laceblade | Entries tagged with racefail 9000

I have my LiveJournal friendslist divided into different sub-groups because it's too unwieldy for me to read all at once.

Thus, published authors are in their own group, and I read them all en masse.

And I must say that it is really, really interesting to me that almost every single one of them, from mildly obscure to ridiculously famous, has posted in outcry about AmazonFail today - the first day links spread anywhere at all.

Whereas, some of them have yet to say one damn thing about RaceFail.

I know it's hard to keep up and everything, but if you have a platform and you use it to post outrage, selective outrage can be very telling of privilege.

Current Mood: bitchy

THE MOST FLAMING FAIL IN ALL OF RACEFAIL THUS FAR. HOLY SHIT.

( Spoilers for Dollhouse 1.4, but I'll point out that it's not spoilery for over-arcing plots. )

Current Mood: bouncy

For those going for the Minimalist RaceFail experience....
I found

sparkymonster's RaceFail, Silence, and Words quite valuable and link-rich.

miriam_heddy's Where is your home? is intense and true. I don't think it's difficult to become informed about RaceFail.

Also love

tablesaw's O HAI RACEFAILZ: Notes on Reading an Internet Conflict.

Does the wording of any of the WisCon panels make you cringe?

I found one! Emphasis added by me.

Are we done believing in god yet?
The freakish antics of true believers, the willful naivete of not-so-true-believers, and on the other side "Society Without God", the president of the United States acknowledging "non-believers", Darwin's 200th birthday, and the possible discovery of simple life on Mars. Are we finally going to shake off the institutionalized fears of our ancestors? What will we replace it with? Is "replacing it" even a valid point of discussion?

:[ is what I have to say. I have yet to attend a WisCon panel about religion. I do not think that it would go....well....for me.

I finished reading Tamora Pierce's Trickster's Choice and have Things to Say before I go on to the next book in the duology.

( Cut contains spoilers, but also thoughts on narrative choice and cultural appropriation. )

I started a Kingdom Hearts game, which means I'm now in the middle of Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy XII, and this game.

I recognized something extremely familiar as soon as I heard ~~Squall~~ Leon talking.....LOL DAVID BOREANAZ. What a perfect combination. It was like....suddenly there was liquid sex in my video game!

I find a lot of the interface stuff super annoying, like the fact that I can't be moving my character while simultaneously controlling the camera angle. Also found myself longing for the ever-present Final Fantasy XII map. Maybe I should just play FFXII some more. I love it, but I remember last saving in a place where my characters were in a bit of a pickle. Hopefully I have another save point close to that one.

Lots of people have blogged about Kaori Yuki manga before BUT I DID NOT BELIEVE THEM.

I have now read 1.5 volumes of Cain Saga. OMG!!! Tortured soul Earl Cain Hargreaves lives in Victorian England. He keeps a collection of poisons handed down in his family for generations. He solves mysteries! He has a curse to never have anyone love him.....BUT HIS HOT BUTLER RIFF CARES FOR HIM AND HIS MAN-PAIN.
I loved the sidebar in which Kaori Yuki was like, "Lots of people say they like Riff, and I think it's funny, because I don't get it." And I was like, OH YOU ARE SO SILLY, YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE DOING, HAVING THOSE HOT MEN KEEP HOUSE TOGETHER.

I am so excited to read more! Heinous Victorian gothic manga is apparently exactly what I need right now.

aqeldroma wrote this post about RaceFail 9000 about silence, and choosing to remain neutral in these arguments.

Nobody said it's easy. Nobody said "We will never misinterpret things you say or criticize your word choice." Because we will! We totally will. And it will suck, and you will feel horrible. But then, if you're really listening, you will never make that same mistake again. The post does not allow comments, so I'm bringing it back to my LJ.

For example, a little over 12 hours ago, I got called out for using mysoginistic hate speech WHILE IN THE PROCESS of calling other people out on their thinly-veiled racism. No really, I did. And really, my first reaction was really defensive and all, "She's wrong!" and possibly, "WTF, I should not be one to call other people out on their shit when I myself still fail so hard."

But if everybody thought that, allies would never call people out on their shit. People of color would never feel safe, nor would the uncountable list of other people disadvantaged by privilege.

To you, choosing not to enter the discussion doesn't necessarily mean you don't condone the behavior. To people of color looking around for allies and a safe space, they see nothing but tight-lipped cowards.

It is SO PRIVILEGED to even have the option to not participate in these discussions. If your worst fear is that somebody might misinterpret what you said [which, by the way, can happen in any conversation ever], then you'd best get over it.

Current Mood: irritated

Elizabeth Bear speaks out!

