ongoing thoughts from RaceFail 2009

[hermetic]

There are continuing consequences of the whole discussion of cultural appropriation, racism, white privilege, and the fact that many people acted like complete and utter jackasses, and some continue to do so.

Seriously, people, I am calling you on it:  jackasses. Especially you, willshetterly. You're being a double dumbass jackass, and I don't like it

Comments

[ljgeoff]

*big breath* Yeah.

Really, it all made me sad. It felt like it came from a place of ignorance, not spite. And it was such a fucking replay of what happened between me and a friend of mine that I was both fascinated and horrified at the same time. Thanks for writing this.

[hermetic]

You're welcome, but really, it just got to the point where a lot of things boiled over inside my head and I needed to say something.

The whole thing about the NHs and how I've felt about it since, in particular. I mean, honestly, Will Shetterly being a complete asshat online is no surprise to anyone, but the aspects of Patrick's and Teresa's involvements in RaceFail were very honestly disheartening to me.

Also, I hear you on the horror and fascination.

But I'm trying to view this all with the positive spin that it foments discussion, and I am really looking forward to WisCon.

[ljgeoff]

... and I'm really looking forward to WisCon.

*grin* Yep. Also with a bit of horror and fascination. It will be interesting!

[easwaran]

I suppose I missed whatever it was that prompted all this (I don't read the relevant blogs). But I have been noticing the role (or absence of it) of race in sci fi a bit lately. I recently read Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson, and was pleasantly surprised at the idea that the main character in a sci fi novel wasn't white (especially given the way that Stephenson seemed to dismiss female and gay characters in Cryptonomicon, I was surprised to see that he was at least this forward on race). And I've started watching Battlestar Galactica, which does a good job of integrating male and female characters in the military (the best fighter pilot is female, superior officers are always addressed as "sir" whether male or female, and the fighter pilots even seem to share a single co-ed locker room/bathroom) but has a pretty much all white cast, except for two characters, one of whom is relatively minor. Given that Star Trek already had a racially diverse cast (ignoring the tokenism they represented) it seems strange that a show about the

[hermetic]

This is fallout from a huge conflagration that happened in late January/early February. A lot of it is archived online, but some parts of it have been either deleted or screened. It was all very much a Charlie-Foxtrot situation.

As for race in SF... yeah.

Taking the specific example of Battlestar Galactica, yeah, they really, really, really could have done a better job with the whole racial diversity. I mean, there are folks who are all colors in the background, but if you do a quick count, you still get the sense that they're minorities, even if they're not displayed/treated as such. No one thinks Dee or Sharon are less than for not being white (or for being women, thankfully)... it's just that there's a lot fewer people who look like them (aside from all those Eights, in Sharon's case, of course).

In general, I like how race (other than human or Cylon) isn't an issue, but I do think that the producers could have given us more of a real representation of color.

As for Firefly... sigh. A universe in which China has formed the

[easwaran]

It's been long enough since I've watched any Firefly that I forgot about the whole Chinese thing. Which was itself done sort of oddly. I suspect that it started out as a trick so that the characters could curse on air without having to be bleeped (like the whole "frak" thing in BSG) but then it didn't quite get properly pursued.

I was thinking afterwards that the Matrix had all sorts of weird issues around race too. It was good about including both black and white characters, and especially in the later movies making it clear that the people who were still alive were a wonderful racially mixed melting pot - and yet, when the main characters paired up in their relationships, there was never any thought of anything interracial going on.

[lizardling]

Thank you for sharing this. It's been interesting, watching this from my perspective as both a new school fan and an old school book fan. I haven't really participated much, mostly because I don't have the debate skills to word things well.

[nena_nieve]

Wow, that all sounds ... really painful, disheartening, and frustrating. I'm sorry. *hugs*

[towersofgrey]

Yeah, sigh.

It bugs me how people are always okay with the concept of personal boundaries until they're told they're crossing them. The whole privacy issue just left me jaw hanging open. How could someone could not understand why a person wouldn't want their name splattered across the internet, forever?

As for Race Fail, yes. And yes.