I'm torn between rageful flailing and a defeated sigh
Some days, you just lose all faith in intelligent life on the internet. Yesterday, I spent several hours reading a story called Metaphors As Mixed As You Can Make Them, by halflinen, until, after almost 50,000 words of emotional investment, I got slapped in the face by this little gem of an exchange between Eames and Yusuf:
“Oh my God, get up here. Come on, what do you think I am-a cabbie?”
Eames comes up to the front and flops down moodily in the passenger seat. “You do all look alike to me,” he mutters
Casual racism yay \o/ Just what was missing from my reading experience.
I called her out in the comments here. She kept it polite, which I will admit was a refreshing change, but her conclusion? "I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree."
Well, how nice for her.
So why am I so mad about this? After all, as halflinen explained, Obviously, Eames doesn't really think Yusuf is a cabbie, or that he looks like every other Indian person-- they're best friends, the kind of best friends who can say mean things to each other and have the other one know that what's really meant is something other than what's actually said.
Well, perhaps first I should point out that after nearly 50,000 words, this is the first real scene where Eames and Yusuf's relationship is given any screentime or analysis. So the context she has provided in her explanation is at best implicit or, if I were to be ungenerous, completely imaginary. That's barely even the beginning of it, though.
I'm mad because this is a blatant example of hipster racism and I kind of thought fandom was more grown up than that these days.
I'm mad because she can walk away unaffected, and "agree to disagree" without it ruining her day or having any kind of material effect on her.
I'm mad because she warned for violence, morally grey occupational choices, suicide, torture, drugging, abduction, dub-con, domestic violence, gratuitous abuse of italics, commas, run-on sentences and ridiculous metaphors, but nowhere in there did she feel the need to warn for racism.
Let me just say that again: commas, and run-on sentences.
I'm mad because I would have liked to have been able to make the decision not to read something that would so viciously hurt me, and strip me of my feeling of safety in a fandom that so far has only brought me enjoyment.
I'm mad because out of four pages of comments and numerous recs, I haven't seen anyone else highlight this problem or challenge the author.
I'm mad because I fully expect the majority of people who have read this story still wouldn't understand, after reading this, why I'm mad.
I'm mad because I'm tired of this shit, and it never stops being surprising, and it never stops being hurtful.
From the website above: The thing about using racist content in an “ironic” context is that it still perpetuates racist ideas, and it is, in fact, racist.
ETA: It turned out I had more to say. In which, amongst other things, I address the baffling argument that this comment isn't racist.
ETA 2: azn_jack_fiend has written an excellent post here in which she discusses why the above exchange is hurtful, and how it could have been done differently.
When it comes to that exchange, given my background, I'm not imagining myself as Eames. I'm imagining myself as Yusuf. That's why the joke comes as a slap in the face. Many other people of color will have the same experience. And that's not a bad thing, necessarily... good fiction does visceral things to you. But the fact that Yusuf just takes it creates this instant alienating effect from the fic. If the reader hurts it should be meant that the reader hurts. So the slap in the face gets compounded as we understand that the writer just sort of assumed all their readers would [...] instantly identify with Eames-as-agent and Yusuf-as-subservient-prop.
“Oh my God, get up here. Come on, what do you think I am-a cabbie?”
Eames comes up to the front and flops down moodily in the passenger seat. “You do all look alike to me,” he mutters
Casual racism yay \o/ Just what was missing from my reading experience.
I called her out in the comments here. She kept it polite, which I will admit was a refreshing change, but her conclusion? "I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree."
Well, how nice for her.
So why am I so mad about this? After all, as halflinen explained, Obviously, Eames doesn't really think Yusuf is a cabbie, or that he looks like every other Indian person-- they're best friends, the kind of best friends who can say mean things to each other and have the other one know that what's really meant is something other than what's actually said.
Well, perhaps first I should point out that after nearly 50,000 words, this is the first real scene where Eames and Yusuf's relationship is given any screentime or analysis. So the context she has provided in her explanation is at best implicit or, if I were to be ungenerous, completely imaginary. That's barely even the beginning of it, though.
I'm mad because this is a blatant example of hipster racism and I kind of thought fandom was more grown up than that these days.
I'm mad because she can walk away unaffected, and "agree to disagree" without it ruining her day or having any kind of material effect on her.
I'm mad because she warned for violence, morally grey occupational choices, suicide, torture, drugging, abduction, dub-con, domestic violence, gratuitous abuse of italics, commas, run-on sentences and ridiculous metaphors, but nowhere in there did she feel the need to warn for racism.
Let me just say that again: commas, and run-on sentences.
I'm mad because I would have liked to have been able to make the decision not to read something that would so viciously hurt me, and strip me of my feeling of safety in a fandom that so far has only brought me enjoyment.
I'm mad because out of four pages of comments and numerous recs, I haven't seen anyone else highlight this problem or challenge the author.
I'm mad because I fully expect the majority of people who have read this story still wouldn't understand, after reading this, why I'm mad.
I'm mad because I'm tired of this shit, and it never stops being surprising, and it never stops being hurtful.
From the website above: The thing about using racist content in an “ironic” context is that it still perpetuates racist ideas, and it is, in fact, racist.
ETA: It turned out I had more to say. In which, amongst other things, I address the baffling argument that this comment isn't racist.
ETA 2: azn_jack_fiend has written an excellent post here in which she discusses why the above exchange is hurtful, and how it could have been done differently.
When it comes to that exchange, given my background, I'm not imagining myself as Eames. I'm imagining myself as Yusuf. That's why the joke comes as a slap in the face. Many other people of color will have the same experience. And that's not a bad thing, necessarily... good fiction does visceral things to you. But the fact that Yusuf just takes it creates this instant alienating effect from the fic. If the reader hurts it should be meant that the reader hurts. So the slap in the face gets compounded as we understand that the writer just sort of assumed all their readers would [...] instantly identify with Eames-as-agent and Yusuf-as-subservient-prop.