My thoughts on RaceFail '09: I have a keen eye for the obvious

[varadia]

I've spent most of this conversation/imbroglio/failboat listening to other people talk, paying attention to who is saying what, commenting where I either had something I really wanted to say or felt I had something to contribute, and just trying to take it all in. I'm not the best communicator in online media, and I don't really use this journal as a platform to talk to an audience, because I'm not really a blogger.

But in the past couple weeks I've started to really want to say something, except I didn't know what it was. I still don't. Here's what I've got anyway:

I think I'm getting tired of people being dismissive of conversations that don't make them comfortable, putting their heads in the sand and going 'la la la I can't hear you and furthermore why are you still talking?'. I'm tired of people having the opinion that if they don't approve of a conversation's direction, or its origins, or the 'tone', that it's worthless for everyone and clearly wankery.

I'm really damn tired of people missing the point and letting themselves get distracted from conversations about race and racism, in genre fiction or not, that need to happen.

And I think verb_noire, 50books_poc, and fight_derailing are good things to engage with. I certainly appreciate them.

Comments

[areyoumymemmy.livejournal.com]

YES.

I'm also getting upset at the people who choose to view the conversation as a big hissy fit or just more fandom wankery because it's gotten contentious. To me, that comes across as a way to trivialize and dismiss the actual issues involved and an excuse for not participating in a discussion you find uncomfortable. And of course, you can only do that if it's not hitting you where you live.

I just- it makes me very unhappy to see people taking a discussion of racism, of how people of color can't find representation or welcome in the SF/F community, and basically equating it to- I don't know, Harry Potter shipping wars.

[skygiants]

I just- it makes me very unhappy to see people taking a discussion of racism, of how people of color can't find representation or welcome in the SF/F community, and basically equating it to- I don't know, Harry Potter shipping wars.



Yeah.