MY FAVORITE PART is how she tells people they're being mean but uses no specific names. How do we know who's actually being "mean"?!

I JEST.

MY FAVORITE PART is where she arbitrarily declares a ceasefire, complete with a time and date so she can get mad at us when we ignore it.

I JEST!

FOR REAL MY FAVORITE PART? IS THE PART WHERE SHE TAKES BACK SAYING AVALON'S WILLOW'S CRITIQUE OF HER BOOK IS VALID, AND SAYS SHE ONLY TREATED IT AS SUCH TO HAVE A PIOUS EXAMPLE OF HOW TO TREAT THOSE SILLY KIDS OF COLOR.

WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK.

Current Mood: surprised

So RL things are making it impossible to formulate a complete and coherent post of my own, but then

oyceter went and was bad-ass and made a lovely thoughtful post which everyone should read.

Why the resounding silence? Editors, authors, fans—all the people who were not talking about RaceFail and what people in their field were doing: where are they?

...

What SF book fandom is telling me—a woman, a person of color, and a long-time fan of SF books and a con-goer—what you are telling me is that you don't care. That these are, in fact, your community norms, that you are all right with people who have more power in your community (by virtue of profession, race, and gender) using that power to harm other, less powerful, members of your community. That you are fine with the erasure of women, of people of color, of those without the same professional privileges you enjoy, and that you are willing to stand by silently and let people be hurt.

...

I want to know if this is the norm for SF fandom. I want to know what SF fandom is doing to welcome oppressed groups—actively welcome, because simply saying "Come in" to someone who has just been assaulted in your house is not the same as showing them the precautions you have taken against further assault. I want to know if I and my allies will be safe.

But mostly, I want to know what you who have been silent are going to do.

I say this because it is all too easy for me to stay on the periphery. So don't tell me. Show me. Not via links or comments, but by making changes—in yourself, in one aspect of your life, online or offline, public or private, large or small. Help us all change.

...

I'd like to spend this week focusing on POC; in particular, I will try to catch up on all my backlog of book write ups by and about POC. I am going to read the 12th POC in SF Carnival. I will continue working on making my blog a safe space for oppressed people and issues of social justice. I will work on my pieces for the Asian Women Blog Carnival and the Remyth Project. I am going to continue to deal with these same issues of safety and trust and social justice offline.

I have RL stuff to deal with at the moment, so mostly this post is a collection of links I find fascinating. As always,

rydra_wong is awesome for finding all of the links! I just find the ones I think are most relevant and put them in an order that is useful to me. Hopefully when I have time in a few days, I can write a post of my own.

WTF IS GOING ON

A timeline in a comment made by

sparkymonster

ROFLcopters
Kathryn Cramer has used a pseudonym on the Internet! LOL!

Despite turning EVERY ARGUMENT EVAR into a discussion about class politics, and how racism doesn't matter as much as classism, AND ESPECIALLY DESPITE learning where various LJers went to college and then somehow using slight of hand to insinuate that their opinions about race and class no longer matter if they come from a background of financial privilege....Lo! Will Shetterly keeps himself poor so that he does not have to pay taxes! LOL!

Why these people fail.

The politics and deconstruction of "outing."

vito_excalibur: Once More, With Failing

veejane on how this shitstorm is indicative of the "old guard" of the SF/F fandom handing over the keys with a huge tantrum.

coffeeandink: kicking some major ass.

shati on how people's race and backgrounds are playing a role in how people are treated in this, RaceFail 9000.

yeloson: Engaging in Violence

maerhys: Beyond Me To We: On Usernames, Legal Names & The Internet

raanve has an exchange with Kathryn Cramer, in which Cramer acts heinously. Her logic! There is no sense there! As noted by others.

How to Derail the Fight Awesomely

darkrosetiger is collecting links to fanfiction about characters of color in Stargate: Atlantis over at

deadbrowalking

tacky_tramp: Turning us to the posts that actually discuss cultural appropriation!

springfluff is a fandom exchange with no deadlines or administrative pairing-up of people. You just post requests for fanfic, fanart, icons, interpretative dance, whatever. And people can provide for the needs of others at will. A lovely way to destress!

inaname is now open for submissions.

nextian: Post what you want from media, and others will tell you where to find it. AMAZING.

50books_poc is a great community to add to your friends list! Even if you, like me, are not doing the challenge of reading at least 50 books by people of color in one year, it's a GREAT way to get all sorts of book recommendations!

sparkymonster with a picspam of hot men of color. And I do mean hot.

So, if nothing else, we know which side of RaceFail 9000 has the most fun.