Some advice for white people in fandom

[zvi_likes_tv]

Okay, so you've read Te or Willow or Elke on this whole 'Characters of color are underrepresented in fannish activity' thing or you were inspired by International Blog Against Racism Week or arrallara & Trixie's con.txt panel or you remember the post that put me on the map four years ago or your New Year's resolution is to let go of white

Comments

[dragovianknight]

This whole post is made cooler by the fact CoC can be pronounced "cock". I do hope that was intentional, what with all the grabbing of CoCs... :D

[zvi_likes_tv]

CoC is…three or four years old? And not original to me. I think Te came up with it. And yes, I made much of the play on words deliberately.

[dragovianknight]

I am so twelve, that CoC="cock" can make me laugh the way it does. And also, clearly, I've been living under a rock for the past three or four years.

I do have a question, though, as to what (if anything) differentiates a "magical negro" from any other "Wise Mentor Type (who's probably going to be sacrificed)" character. Like, if Obi-Wan had been black, would he fall into that category? Because reading the wiki entry, that's the case, therefore making it Bad to cast a CoC as the WMT(WPGTBS), but possibly there are other nuances and my tired, overworked brain is not picking up on them (for the record, Wise Mentor Types are often my favorites, though I prefer they not be sacrificed because, duh, favorites). Or maybe I just need things explained sideways, because that's how my brain works.

Did I mention I'm really tired? ::cannot tell if this comment has made any sense at all::

[zvi_likes_tv]

Your Wise Mentor types tend to be people of established power in some way. Ben Kenobi was the next-to-last of the Jedi Knights and Dumbledore is the head of Hogwarts and already defeated Grindelwald himself. Magical Negroes trend toward overlooked peasant types who offer insight because their low (i.e. natural savage) status allows them 'authenticity' in a way that the Naive White Farm Boy/Hero of Manifest Destiny lacks.

But, yeah, any casting of a person of color as a Wise Mentor type (especially if they die) is going to get you looked at suspiciously.

[quiet000001]

... do people really just not write CHARACTERS? Your character is who they are, you know?

(That said, I do have an original fiction character who is not entirely white and I occasionally worry when doing things with him that people will be somehow offended, but the thing is, he's just doing the things he does.) (Specifically, he's clearly mixed race even though neither of his parents are very obviously anything other than white, because sometimes genetics work like that, and as a result he struggles with fitting in and tries on different cultures and quite probably IS a characiture when he does that, rather than accurate, but that's becuase *he* doesn't really understand, you know? So he's being true to him and struggling with combining his upbringing and his heritage and that's what we get to see. But I worry readers won't understand that the mistakes he makes are genuinely meant to be mistakes he is making, you know?)

[zvi_likes_tv]

When it comes to CoCs, the answer is often no, they don't just write characters. They either don't write them at all or they fall into weird stereotypes. And when FoCs ask white fans, "Why are you so strange about this issue?" they say, "I don't know enough People of Color" or "I'm afraid that there will be consequences if I get it wrong."

And when FoCs have told white fans, "But you should just write the character on screen," the response we get is, "But I am still afraid that something bad will happen," and things do not seem to change.

So, I'm trying to be more explicit, so they know exactly what to do in came the Something Bad happens. We'll see.

[quiet000001]

I guess I am a little afraid of getting flamed or what have you, but then you can be flamed for all kinds of things, so. *shrug*

That said, atm I don't write in any fandoms with CoCs and original characters that I create for fandom stories tend to be fairly lacking in description anyway (I mean, does it really MATTER what the grocery story clerk looks like, you know?) so the only place they turn up at all is in original stuff, which I don't share with anyone atm anyway. 'cause I am a wuss. (Which has nothing to do with having CoC in my stories and everything to do with them being original and ohmygod people might HATE THEM. *G*)

So. Easy for me to say. :)

I did love the post, though. I think I just forget not everyone writes the way I do. (I.e. the characters present themselves in my head and however they are is just How They Are.)

[rubynye]

Apropos of nothing, I *love* this idea for a character. I've known a couple people like that IRL, including a girl in college whom I'm pretty sure described herself as having three entirely different ethnic backgrounds at different times. So, I wanted to cheer you on.

[musesfool]

I think I love you.

[zvi_likes_tv]

Thank you.

[ficbyzee]

....I got to 'FoCing Cabal' and laughed. Then I got to "Die, honky bitch, die" and choked on my popcorn.

This post wins so fucking hard.

[zvi_likes_tv]

Thank you.

[thete1]

Utterly beautiful, babe. <3

[zvi_likes_tv]

Thanks. *preens*