census time
So, part of the current race/culture/privilege controversy exploding all over the SF&F community online involves a very prominent and well-respected author in the field being a complete idiot about the existence of fans of color (apparently, we're newly-sprung from the head of Octavia Butler, all Minervas of Color). In response, a call was put
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I just read the link and now I'm having trouble squaring the accusations with the reality of what was said. Here's what I get on first reading:
1) Fans of color are at an all-time record high number
2) This is a hopeful sign
3) A couple generations ago, fans of color were super-rare
#1 seems obviously true both in absolute and proportional terms, and #2 seems a positive opinion, both of which were ignored in everything I've seen. #3 is the heart of the controversy.
In most posts, #3 has mutated from "there weren't many fans of color" to "there aren't any fans of color," which is an unfair restatement. This whole census idea seems better suited to the mutated version of #3 than what she actually said and implied.
I feel pretty confident I'm not missing any second reading, which sets off alarm bells in my head from all the past times I've felt that way and not seen something so obvious from another point of view.
I'll think about it more. If you see what I'm missing and feel inspired to throw a clue in my direction, it would be appreciated.
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2) This is a hopeful sign
3) A couple generations ago, fans of color were super-rare
#1 seems obviously true both in absolute and proportional terms
True where? And how do you define "fans"?
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Why do you ask?
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I don't think the internet has caused an enormous jump in fans of color. I think they've been around all along, in the U.S. and elsewhere, but not as visible to non-chromatic con-going types.
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There were (and are) many fans of color, but they had very pointedly been (and continue to be) either ignored or made to feel unwelcome by the majoritarian white fandom and its unthinking privilege. Thus, even though there were droves of fans of color, LMB could go ahead and discount their existence because she never saw them, and didn't have to think about why she didn't.
What I see that you're missing is accounting for privilege (and part of the reason you're missing it may be because you share in it). You're missing the context of the privilege that colors LMB's statement there (as well as others of hers that simply boggle at oh so many things wrt people of color). A lot of what LMB has been saying in a variety of fora has been problematic--clueless at best--and the people to whom she's been saying it are more than justifiably tired of having to explain things to people like her.
It is exhausting as a person of color to have to continually explain to white people that you're a person, and have been all along, and that you have been present all along, too, thankyouverymuch.
And we have to do it all the time. Even me, here in San Francisco, with my friends of every color and creed. I still have to remind people that I'm a person, and that their shit is not okay.
Because we're dealing with human beings who have been scoured raw by navigating through this society as people of color, whose nerves are exposed by the caustic action of our society's structural racism, responses to things like LMB's comments have to be understood as precipitated out of a hugely toxic sky, one which we hope to decontaminate by action. Unfairly or not, things like the erasure of the Indians from a story about settling America, or LMB's comments, or RaceFail, act like lightning rods.
Thus: standing up and being counted, so when the inevitable next clueless idiot says we don't exist, we can at the very least have something to point at and say, "Yes, we do." Proclaiming oneself a person is a political act, verily, in this the congress of our virtual city.
More, fandom is calling people out on the exercise of their privilege and saying, en masse, that it's harmful and will not be accepted. And damn, but does this whole process hurt. And damn, but it's angry-making. And damn, but it's ugly sometimes. And damn, but it's necessary.
LMB is right in pointing out that the internet has been instrumental in fomenting this kind of massive action for people of color, just like it has for all people. The thing that she's missed is that "people of color" are part of "all people" and that it's her crogglement at that fact which offends.
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Anyway. One part of the problem is this Nice White Lady jumping from "I didn't know any fans of color" to conclude "fans of color were super-rare".
That's appalling. How dare she say anything about The People Of Color Nice White Ladies Don't See? Doesn't she understand that the fact that she Doesn't See them means that she doesn't know anything about them? Why not?
Another part is the Nice White Lady postulating that our existence was driven by the invention of the internet.
That's just silly. 1968 is when my dad -- my Puerto Rican dad -- gave me The Hobbit for my birthday. My brother and sister and I were still hopping on the couch to watch Star Trek with him on broadcast TV. A few years later he took us to see Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The internet may have made it easier for us to find each other, but we've always been here. Just like you have.
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Yes, quite. A generation is around 20 years (rough median from birth to first birthing), so 1968 is a couple generations ago. Thank you for the anecdote about your introduction to science fiction.
Please don't misunderstand my comments as a defense of Ms. Bujold. I am trying to understand this from a poor vantage and also trying not to make my investigation a burden on those who have already shouldered an unfair burden.
I don't pretend to know the demographics of SF readers or what motivated their change over time. That isn't even what I'm trying to figure out. I'm trying to figure out how to avoid being hurtful myself by deconstructing the statement and context that has already been hurtful.
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(That's a very idiosyncratic definition of a generation. I don't know where you got the idea that the median age of becoming a parent is 20, nor why your definition only counts first-borns. The usual anthropological rule of thumb counts one generation as 28 years. You can get more precise numbers, depending on what you're measuring and why, but none of them are going to be much smaller. If you'd like to learn more about this, look up "human generation interval".)
Anyway, the points I wanted to make by putting my anecdote up next to LMB's are that (1)you are highly likely to say something stupid when you talk about a group of which you are not a member; (2)that likelihood goes up when you have privilege the group you're talking about lacks; (3)that likelihood goes way up when you're arguing from ignorance (e.g. I didn't know any fans of color, so they were super-rare.)
Have you read Unpacking the Invisible Backpack?
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