On Free Speech.

[sarren]

My interaction with the internetz has been to not engage in controversial matters, to not express an opinion that people might take ‘the wrong way’, especially in their own journals. Because fandom IS my happy place, I feel I engage on subjects that are important to me in real life quite enough

Comments

[sarren]

People speaking up about their feelings and experiences have done a lot to educate fandom, and it's sad that it's an ongoing battle. I do read, and learn. I am aware that I speak from a position of white privilege and do try to be sensitive to people's feelings. I definitely would want to be called on it - as I suspect I just have been, politely, over the use of the expression 'lynch mob'. I didn't use it thoughtlessly - I did think about whether it was appropriate, my call was that it is a expression which has come to mean a mob unjustly victimising a person. But if it makes someone flinch, then I made the wrong call, and I apologise, and will change it.

This unit has been fascinating. One of the questions about free speech raised in this unit was whether people like David Irving should be able to express views that hurt people - the flip side was that if governments have the power to censor people, movements like the American Civil Rights movement would never have been able to succeed.

I decided that IMO opinion they do, but that the rest of us need to be prepared to engage in polite and reasonable debate. Perhaps this in analagous to fandom - when people express racist/homophobic/sexist opinions it's an opportunity to attempt to educate them.

[jamethiel_bane]

I'm not... I'm not belabouring the point or whatever, but the reason that lynch mob makes people flinch is because of history.

If you're interested in getting a bit more history on this, I recommend Without Sanctuary. Warning: Images at that site contain actual photos of racial violence/terrorism and dead PoC as a result of that violence. These images were taken by the perpetrators and in many cases used as postcards/souvenirs at the time. It is enormously disturbing.

It's something that I've viewed before (see Amanda Palmer and her comparison of product placement in videos and the klu klux klan) and while it is deeply upsetting, I believe visiting the site is worthwhile to give a sense of why it's not a term to be lightly thrown around.

The last lynching in America occurred in 1981--within both of our lifetimes.

[sarren]

I am aware of the history and thought carefully about whether to use the term. My thought processes were that it has become an expression in use, a powerful expression *because* of it's history, and I thought about whether such words should NOT be used at all, and whether this would result in either the word ceasing to have meaning, or alternatively, that such words become sacred. One of the things discussed in this unit I'm doing is that when words become sacred, and can't be discussed that they stop people engaging in debate - which I have realised now, wasn't exactly the context in which I was using it. I screwed up.

[kremmen]

That is, however, American history. If every time someone were to write something in English, they were to check whether it might in some way offend someone in one of the hundreds of countries in which English is spoken, we would never communicate much at all.

Reminds me of the Harry Connick Jr incident on Hey Hey last year.

[jamethiel_bane]

People dressing in blackface on Hey Hey without any idea of the greater social context was appalling.

I'm Australian and I know this stuff. Just like I would expect non-Australians to know that referring to an Aboriginal person who has died by name is offensive and directly against their beliefs, and I would expect someone writing a fic set in Haiti to know that the island has a history of slavery so depicting a creole person who is submissive and inferior to the great white man is ENORMOUSLY problematic and also that Vaudun practitioners are persecuted depending on who's in power at the moment, so just about all practitioners disguise it as catholicism/other religious worship.

If they don't know, they can find out.

Some things are universal. Racism sucks. If you're writing/performing about a delicate subject, do your research.

[kremmen]

Whereas, I saw absolutely nothing wrong with an Indian dressing in blackface on Hey Hey. Neither his parents' culture nor the one in Australia holds that to have any special significance. If some from another cultural background have a problem with it (because of the embarrassing actions of past members of their society), well, surely that's their problem?

I doubt any more than .01% of non-Australians know that referring to an Aboriginal person who has died by name is offensive. Luckily, most of them will also not know any such people and therefore will have no cause to refer to them by name.

The Haiti fic is different. "If they don't know, they can find out" seems like a fair judgment when we are talking about a work that is being published to a wide audience. I wouldn't hold anything which is just written in passing on a personal LJ (or performed live on a TV show) to anything like the same standard. It also sounds from your description like the fic depicts someone native as being inherently inferior, which doesn't require any specific history of slavery in order to be wrong.

[jamethiel_bane]

... but it's not about their culture, it's about the culture that they're riffing off and referencing and making fun of.

I just. The skit was performed and rehearsed. And yes, it was devised when they were university students but surely people should think before re-enacting past events?? Context changes.

They were referencing and making fun of American and African-American culture. If they didn't know the social implications of blackface, they should find out. Saying "Oh, it's performed by Aussies for an Aussie audience" is a cop-out. At least one american was watching that night!

It wouldn't have been any less offensive for them to dress themselves up as aboriginal. It's gross and appropriative.

It's just a standard--if you're referencing a culture that you don't know inside out from actually being part of the culture DO YOUR RESEARCH and make sure you're not being an arse, especially towards people who've been historically disempowered and who have problems relating to that today.

(As an example, I can make Irish and Scots and catholic jokes until the cows come home. I'd be kind of offended if someone who wasn't Irish came along with a skit that referenced the Troubles and implied that we were all whingers who exaggerated getting killed in the Bloody Sunday massacre. It's all context)

And sorry, should have clarified--it would be great if everyone knew about not using the names of the dead. I would expect a fic-writer writing a novel which references aboriginal characters to get it right.