Dear racefail apologists

[brown_betty]

Please stop making the argument from capitalism. It is so dumb it causes my brain to attempt to flee my skull and look for shelter. Most recently seen in the comments in Tempest's post @ Scalzi's Whatever, here is a typical example:#118: Publishers aren’t in the book publishing business to lose money. If SCI-FI readers are overwhelmingly white

Comments

[ratcreature]

...what

[brown_betty]

Unfortunately, I believe the economic theory on this is that while racism is bad for the economy as a whole, so long as a sufficient volume of people are affected by it, it will still benefit whites economically more than it harms them. (IANAE)

[ratcreature]

The lack of understanding of economics, culture, and SF publishing in the U.S. as displayed here is just amazing.

It's those dead white males who valued (or tolerated) wide-spread literacy and capitalism that made it possible for a publishing industry to develop and sustain itself.

Did anyone know that Univision's current ratings are comparable to the major U.S. networks? Isn't it weird that SF television programs' ratings tank when they get away from dramatic entertainment and try to be socially relevant? Isn't it interesting that anime characters are deliberately designed to be racially ambiguous?

Yes, I do have an MBA and since I put a lot of time and money into it, I expect some kind of remuneration for further detailed market analysis.

Ladies, a white man! Let's all gather round to listen!

[brown_betty]

When I think about the anonymous dead white man who first tolerated my literacy, I admit, a tear forms in my eye and I wish I could travel back in time to fellate him in thanks.

As to the further detailed market analysis, a generous offer, but I will have to pass.

[haddayr]

awesome post.

[icecreamempress]

Another insanity of this is that every publisher in the US and Canada and the UK and probably everywhere else* is wringing its collective hands and saying 'OMG SKY FALLING WHERE ARE WE GOING TO FIND NEW READERS' in every bit of journalism about the industry.

So clearly the current model ISN'T working all that well, and perhaps being less racist and sexist might work better? Even from a totally market-focused standpoint?

*Except, apparently, Harlequin/Mills and Boon, but that's another issue.

[brown_betty]

Yeah, and you know what Harlequin is doing? They're looking at ways to make their product more attractive to people outside their traditional customer demographic. Like men. They're not demanding a fainting couch because men read their books and maybe find something in them that's offensive or annoying.

[mkcs]

That argument fails on the 'all white people are racists' bit, too, doesn't it?

It also fails in its capitalism. If all the publishers have ever given decent publicity to is white-centric fiction, of course that's what the audience is used to. However, it doesn't mean that's the audience's real preference, just that it's been 'good enough' to make them buy.

No one's ever made the ideal PDA for me, so I use both a Palm Pilot and a Nokia N800 to get the functions I want. If someone made the ideal PDA and marketed it so I knew it existed, I'd buy it in a shot, and I wouldn't then buy new versions of the Palm and N800. But the argument you describe suggests that PDA manufacturers would be best off just making new Palms and N800s, not inventing better products. Capitalism is about competition, and competition means a perpetual need to raise the bar and improve the product, just to keep selling to the same audience.

[brown_betty]

Well, maybe they're not making the idea PDA so as to force you to buy twice as munch tech widgetry?

[mkcs]

Possibly, but since the manufacturers are not connected AFAIK, I doubt it. It's just that one manufacturer has a good PDA that has poor internet-tablet stuff and no good bluetooth keyboard, and the other has a great internet tablet that links to a perfectly OK keyboard, but which has poor PDA software, I don't think it benefits them. Their industry is getting more of my money, but individually, they're each getting less and I'm still an unhappy customer who neither promotes their products nor intends to stay with them when I can find something more suitable.

[brown_betty]

Man, I don't even care. Even if racism does make more money, I'm not going to say “well, that's all right then!”

I mean, economically, it's inefficient, but it does give white people a competitive advantage, which unsurprisingly, many white people like to have.

But also: Yeah, since RaceFail09 pretty conclusively proved that there are PoC/non-white people who would be interested in your product if you could maybe make it less hostile, wtf? You want to not do that why?

[mkcs]

"The average white guy isn't going to go, "Oh god, there's black/hispanic people in my book!" "

Honestly, I think he's more likely either to not notice particularly or to like it. Certainly that's the two reactions I've heard most often from people discussing the Wizard of Earthsea trilogy. (It's amazing how many people entirely miss Ged's non-European ethnicity.)

[penguin_attie]

Srsly. I've been reading this massively epic Harry Potter fanfic for weeks now, and after over 100 chapters and a continuous effort of will I finally managed to adjust my imagination enough to actually think of this OC as black when she is mentioned, even though it says she is all the time. (My brain somehow translates "this person is black" into a white person with black hair. WTF?) Just to say, Le Guin sort of holds back on it a little, but even if you were going to restate it several times in every chapter, I don't think they/we would really notice unless it was shoved in their/our faces in a really disruptive way.

(Disclaimer: I'm German, Turkish is the most "of color" we have, so I may be suffering from this worse than Americans.)