So, it's International blog about racism week.
I've never gotten around to joining in before (though I have posted about
racism at odd intervals) but as it happens have been heading towards
posting about this sort of stuff for a while.
So, two small and hopefully uncontroversial questions to start with:
Question 1: There's a lot of interesting science fictiony ideas involving
race, as well as questions about the racial subtexts to fandom itself. I
personally find these interesting, and have recently noticed there isn¡¦t
a lot of that sort of thing discussed at Swancon.
Am I just missing it and it is actually there? Are other people interested
or is it just me? I'd think of running some myself but I'm an ignorant
white science major who hasn't run many panels so I'd probably mess it
up horribly :)
Question 2: Something I've noticed recently and Do Not Like are racist
undertones in fandom, especially amongst the younger unisfans. What are
other people's experiences? Is it getting worse or am I just being an "In
my day.." old guard, or possibly only now losing some of the blindness of
white privilege? What's it like being a not-white fan in such a
blindingly pasty demographic? Any different to the regular grind of
Australian society?
I'm mostly interested in local west Australian fandom (since I've mostly
heard about online fandom) but stuff about the internet or international
fandom is cool too. And those less pasty than myself are under no
obligation to talk about such a loaded topic if they'd rather not!
May post about my own experiences when I'm not ill (wrote this yesterday, naively thinking I'd be able to proofread before posting tonight) Will suck at responding for a while but didn't want to miss the week since I was so close!
Since it seems unfortunately necessary to say: if someone says they have a
different experience to you that doesn't mean they assume you're stupid
or a liar, and nor should you assume that about them. Also:
IMPORTANT NOTE: off topic, ranty or flamey replies go here.
I've never gotten around to joining in before (though I have posted about
racism at odd intervals) but as it happens have been heading towards
posting about this sort of stuff for a while.
So, two small and hopefully uncontroversial questions to start with:
Question 1: There's a lot of interesting science fictiony ideas involving
race, as well as questions about the racial subtexts to fandom itself. I
personally find these interesting, and have recently noticed there isn¡¦t
a lot of that sort of thing discussed at Swancon.
Am I just missing it and it is actually there? Are other people interested
or is it just me? I'd think of running some myself but I'm an ignorant
white science major who hasn't run many panels so I'd probably mess it
up horribly :)
Question 2: Something I've noticed recently and Do Not Like are racist
undertones in fandom, especially amongst the younger unisfans. What are
other people's experiences? Is it getting worse or am I just being an "In
my day.." old guard, or possibly only now losing some of the blindness of
white privilege? What's it like being a not-white fan in such a
blindingly pasty demographic? Any different to the regular grind of
Australian society?
I'm mostly interested in local west Australian fandom (since I've mostly
heard about online fandom) but stuff about the internet or international
fandom is cool too. And those less pasty than myself are under no
obligation to talk about such a loaded topic if they'd rather not!
May post about my own experiences when I'm not ill (wrote this yesterday, naively thinking I'd be able to proofread before posting tonight) Will suck at responding for a while but didn't want to miss the week since I was so close!
Since it seems unfortunately necessary to say: if someone says they have a
different experience to you that doesn't mean they assume you're stupid
or a liar, and nor should you assume that about them. Also:
IMPORTANT NOTE: off topic, ranty or flamey replies go here.
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Do you think this is a youth culture-y thing? Despite supposedly growing up in more 'tolerant' times than us, I've noticed it's suddenly 'in' to be as bigoted as possible if you're a teenager/just out of teenage-hood. (or maybe it's just my school and area I live in)
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I was just thinking the other day how immersed I was in racist jokes about asians as a kid and didn't really notice. (The ones about aborigines I noticed a bit more since there tended to be actual aborigines around to hear them, albeit not generally intended as a particular target)
I mean, people in highschool were still bigoted, just not as loudly and cheerfully. They were also all girls, so tended to be less loud in general.
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But, yes, I remember noticing your panel now, thinking "Sounds awesome but better not get attached to the idea, since I can't go" then focussing on my own panel.
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Swancon 2008 is blessed by having two guests who examine similar themes in very thoughtful ways in their writing - Ken McLeod and Glenda Larke. I'm gonna be leaning on Dave to get some thought-provoking panels in the program.
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The fact that panels could easily be overwhelmed by the predjudices of the audience occured to me after posting, not sure what can be done apart from a strong moderator (not me :)) I guess one could make it part of Gynacon but that seems a bit...I don't know. Exclusionary or something.
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1. Elantris by Brian Sanderson - Fantasy. Contains racial (as in 'distinguished by physical traits') as well as cultural and religious cast divisions.
2. Lt. Leary series by David Drake - Science Fiction. Not really my cup of tea but contains definite racial and class tension as well as overt racism on the part of the protagonist(s).
3. The Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson - Science Fiction. Slightly off the beaten path and more about nationality and culture than race as traditionally defined, it raises the question of what happens when race and culture can be self selected.
4. Crown of Slaves by David Weber - Science Fiction. About genetic slavery, contains characters who have been genetically altered to perform specific tasks and the social and political problems that creates.
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5. Evergence Trilogy by Sean WIlliams and Shane Dix - Science Fiction. For another take on the Nietzsche Übermensch idea
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Second we have
But sure, why not :)
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I am pretty scary after all. Maybe I should be moderator, keep everyone in line with strict discipline and my natural imposingness.
lol :)
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Also - is imposingness even a word?
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I say with much imposingness
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