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Jan. 21st, 2009 10:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nilchanceBest links (in my opinion) from the recent cultural appropriation discussion:
I lost respect for several authors during this mess, including Will Shetterly, Emma Bull and Sarah Monette. Elizabeth Bear didn't really impress me either; points for sincere apologizing, subtracted points for being a martyr. Ugly details can be found via![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rydra_wong's LJ, if you want to look. It turned my stomach.
Also, this post IS NOT an invitation for anyone to cry that white people have problems too, it's not fair, "damned if I do or if I don't", or that people are overreacting.
Cultural Appropriation and SF/F: As a reader from a marginalised/underepresented you are presented with the same two choices, either you read books that only contain white people/people not from your ethnic/cultural background, or you read books that marginalise you further, enforce stereotypes that you already have to live with, this is a something that affects more people and - I'm trying not to lose you here, but it has to be said - hurts more than criticism of ones writing.
Cruel little lies: It's much less important to get your physics right than to try not to screw up when you're writing about people's lives, people's identities. You're not going to break someone's heart if you misremember the Planck constant.
Check my what? Privilege and what you can do about it: For the most part, I believe that all human beings have the best of intentions. Most of us don’t go about our days seeking to hurt people with words or actions. But, the result of our actions can be that it causes hurt/offense to others. So, while malicious intent may add icing to the cake, it does not dictate whether or not an offense has been made. “That wasn’t my intent,” all too often translates into “your reactions to what I did are invalid because I didn’t mean any harm.”
Cultural Appropriation: More and more, I believe that sometimes the best answer to "Okay, but what am I supposed to do now?" is really to stay with the discussion and sit with your discomfort or anxiety instead of rushing towards a safe perch. Sometimes the best answer is to leave yourself open to other people's pain, hope, and struggle, even or especially when it threatens to decenter you and destabilize your world.
SFF, Racism and Criticism: "The current imbroglio seems to have become, more than anything, about who is permitted to criticise a text. Those who are smart enough, academic enough, calm enough, and good enough readers are allowed to critique - or to praise. Those who are too unacademic, too (presumably) stupid, too emotional, too angry, or those interrogating the text from the wrong perspective are not."
Why It's Never Over: "'Oh noes, I tried to have a rational discussion but the Hordes of PoC swamped into my space and took over and they're too many comments and insults are flying and I'm so exhausted at putting out the fires!' And we're not? After being asked and played and pulled into Anti-racism 101; after having this discussion for the umpteenth time often with sub-set circles of the same people, we, PoC are NOT exhausted?"
The Current Race Discussion and That Caught in the Middle Feeling : And then there are those tiny little slaps that happen every time the rare mixed hero or heroine DOES grace the screen or print, and the comments come of how that character is "a cop-out". Mixed with white to be "more acceptable". How it isn't "really" a PoC. And how every single word just twists the dagger a little more.
Okay, I haven't posted anything about this : "So don't tell me, from your white, privileged high horse, that academia is some pure value-neutral reasonable and logical perspective from which to examine my suffering. Don't act as though we don't know what abuse is, and we need your handed-down-from-heaven white-defined knowledge to understand OUR OWN EXPERIENCE. Most of all, don't fucking pretend you give a good goddamn about anything other than covering your own ass if the VERY MOMENT a person of colour challenges your self-congratulatory public onanism, you find every method you can to invalidate their critique and surround yourself with allies who assure you that you are, indeed, the Victim In All This Silly Race Stuff and Why Can't Those Darkies See It's For Their Own Good?"
The Art of Defending Racism: "1. You’re oppressing me by making me be “PC”
2. You’re too stupid to be in this conversation and everything you say doesn’t matter
3. Racism is over now
4. If we don’t talk about it, it’ll magically go away
5. Under my definition- it’s not racist
6. You’re too angry/You’re being irrational
7. Racism has always existed, we can’t fix it, you should stop complaining."
I lost respect for several authors during this mess, including Will Shetterly, Emma Bull and Sarah Monette. Elizabeth Bear didn't really impress me either; points for sincere apologizing, subtracted points for being a martyr. Ugly details can be found via
rydra_wong's LJ, if you want to look. It turned my stomach. Also, this post IS NOT an invitation for anyone to cry that white people have problems too, it's not fair, "damned if I do or if I don't", or that people are overreacting.
Cultural Appropriation and SF/F: As a reader from a marginalised/underepresented you are presented with the same two choices, either you read books that only contain white people/people not from your ethnic/cultural background, or you read books that marginalise you further, enforce stereotypes that you already have to live with, this is a something that affects more people and - I'm trying not to lose you here, but it has to be said - hurts more than criticism of ones writing.
Cruel little lies: It's much less important to get your physics right than to try not to screw up when you're writing about people's lives, people's identities. You're not going to break someone's heart if you misremember the Planck constant.
Check my what? Privilege and what you can do about it: For the most part, I believe that all human beings have the best of intentions. Most of us don’t go about our days seeking to hurt people with words or actions. But, the result of our actions can be that it causes hurt/offense to others. So, while malicious intent may add icing to the cake, it does not dictate whether or not an offense has been made. “That wasn’t my intent,” all too often translates into “your reactions to what I did are invalid because I didn’t mean any harm.”
Cultural Appropriation: More and more, I believe that sometimes the best answer to "Okay, but what am I supposed to do now?" is really to stay with the discussion and sit with your discomfort or anxiety instead of rushing towards a safe perch. Sometimes the best answer is to leave yourself open to other people's pain, hope, and struggle, even or especially when it threatens to decenter you and destabilize your world.
SFF, Racism and Criticism: "The current imbroglio seems to have become, more than anything, about who is permitted to criticise a text. Those who are smart enough, academic enough, calm enough, and good enough readers are allowed to critique - or to praise. Those who are too unacademic, too (presumably) stupid, too emotional, too angry, or those interrogating the text from the wrong perspective are not."
Why It's Never Over: "'Oh noes, I tried to have a rational discussion but the Hordes of PoC swamped into my space and took over and they're too many comments and insults are flying and I'm so exhausted at putting out the fires!' And we're not? After being asked and played and pulled into Anti-racism 101; after having this discussion for the umpteenth time often with sub-set circles of the same people, we, PoC are NOT exhausted?"
The Current Race Discussion and That Caught in the Middle Feeling : And then there are those tiny little slaps that happen every time the rare mixed hero or heroine DOES grace the screen or print, and the comments come of how that character is "a cop-out". Mixed with white to be "more acceptable". How it isn't "really" a PoC. And how every single word just twists the dagger a little more.
Okay, I haven't posted anything about this : "So don't tell me, from your white, privileged high horse, that academia is some pure value-neutral reasonable and logical perspective from which to examine my suffering. Don't act as though we don't know what abuse is, and we need your handed-down-from-heaven white-defined knowledge to understand OUR OWN EXPERIENCE. Most of all, don't fucking pretend you give a good goddamn about anything other than covering your own ass if the VERY MOMENT a person of colour challenges your self-congratulatory public onanism, you find every method you can to invalidate their critique and surround yourself with allies who assure you that you are, indeed, the Victim In All This Silly Race Stuff and Why Can't Those Darkies See It's For Their Own Good?"
The Art of Defending Racism: "1. You’re oppressing me by making me be “PC”
2. You’re too stupid to be in this conversation and everything you say doesn’t matter
3. Racism is over now
4. If we don’t talk about it, it’ll magically go away
5. Under my definition- it’s not racist
6. You’re too angry/You’re being irrational
7. Racism has always existed, we can’t fix it, you should stop complaining."