my way when I'm looking for books to read, or to be as widely marketed, recommended and reviewed, have I made a special effort to find those books and review them? Have I joined the 50books_poc and taken the challenge to read and review 50 books by PoC?

Have I mentioned that a PoC genre press, verb_noire, is getting started?

Have I ever blogged for the International Blog Against Racism? Have I linked to those posts?

Why haven't I? And what else could I do?

And back to the RaceFail '09, did I mention that rydra_wong has archived all the links you may want to read know exactly what happened and why it is outrageous, and how people who are writers and editors have been using both their power in the SF industry and their white privilege to silence and sidetrack criticisms of racism and cultural appropriation and have attacked, insulted, demeaned, outed people who were making those criticism? What does it mean when people who are influential and active in the SFF community do so without other people who are active and influential in the SFF community calling them on their shit? Is it something that only concerns the people who suffer from it, or is racism in this community, in my community, something that concerns all of us?

And you, those of you that are also SFF fans, con-goers, forums participants, bloggers and reviewers of the SFF community, those of you that are white and have the privilege of ignoring racism and the people suffering from racist until they start yelling in your ears, what have you been doing?

Comments

[eefster.livejournal.com]

Not enough. I had heard of the original back-and-forth about Bear's LJ "discussion", and had read a bit about it then, but after that it slipped my mind. I had absolutely no idea that it had not only continued, but escalated.

When you posted about the larger situation again last week, I was shocked. Particularly, I was shocked by the whole Nielsen Hayden thing -- that was "It's not my fault and this is now about my hurt feelings" writ large. And these are people, I know, but they're also professionals, and it was probably the biggest bunch of petty nonsense I've seen in my life.

I have not joined 50books_poc, but I am making a point of reading more books by PoC. I came across the mention of verb_noire in the tnh thing, and was delighted.

I think that there has been a lot of fighting against the conservatives* of con-goers, and I hope that it continues. Saying one wants new blood, but only if they do things exactly the same way you do, is utterly ridiculous. I am going to make a point of suggesting some of those things listed above and elsewhere. I'm thinking of the new congoer panels, panels by and for PoC, and about fiction by PoC, plus perhaps other groups. (Can we have serious discussions about representations of sexuality at a con yet?) I'll suggest things for/by/about women too, of course, but I think that white women are marginally better represented in most con programming than other underrepresented groups.

ETA: I knew I'd forgotten something. My original asterisked point was going to be this: I know that the entrenched "our way or the highway" folk tend to be above a certain age, and that "old guard" isn't really to do with age anyway, but I dislike conflating one's age with one's outlook.

PS I haven't said it before, but thanks for linking to the whole thing, and the individuals' posts. I am consistently amazed at their eloquence and patience, and particularly their knack for distilling things down, one benefit of which is that CWP can understand without feeling attacked. Of course, that makes me feel bad that they *have* to address this stuff at all, but it's still nothing compared to the original.

PPS They are NOT doing it for the CWP, and it was bad phrasing on my part to suggest that they were, or should be.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

This is pretty awesome actually, IMHO.

And you're welcome, and yes, I am, too, amazed, that is.

[werthead.livejournal.com]

This is like a supernova of Internet Fail.

There was an spectacular blowback in the link where one of the guys was saying that white trailer trash would have less luck than a middle-class black guy in getting a cab in NY, thus classism is a bigger problem than racism, only for someone to point out that Michael Moore did exactly this experiment (ten years ago in TV NATION, long before Moore was a well-known celebrity himself, although I suspect the problem hasn't gotten any better in the meantime) and the trailer trash guy (a convicted felon recently out from prison) got the cab every single time, despite the fact that the black guy was a reasonably famous actor (Yaphet Kotto, best known from ALIEN and having a recurring role in HOMICIDE). Moore then pushed this to insane degrees, with the white guy putting on crappy, stained clothes to look like a tramp and the actor wearing his best suit, carrying a briefcase and some nice flowers and the white guy still got the cab every time.

