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Because I said I would give more context
a post explaining the context of a couple other posts recently...
There was this thing. At least, most of us are hoping it is accurate to use the word "was" because it seemed a rather toxic thing, such that it was easy to look at from the outside and dismiss as LJ Drama, or "a bag full of angry cats" or some other thing that apparently made various people who did not read it choose not to read it and some people congratulate themselves on the wisdom of staying far, far, away.
There are a couple names for it, but the one I've heard most often is RaceFail '09. There is a short summary here, and a linkety guide here including a link to a timeline and another summary of events (she calls it "Writing The Other/Great Cultural Appropriation Debate of DOOM '09" which is more descriptive in some ways, but doesn't have the short quick impression of total morass 'o doom that "RaceFail '09" does). Another comment people should read before diving in, with a lightly shorter link list, is here.
And yes, somewhere in there is evidence that there are certainly people who believe SF (as a written industry, and as a fandom) is not a safe place for people of color. Now, of course, many people will just point at RaceFail '09 itself to prove that point. I don't know how many people will listen to them. I know fandom is certainly both wider and deeper than this particular debate. I also know it is distinctly lacking in characters of color in writing by white people, authors and editors of color in the industry, and fans of color at literary sf cons. There are a few, but not enough.
(apparently there was another discussion last year that was slightly more sane. I remember reading Bear's post on it at the time, but otherwise didn't see much of it. )
If you are going to read any of it, I also recommend you read this essay on the definition of racism and also google "race theory" or "critical race theory" so as to avoid having the "what the heck are you people talking about and why are you mangling this corner of English so no one can talk to each other sensibly on this subject?" reaction in public the first time (like I did).
I have not read it all yet, but I plan to explore further, since the short summary (and other comments I've received) indicate "there have been many interesting and thoughtful posts by fans of color" and those are of interest to me. I hope to post a guide pointing to those later.
In the meantime, one thing some people point to as a positive !fail coming out of this is the creation of a new small press called Verb Noire. They are taking donations now to help them get started.
There was this thing. At least, most of us are hoping it is accurate to use the word "was" because it seemed a rather toxic thing, such that it was easy to look at from the outside and dismiss as LJ Drama, or "a bag full of angry cats" or some other thing that apparently made various people who did not read it choose not to read it and some people congratulate themselves on the wisdom of staying far, far, away.
There are a couple names for it, but the one I've heard most often is RaceFail '09. There is a short summary here, and a linkety guide here including a link to a timeline and another summary of events (she calls it "Writing The Other/Great Cultural Appropriation Debate of DOOM '09" which is more descriptive in some ways, but doesn't have the short quick impression of total morass 'o doom that "RaceFail '09" does). Another comment people should read before diving in, with a lightly shorter link list, is here.
And yes, somewhere in there is evidence that there are certainly people who believe SF (as a written industry, and as a fandom) is not a safe place for people of color. Now, of course, many people will just point at RaceFail '09 itself to prove that point. I don't know how many people will listen to them. I know fandom is certainly both wider and deeper than this particular debate. I also know it is distinctly lacking in characters of color in writing by white people, authors and editors of color in the industry, and fans of color at literary sf cons. There are a few, but not enough.
(apparently there was another discussion last year that was slightly more sane. I remember reading Bear's post on it at the time, but otherwise didn't see much of it. )
If you are going to read any of it, I also recommend you read this essay on the definition of racism and also google "race theory" or "critical race theory" so as to avoid having the "what the heck are you people talking about and why are you mangling this corner of English so no one can talk to each other sensibly on this subject?" reaction in public the first time (like I did).
I have not read it all yet, but I plan to explore further, since the short summary (and other comments I've received) indicate "there have been many interesting and thoughtful posts by fans of color" and those are of interest to me. I hope to post a guide pointing to those later.
In the meantime, one thing some people point to as a positive !fail coming out of this is the creation of a new small press called Verb Noire. They are taking donations now to help them get started.
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(What exactly do you think is a huge pile of crap, btw? Have you read it? The whole discussion?)
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To turn that around, can you see how the relative scarcity of a minority group within another larger group (meaning members of the minority are considerably more scarce there than they are in the population at large) could lead a person of that minority (and others) to wonder what lead to it?
Can you see how one strong hypothesis could be that the group is somehow not a safe place for people of that minority to venture into and try to find a home in?
Are you familiar with how people tend to see evidence that supports a hypothesis once they have it, and discard evidence that does not?
All these things come into play.
Though there may be people and posts within racefail who have made sweeping generalizations about fandom and literary fandom and racism, I don't think those are the norm. Most of the anger and statements about racism are identifications of perceived racism in a particular document, statement, response, incident, or pattern of behavior by either an individual or an organization.
Though it is sometimes frustrating when people depict complex organizations as having "behaviors" I think it's nonetheless sometimes a valid rhetorical exercise.
In any case, my impression is that you're dismissing this whole thing as simplistic and the participants as simple-minded and generally I think neither is true.
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We're all trying too hard to fight against something that doesn't exist. Tilting at windmills may be fine for a while, but eventually, you've got to realize that it all adds up to nothing but grief.
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Isilya - Stones on My Chest (http://isilya.livejournal.com/434638.html)
BossyMarmalade - Sees Fire (http://bossymarmalade.livejournal.com/483524.html)
Ciderpress - Ven Ve Voke Up, Ve Had Zese Wodies (http://ciderpress.livejournal.com/214072.html#cutid1)
WistfulJane - Do You Even Care About Us? (http://wistfuljane.livejournal.com/218362.html)
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These people have opinions that they feel an undeniable need to express, and those opinions ultimately have nothing to do with whether or not there exists a problem of racism within the science fiction community as a whole. Those opinions are personal. I do not place any less value on them, but I think the context for them is misplaced.
I think it's terrible that we live in a society such that we need excuses like this to share our personal stories and experiences. We are dismissed as emo, and our posts become "too long to read" if we express our inner selves this way randomly.
Maybe the problem isn't science fiction; maybe it's just humanity.
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My point is supported by these posts, and my point is this:
These people have opinions that they feel an undeniable need to express, and those opinions ultimately have nothing to do with whether or not there exists a problem of racism within the science fiction community as a whole. Those opinions are personal. I do not place any less value on them, but I think the context for them is misplaced.
I disagree. Those posts were created as a result of these people feeling unwelcome in the SF community (in general and because of the actions of some SF professionals). The context is very much appropriate as it is the direct cause. All of those authors talk about race regularly, across a wide variety of subjects, this isn't them finding an excuse to share their feelings. Furthermore, they were just a cherry pick of the many, many posts by fans of colour about feeling unwelcome in SF and the hundreds of comments that they have received demonstrate that they are far from the only ones.
And it's not just the fans. Writers of colour are also (http://nojojojo.livejournal.com/169840.html?style=light) affected (http://ktempest.livejournal.com/376531.html#cutid1).