...and so I ask myself if I am the stone in your shoe.

[tielan]

"How could anyone love a stone in their shoe?"
~ The Stepmother, Ever After ~

*breathes*

It started with an author called Elizabeth Bear talking about writing the Other without being a dick. Unfortunately, someone pointed out a story of hers which features a magical negro who is 'tamed' by a white woman and stating that it was problematic.

It turned into a big argument about cultural appropriation: who has the right to write about non-whites, how our society perceives and stereotypes the Other (African, Asian, Indian, Oriental, Pacific Islander, Eskimo, Alien), how perfectly nice people can be racist without ever realising it, how it always comes back to the satisfaction and emotional catharsis of white people at the expense of the persons of colour trying to say "I am here, my pain is real, don't ignore what I have to say or dismiss it just because you don't want to hear that you put your foot wrong and might have to apologise."

I'm no good at talking about this stuff - I can't talk about a broader experience, I can only talk about my own experience.

One thing that's repeatedly come up is that white fans feel fandom is their safe space and their place to have fun. That to question the racial assumptions, cultural appropriations, and racist attitudes of fandom is to effectively deny white people their 'safe space', where they can happily squee and post fannishly and never have to question their choices or behaviours or feel guilty about the weight of history upon them regarding racist behaviours, a racist system, and how POC can't hide that they're POC.

And so I sit here and post these thoughts and try to broaden my perspectives and watch as the people who read this journal amble by without ever reading or commenting.

My f-list is primarily fannish. People who like my fic - whatever aspect that might be. People who once liked me. There are a handful of people who are both fannish and people of colour, but they're just that - a handful.

And so I watch the comments rack up on my fiction and wonder if I am the fly in the ointment of my f-list's f-lists.

Am I the crazy lady on the train?

Am I the stone in the shoe?

And if so, are the only options to wince and bear it or to throw the stone away?

Which do you choose?

Do you wince and bear these posts of mine and others like me? Or do you skip over them, safe in the knowledge that tomorrow, next week, next month, I/we/they might post something that you're actually interested in - something that's relevant to you, that doesn't challenge you and your way of looking at the world in any way?

Sometimes I wonder.

Comments

[tielan]

As I see it, the issue here is that history defines the present; we don't live in a vacuum of present-day morals and ethics and perspectives - our preconceptions are built-in, our assumptions are that of the dominant paradigm which has existed for years.

Most people don't question that a white person should always be the hero character or save the day; many don't question that non-whites are always the alien or Other characters, or that the non-whites are relegated to stereotypes or caricatures of people instead of being developed; many don't ask where the pureblood Chinese are in a Sino-American culture, or why there are no Hispanics in So-Cal, or why the main quartet of characters in an entirely Asiatic culture - a culture specifically designed to be non-Western - must be portrayed by white actors, one of whom thinks that all he needs to do to 'pass' as suitably Asian is to get a tan.

These assumptions - those 'pass cards' - are rooted in the racial and racist history of our cultures, in the same way that sexism is rooted in the sexual and sexist history of our cultures. Yes, we bear the weight of history upon us when we enter into these discussions - I think that this linked post looks at the weight of history and how to deal with it, if you're interested.