And racism isn't a problem any more? What the hell?

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

It really, really is.
It really annoy me that the people failing like that are such big SFF pro people, and that they taint the whole SFF lit fandom for PoC fans as a result.

[luzisrighthand.livejournal.com]

Apart from reading your posts(and similar posts by other people) nothing.
Most of the time I do not even remember the name of the author after I read a book.
I seldomly look at author pictures or read the "about the author" stuff.
I did not know that Samuel R. Delany was black before it was mentioned on westeros some time ago.
I can't say I feel bad for ignoring those things and I don't care if people think bad of me because of that. I might tell someone on the shift-bus to shut the fuck up if he makes a racist comment while we drive trough a certain part of the next city but I really don't care for RL shit in my escapism soup.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

*nods*

I think PoC who are into SFF are like you. They don't want RL shit in their escapism soup, which is why it is so annoying for them when it follows them there.

[umadoshi.livejournal.com]

Mostly I've been reading, which I understand is a very passive thing to be doing, but I've been reading quite a lot. (I say, but then I look at rydra_wong's round-up posts every day or so and realize how much conversation is happening that I haven't read, just from the sheer volume of it. But I'm making a good dent in it.) The reading's been going on for a while, esp. since I've been going through a lot of the books oyceter blogs about for the last year or two.

I guess what that means is that I'm becoming more aware of and horrified by my own obliviousness, and that I don't feel I have anything to say beyond "this is horrible, and I can't believe some people are treating others so badly". (Except I can believe it--my opinion of humanity isn't very high to begin with.) And if I don't have anything to say, I don't want to be another distracting voice adding sound but no meaningful content. :/

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Reading passively is also something I do lot. In this whole case, there have been many moments when I felt just fed up with the whole deal and the mountains of posts and avoided them though. :( I feel guilty for that.

[haremstress.livejournal.com]

Placing my current and next stories in countries with no white people! Whoo! :)

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Thus, you are awesome XD

PoC but still commenting, yeah

[cloud-wolf.livejournal.com]

Reading up on RaceFail09 through metafandom and feeling increasingly angry and sad. It was bad enough to finally realise last year that I'm the only coloured sf/f fan I know in rl and that coloured people (I'm not even going to try for Iranian, useless) are severely underrepresented in the books I read (Like the book that got me into fantasy when I was 12, Harry Potter. It kinda hurt that the only coloured students were an Indian girl we were clearly supposed to see as inferior to Hermione, a black boy who got on Harry's bad side, for zomg dating Ginny. And some others like Kingsley and Blaise.)

I think this Privilege checklist is a very good example of the things PoC don't have and that white people take for granted. Just to make it clear, my score was, like, zero (and three that were half-half).

Re: PoC but still commenting, yeah

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

On the one hand I was thrilled at Parvati Patil and her twin sister being the most gorgeous girls in their year, you know? Because Indian girls are hardly ever portrayed as attractive and popular. They're usually not portrayed at all, but the stereotype was that Indians were weird and boring nerds.

But on the other hand, you're quite right that Parvati is a foil for Hermione, and the contrast is all to Herm's advantage. *sigh* The character by itself doesn't strike me as racist because it doesn't play into any stereotypes about Indians, but it does suck that Harry's schoolmates of color are (1) minor side-characters, and (2) there to be annoying and silly.

To etrangere: thanks for giving us a run-down of all this. None of these people are on my flist and I have neither time nor energy to do the extensive reading clearly required to keep up and be intelligently informed about this debacle. The only thing I have to say is that this latest "outing" nonsense is both about racism and at the same time transcends it. What the "outers" are telling us is that anyone who sharply criticizes an author with fans capable of tracking down their RL identity is fair game to be outed. This has clear implications for anyone in the SF/F community who provokes the ire of an author or author's fans by criticizing a work for racism (and these critics are often minorities). And the implications go even beyond that to any kind of criticism. This is a very disturbing power play on the part of the outers.

