the racism thing in Stargate

liviapenn made a post about perceptions of race and status in Stargate Atlantis to add to all the other meta lying around the fandom on this topic.

She has some good thoughts on the matter, as well as ones that I agree with (the two are not synonymous, I admit), and has a variety of responses, from the measured to the angry.

There is a tendency in the SGA AU world to depict Teyla and Ronon as 'minor' by assigning them positions of lower status or to a low socioeconomic/criminal background. So, as someone pointed out, in a MovieStar!AU, John, Rodney, Elizabeth and Carson are A-list movie stars, Teyla's a maid, and Ronon's a security guard. The status of 'minor character' is frequently defined through the socioeconomic status of the role the character is given.

Why not the possibility, say, of Teyla being an actress who gets regular work in reasonably solid, but not headliner movies, who doesn't move in the same circles as the A-listers? A Geena Davis, rather than a Cate Blanchett. Then the label of 'minor character' is given by the fact that she's not in the story, not by her occupation or socioeconomic status.

( cut for ramblings about AUs and specifically my AU fics )

I struggle with making characters 'whole', with not writing them off as boring just because they don't hit my squee buttons. It's not easy. But I don't think I could be satisfied with my work if I didn't at least make the effort.

Which, I guess, is what this is about at the core of the whole issue of racism: seeing people as individuals and not just as part of a sterotyped sea, as worth something beyond the colour of their skin, as important because they are part of this crazy spectrum of humanity that we're mired amidst and don't get to default on, as people, not merely as tropes or a single characteristic, or 'my favourite and therefore given social worthiness in the context of the story' (by all means, give them 'worthiness' in the context of the story, but don't do it by social status).

(Thanks, purple_cube for the link!)