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

[valarltd]

I had that "why am I bothering" moment earlier today. It seemed any action my CoC took would be perceived as playing into some stereotype.
Then I remembered: I have a story to tell. It happens to be about someone whose skin is darker than my own ghostly-pale shade.

And yeah, for a long time I didn't write CoCs. I had that luxury. If I wrote Lando, he usually got Leia. If I wrote Uhura or Sulu, they were background. Mace Windu was the PoV character for one of my few TPM fic.

When I moved to original fiction, I wrote what I knew: white and middle class in current society. I branched out as I grew more confident with character creation.

Maybe it's a phase? like Mary Sue? Some people never move past Mary Sue. Some never move past characters that look just like them.

[elke_tanzer]

I have little idea what I expected last night or this morning, but whoa, being linked in the same paragraph as these folks? OMG, overwhelmed here.

Thank you so much for posting this.

And I have to ask, because now I'm working my way through everything you've linked here once more before rereading this again... do you know if there has been more Forrest/Riley written since your post four years ago?

[zvi_likes_tv]

I don't know about the Forrest/Riley really. I was never a big reader in Buffy, and I wasn't that interested in that specific pairing because I'm not into minor character slash, so I haven't gone back and looked.

You got included on the list because you tend to be a link collector, and pulling this stuff together is something that doesn't get done enough. When someone is like, "Oh, is this really a problem?" it's helpful to be able to say, "After you've read my perspective on the issue, go check out these other 20 people who felt compelled to post on the topic. Our theses won't be identical, but if that many people think there's an issue, then yeah, you should believe there's a problem." You also got included because you were a white person in the process of internally dealing with the issue. That's a pretty new phenomena in the recurring cycle about fandom and race, and other fans sort of need to know what that looks like. Also, I like you. I namecheck people I like.

[rydra_wong]

it's helpful to be able to say, "After you've read my perspective on the issue, go check out these other 20 people who felt compelled to post on the topic.

Not to mention the 20 previous rounds of "Someone In Fandom Dares To Raise The Topic Of Racism And Everyone Else Goes Insaaaaaaaaane".

I started collecting links here, and found it very eye-opening just watching the same defensive responses coming up again and again and again.

[copracat]

I'm sorry. If you haven't consulted the Cabal then what good's your advice? We can't be having this rank individualism!

[zvi_likes_tv]

Did I forget to mention the part where I am the Queen of All Fandoms? Damn, I knew I missed something. Trust me. The advice, she is good.

Re: no, really. you deserve an icon.

[zvi_likes_tv]

Oh! Thank you. That is so awesome. You, too, are made of win!

[rydra_wong]

*fangirls so much and not just because you said nice things about my post*

[zvi_likes_tv]

Thanks.