What would a diverse SFWA look like?

[netmouse]

We're in science fiction and fantasy here, right? the genre of speculation? Let's do an exercise in imagination.

(I know people who actually participated in RaceFail '09 are licking their wounds right now, but I wanted to throw this thought out there.)

The SFWA web site says nothing about diversity. It says nothing about minorities, or people of color, or women or GLBT authors. None of the subcommittees directly address isues having to do with these groups.

SFWA is undergoing an internal restructuring, and their website is being redesigned as well. If you are a SFWA member (or have considered becoming one), and you want SFWA to welcome minority authors and feel that their peers value their membership, how would you want SFWA to do that? Please feel free to comment here, please contact SFWA (email SFWA secretary Mary Robinette Kowal, secretary at sfwa.org), and please pass it on.


ETA: temporarily Friends-locking this post at a request from Mary (explanation pending- she was in a rush and dropped me a quick email asking if I could hold off on blogging it). It may be that she/SFWA was already working on something and hoped to reveal it internally from SFWA before we appeared to request it, I don't know. Knowing how I have always hated being asked to do something just before I was going to do it anyway, thus being robbed of the appearance of initiative, I will ask people to hold off on re-blogging this for the moment in case that's what's going on.

EATA: ok, Mary commented below and I'm unlocking this post.

Comments

[elizilla]

Steven Barnes has an interesting blog where he sometimes brings up topics like this. You might see what he thinks.

OTOH, you can't just pick out someone from a minority group and act like they're spokesman for all. That's part of the problem.

It's a tough thing to get at, and without a variety of voices, how do you address it? But where do you find that variety of voices?

I don't get a sense that there are lots of minority folks out there wishing to get in, and feeling excluded. Fandom has so many people that love to point out exclusionary behaviors, and who can find slights where none exist, that you would think that if we were excluding minority voices we would hear more complaints about it.

ETA: I just googled "RaceFail '09" to find out what the heck happened. Now I'm tempted to delete my comment. It sounds like a whole lot of people with more background knowledge than me, and with serious axes to grind, jumped down each other's throats. Yikes! I guess their are complaints. FWIW, I'd be thrilled to see more diversity at the cons, but if I did XYZ to help us be more inclusive, would I offend the very people I'm trying to include? Better to keep my mouth shut, and my eyes and arms open.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I actually made this post after a young author of color commented to me in a post-racefail blog discussion that she nearly didn't join SFWA because of its lack of mention/support on various issues, and that having been a member for two years she's likely to quit this year. She also commented that any press that specifically welcomes and supports writing from minorities ought to make a statement saying so. I guess the base assumption is becoming that people of color are not welcome/safe in joining unless a hand is explicitly extended to them.

I often wonder what cons could do to encourage young readers of color, and for them to become congoers. This is part of why I hope AASFA's books to schools program will extend to primarily black Detroit-area schools, and I think we could also do a better job targeting in-city colleges and trade schools with our marketing.

I tried looking at Barnes' website and blog just a little while ago to contact him about this, but his sites do not contain any contact info or form for contacting him, and I didn't feel comfortable hijacking a blog post to this subject...