Re: PoC but still commenting, yeah

[cloud-wolf.livejournal.com]

the stereotype was that Indians were weird and boring nerds.
Okay. Fair enough, I missed that because I don't think that's the stereotype for Hindoestanen (Surinami Indians) here in the Netherlands.

Hey, if you want to keep up with this and other kinds of meta in fandom you could watch metafandom, they have posts every few days with links to all kinds of interesting meta, ranging from racism to sexism to privacy to simple things like tagging your fics.

Re: PoC but still commenting, yeah

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

I don't think that's the stereotype for Hindoestanen (Surinami Indians) here in the Netherlands.

Come to think of it, I don't know if that's the stereotype in Britain, either. And that's the most relevant cultural audience.

I could watch metafandom, but I haven't friended it yet because I am resisting the pull of yet another online distraction. :D

Re: PoC but still commenting, yeah

[cloud-wolf.livejournal.com]

Wiki is your friend! All I can make out that it's very complicated. I know London has a huge Indian and Pakistani community and the stereotypes overlap. I know that the whole Indians-are-often-doctors-and-driven stereotype is here too, for Hindoestanen (though their history is different their origin is also in India) were easily the first immigrant community to become succesfull here. We don't have the Indians-and-Pakistanis-are-conveniencestore-holders, though. But hey, being portrayed weird nerds is slightly better than being portrayed as the allies of the Joker, y/y? :P

LOL, fair enough.

Re: PoC but still commenting, yeah

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

You're welcome for the run down. I need to try to link more to the very good posts when I come across them, that's really the least I can do.

Yes, it's totally an abuse of power, and an abuse made all the more disgusting by how it's coloured by racism. It's bullying, harassing and trying to intimidate people from a position of white and professional privilege... puke-worthy.

Re: PoC but still commenting, yeah

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

yeah, most of the people in SFF fandom I know IRL are really, really white. It's rather depressing.

And what you say about HP characters, too.

Just to make it clear, my score was, like, zero (and three that were half-half).
:( fuck, I really don't know what to say. I'm sorry.

[scriva.livejournal.com]

First of all, thank you for the links to the summaries and overview over the discussion. I was vaguely suspicious that the whole escalation was still a result of the discussion, starting with Elizabeth Bear, but I had lost track of it. And right now, the flood of posts on metafandom makes it difficult to see what I should necessarily read and what is just hot air. Now, it's a bit clearer, so thank you very much.

Since I'm not very active in the blogosphere, I have not taken part in the discussion, but I have gone into deeper introspective in my own writing. I know that I have been embarassinly naive in my fanfic that dealt with race issues, even though, I was never criticised for it, so I have to be more carefull in the future.

I also hope to find more books with POC characters, and I pimp Octavia Butler and the Xenogenesis trilogy (especially the first volume) wherever I can.

[luzisrighthand.livejournal.com]

I got the German translation of the series on one of my shelves.
I must have read it about ten years ago.
Weird stuff and I remember enjoying it.

[scriva.livejournal.com]

I bought an omnibus edition of the same translation for a good price, and I like it for the same reasons: It's weird, and fascinating.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

You're welcome for the links. Yeah, I also found the discussion difficult to follow.

I've barely brushed on those kind of issues in my own fanfics, so you're still ahead of me.

I need to read more Octavia Butler!!

[kethlenda.livejournal.com]

Learning as much as I can. I haven't been posting--maybe I should have been--but I'm storing things away in my mind...things I never thought of before, things I want to make sure I remember, and yes, the names of people who are utter fuckheads and need to be avoided.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I do that, most of the time, as well :) It's hard to know when it's worthy to talk as a clueless white person, and when people would appreciate it. (Obviously, lots of different people will react differently to that, as well).

[rebbe]

Beyond what I've picked up from your entries, I've been so out of the loop with this. I'm not hearing about it at all from anywhere else. There's some serious disconnect going on here, woah.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't knwo which fandoms you follow. I got a lot of those links from metafandom as well as LJ fans like coffeeyandink or oyceter.