from the inside out.

[annwyd]

So, I wasn't going to talk about the latest storm about race and appropriation that's flooding through fandom. Then I realized that, actually, I do have some things to say about it (other than "oh God, I wish I never had to see people I thought were cool like Emma Bull and Patrick Nielsen-Hayden saying such things"), so I might as well speak up

Comments

[sapphire_hime]

I find this idea of the Default interesting, especially in the way we're blind to privilege through it. Thank you for linking those posts. There were shades of Fanon in deepad's argument, and I liked seeing it put so eloquently toward discussing fiction.

[annwyd]

There've been a lot more links up on metafandom, and I've heard that rydra_wong has been keeping good lists.

I may poke at my concept of the marked vs. unmarked case some more later. It's a pretty big project.

[chaos_harmony]

... I don't think I have anything especially productive to add to what you've said, but just so you know, I find this (and the various other posts you write on race, class, social justice, etc.) very interesting, and more than a little insightful. During the week before college, I was at this (slightly pretentious but good-for-meeting-people) program on race, class, & gender that was hosted by my college and the two others in its consortium. Thing was, while the program was good for fun, light-hearted social networking, it wasn't very useful in regard for actually promoting real, honest, non-stilted conversations on the issues at hand.

To be frank, I wish we'd been able to speak as openly and articulately as you (or deepad, for that matter) do in entries like these. None of us, I think, looked or thought deeply enough at the time, or perhaps we were afraid to. For all that the students in this program were very bright, hardworking, and well-spoken young people who'd clearly been accepted to this little network of so-called "elite

[annwyd]

Yeah, uh...I gather (I've never spent all that much time at one) that colleges are some of the most privileged environments out there. Full of smart people! But also bastions of privilege.

Reading blogs of people on the most marginal of margins--lower-class and brown; transgendered and poor; any minority and engaged in sex work--can also be an eye-opener in that regard, I think.

[chaos_harmony]

Yeah, uh...I gather (I've never spent all that much time at one) that colleges are some of the most privileged environments out there. Full of smart people! But also bastions of privilege.

Absolutely. Yes, schools like these are relatively generous with financial aid (because they can certainly afford it), but being able to attend one at all - regardless of what your particular background is - does mean that you're privileged, at least on some level.

For instance, as a Chinese-American, and technically a "woman of color," I don't really have to deal with "white guilt" or "white privilege" in the typical sense. But as the only child of an upper middle class academic family, do I still belong to a privileged class? Absolutely. I think you hit the nail right on the head when you say that most people belong to at least some sort of privileged group - and that, as such, we have a tendency to think of that particular group as the "Default."

[a_white_rain]

WELL at Harvard, there is this awesome woman who is in charge of African American studies who is often on a TV show I follow, and she seems like she knows her stuff. But not all of us are headed to Harvard.