a plea to the sf-f fans

[jlh]

I'm going to make this very short.

If you're in SF/F fandom, or you are consuming SF/F content (especially books) and you haven't been following RaceFail'09 at all, I'm here to tell you that you should. Provided for you: Excellent summaries of the key events as well as a comprehensive list of links from rydra_wrong. Please don't say it's too much to take in; please don't say that you're sick of listening to people bitching about race; please don't say that this is your happy place and you don't want real world issues intruding. Or, if you do feel that way, then please defriend me. I don't care if you have anything to say about or don't, but if you don't care about the experience of fans of color in SF/F, and you're an SF/F fan, then you don't care about my experience, and I'd rather we just stop pretending.

The calls for people to speak out are, I think, more directed at people within the professional literary side of SF-F, than at white folks in fandom, and I'm not really expecting my flist to have all these eloquent things to say about race. But I do expect that you get interested in it, see what's been going on and try to follow it as best you can. It's a very large issue—much larger than the usual fandom imbroglios, because it touches on how professionals behave, how the content gets created, and who gets to talk about it. I, for one, would rather not have another conversation where I say, "so how about this racefail?" and I get "oh, I haven't been following, it's so long, la!" reply. Because that reply, I'm willing to say, is privileged; you aren't following because you don't think it has anything to do with you. And I'm here to say, it does.

Comments

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

I care way more about your experience as a real human being than I do about books. I've been following this thing all along and I've been alternately horrified by the behavior of other people and increasingly aware of my own areas that need work.

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

I've been following to varying degrees of horror, and am still percolating my post. I am so distraught over the whole thing for so many reasons, I don't currently have words.

Although I must confess there have been periods in this whole thing when I've been so upset, I've had to step away from following for a brief time, or I was going to just fall apart.

I just. Yeah. Still no words. Hopefully they'll come soon.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Your link to deepad's post back in January was how I first heard about the entire thing—deadbro took it up a little later. I've definitely had days where I couldn't read what was going on for the same reasons—and I was also closely following the whole Avatar casting mess, and in the middle of it had some other conversations and was just like, wow, I really feel like a Negro right now. I can't even imagine what it's like for you, who really is an SF-F fan, for whom it must all be heartbreaking.

I've been trying to decide how to post about it being an outsider, and how to think about the content that I do consume and how problem-free it actually is, and what I want to do about that.

Big hugs, and in the meantime we should really have lunch or something. I'll email!

[calloocallay.livejournal.com]

Clio and Kali - perhaps we (especially you two, who have such broad readership) might start a discussion of genre authors/ shows that seem to be dealing well with this stuff? Does a list like that already exist in a bloggy discussiony forum? Kali, I know I have talked to you before about Brown Girl in the Ring, etc - what do either of you think of Gaiman's or Le Guin's "use" of black characters?

I'm not really in fandom, so I feel like most of my power here is consumer power. I would appreciate some discussion of what's out there that is working.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Actually, a lot of people have been trying to turn the conversation to exactly that. There's the 50books_poc comm that has a lot of recs, and some of the posts individually have just said, instead of continuing this conversation let's do recs, which are linked at the beginning of this post:

http://community.livejournal.com/fight_derailing/1498.html

and there's the verb_noire project and yeloson's Remyth project both of which are linked in that post as well. (I'm thinking of writing something for remyth actually.)

I think there are some moves to have more of those discussions on the 50 books comm, and I have my eye out as the links spool past me about more and more recs communities, too. I'm not sure how much of this is actually discussiony? But I'm poking at it to see what people are up to at the moment, as the discussion turns in the way that you, and others, are thinking would be useful!

[calloocallay.livejournal.com]

Thanks! There are some awesome-looking books on those lists. I also want to say that I think recs are a great counterpart to the conversation you are talking about. I didn't mean to imply that they should REPLACE that conversation. I guess I see it more as a useful "and" instead of an "instead."

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Oh, I knew that was what you meant—I think that's what everyone means about trying to find something positive in this mess. And also, a lot of the direct conversation at least in this instance had gone as far as it was going to go. When I said "a lot of people have been trying to turn the conversation to exactly that" I didn't mean "as a diversionary tactic" but more "because the race conversation has wound down and was full of fail anyway, and now it's nice while there is still attention to turn it to something that we can do."

what the fucking fuck

[mr-cutiepants.livejournal.com]

Just... wow.

Thanks for linking these summaries, etc.

[evil-erato.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links (again!). I have stuff on work computer from way back when you first brought it up in chat a month or two ago, but obviously I am not there today, when I finally have a chance to sit and read. Especially timely as I was already thinking about how to discuss race, privilege, etc. &hearts

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I'm here from rydra_wong's links.

Please don't say it's too much to take in; please don't say that you're sick of listening to people bitching about race; please don't say that this is your happy place and you don't want real world issues intruding. Or, if you do feel that way, then please defriend me.

This is a brave thing to say. Thank you for this, and for this post.

(frozen)

[laura-holt-pi.livejournal.com]

Racefail could not be better named. Under the pretext of fighting against racism, Rydra_Wong and others are simply cyberbullying. I've seen people attacked who have done nothing wrong and I urge you all to avoid associating yourselves with the dogpile.

(frozen)

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Of whom do you speak, who has done nothing wrong? I personally have seen breathtakingly bad behavior.

[sarahtales.livejournal.com]

I have been following from day one, and if I could think of anything new or useful to say, I would. But I am totally listening.