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

[petronelle]

As a white person in fandom who tries to write CoC on occasion, I appreciate these words of advice. They mostly seem like common sense to me, but it's excellent to have an itemized list of things to keep in mind. "Blackwhack" in particular made me laugh my head off.

[zvi_likes_tv]

Glad to help.

[buggery]

I wish I'd had this post to point people to during the first-Yuletide kerfuffle. I can't thank you enough for writing and posting it so it will be there all the next times I need it -- and for making it so damned FUNNY on top of all that utility. It's easier to get people to learn if they think they're 'just' being entertained.

Hm. I may need to make myself a FoCing Cabal badge now...

[zvi_likes_tv]

Do I even want to know what that kerfuffle was? Somehow, I missed it.

But, please, do make yourself a badge. Make your friends badges. Make your enemies badges. Spread the MEME!!!

[delux_vivens]

hey, maybe we get to have evil people of color cabal factions? or are we functioning off of a hive mind?

[zvi_likes_tv]

Oh, I think it's much more interesting to have factions and infighting. That will keep the insensitive honkies confused, since we will all be saying different things.

[delux_vivens]

i'm down with that! Maybe I can get ladyjax and coniraya to help me make an official Cabal Faction. (i'd invite yeloson but he's such a pacifist, he doesnt even want women to fight over him.

[apey1013]

I love this. A lot of it is just great writing advice in general that more people need to take to heart. "Ooohhh, you mean my characters need to be complete people as opposed to flat, one-dimensional plot devices? Who knew?!"

[zvi_likes_tv]

*nods* The reason, of course, that it is good advice for writing in general and writing fanfiction in particular is that, as the FoCing Cabal has been trying to say for at least five or six years…writing CoCs is the same as writing white characters, with maybe a little extra research.

Don't forget to share it with your friends.

[taffimai]

Great post, in general, there was just one thing that bothered me:

The fifth thing you should remember is that, just like elves and vampires, there are books about black people, Asian people, Jewish people, etc. in your local public library.I think there are different issues around Jewish characters in fanfiction than most of the other groups that you've mentioned, simply because Jews are an invisible minority. It's far too easy to (excuse the phrase) whitewash them

[zvi_likes_tv]

I am wondering if that is a question of people Christianizing them or people not knowing canon? I mean, I think you are absolutely right that sometimes people are imposing their own Christian experience on Danny, but I thought there were only two episodes where Danny's religion was mentioned directly (if it was implied more often than that, I missed it.) So, I wonder if the issue is more of one of identifying Jewish characters within fandom, because so often Jewishness is canonically shown by a ten second reference to a bar mitzvah or putting up a menorah during the Christmas episode.

[liviapenn]

And then sometimes even if people *are* aware that a character is canonically Jewish, they could still make mistakes-- I'm vaguely recalling a TS fic where Blair's mother died and the funeral was arranged by her parents and someone commented "but if they're so traditional in your story, then why was there an open casket? In fact, the funeral in your story sounds very christian."

And I don't know if it was the author specifically who said this or someone else, but the response that kicked off the major discussion was something like: "That's not a *Christian* funeral-- it's just a generic funeral!"

Cue lots of people trying to explain that-- like, just because you're not FAMILIAR with different cultures doesn't mean your particular culture is the "normal, generic" one.

[taffimai]

First, Danny was just an example. Many Jewish characters (Danny and Jeremy from SN, Blair from TS, Willow from BtVS) all seem to get this treatment.

Second, the reason I chose Danny was that his religion was a major touchstone in "April is the Cruelest Month", which is one of the most important episodes to the Danny/Casey relationship. In other words, it was really, really hard to miss.