Goddamn, that was racist.

[hackthis_archive]

I want to start this post by saying a) I do not participate in Supernatural fandom b) I am a black person c) I have not read the story that started this week's Race Fail Brouhaha -- and let's be honest, it is only TWF (This Week's Fail, because that's just how this works). But I did read the informative post made by bossymarmalade. And trust me. That was plenty.

I have also read subsequent posts both on my reading list and in the (very) wide fandom universe. Some have made me so blind with rage I've had to go outside. And some, like this one from tevere and the one she linked to by facetofcathy have made me go, "Thank you, ladies, you are better people than I, because mostly I think 'The more things change, the more nothing changes what. so. ever.'"

And I say all this to say:

I am a Person of Color. I am not your Racism Police.

Nor is any other Person of Color your Racism Police.

We were not put here to tell you when you are being a racist asshole. We are not here to be the back drop for your great romance. We are not a fucking background. We are PEOPLE. We are born, we live, we love, we die. We bleed just the same as any. body. else.

Just because you may not encounter a PoC in your daily life does not mean we are tiny people living in your TV that only start dancing around for your entertainment.

People of Color are not here for your entertainment.

We are not here to be your plot points or to be your One Minority Friend That Proves That You Are Totally. Not. A. Racist.

We are not birds. We are not exotic.

Our cultures. Not exotic.

So every time you ask to touch our hair because it looks different, or rub our skin as though the color might come off; and every time you ask what extraction we are, where our parents are from (implying that we obviously are "not from around here") or say we're pretty since we're mixed;

Every time you think, "These people are so *other* from me they must need a good white person to save them," -- and you know who you are (especially you, Hollywood) -- you are being a racist dick.

Point of fact, however, you don't have to be white to be racist. Anybody can be a racist. In fact, every time there's one of these Race Fail Tempests you inevitably get people asking, "Well, how am I supposed to know when I'm being racist?"

If you have to ask if you are being a racist, do I have to finish the rest of this sentence?

We are not small-eyed, thick-accented, Spanglish speaking or dark-skinned just to give you something to talk about. To give you something to compare yourself to and find yourself superior. We are not here for your artistic merit.

I don't care if your feelings are hurt today, I will still be a Person of Color tomorrow.

And yet, this still isn't going to change anything. It never changes anything. And why does it never change anything? Because people are making this into a theoretical discussion when it's not. These are people. Real fucking people. And these things really happened. And they caused a lot of fucking tragedy. The earthquakes? They happened. Colonialism? It happened. Blood diamonds. They happen. The wiping out of entire cultures by a bunch of greedy explorers. War in the name of oil or minerals (heads up, Afghanistan), the new land or spices or genocide. That shit happened. It keeps happening. It was not made up by six white guys in a air-conditioned office on the Warner Brothers back lot in Burbank drinking Diet Coke.

These things are happening now. And they will keep on happening. And just because they haven't happened to you in particular does not make them any less true, any less valid, or there to be exploited just for your amusement.


So I'm going to save the rest of my breath to cool my porridge and let Dave Chappelle say it best, because truly, "you ever have something happen that was so racist, that you didn't even get mad, you were just like, DAMN, that was racist."

Comments

[the-grynne.livejournal.com]

As a middle-class Asian who now speaks English as a first language, I've had my fair share of !failing and being !failed against. I remember years of bullying in primary school when I first arrived in Australia from China; and there also being times when I have looked at other Asian migrants and thought "I'm not like them," with a feeling of gladness. Characters I'm drawn to writing are inevitably like me - between two cultures - which on the one hand makes me susceptible to being doubly blind, and on the other, I think can be an opportunity to be hyper-critical and reflexive of both sets of prejudices.

"Well, how am I supposed to know when I'm being racist?"

If you have to ask if you are being a racist, do I have to finish the rest of this sentence?

I'm trying very hard to see both sides of this, coming from the background that I do. I've been yo-yo'ing between abject dispondency and faint hope these last few days: the part of me that agrees that "nothing has changed, we're as bad as ever", and the other part that argues, "but how can I change myself?"

No, it's not any of our responsibility to call out racefail when we encounter it, but at the same time, I do think that silence is a form of complicity. It's saying that you're too tired, too indifferent or too embarrassed to make a fuss, that you're willing to accept the stereotypes and the ignorance; and that is damaging for everyone. I don't think racefail breaks a fandom community. I think the only time we actually come together and are a community is when we're putting ourselves on trial; but if we immediately fall back into cynicism and complacency then it really will have made no difference at all.

[sharksdontsleep.livejournal.com]

No, it's not any of our responsibility to call out racefail when we encounter it, but at the same time, I do think that silence is a form of complicity. It's saying that you're too tired, too indifferent or too embarrassed to make a fuss, that you're willing to accept the stereotypes and the ignorance; and that is damaging for everyone. I don't think racefail breaks a fandom community. I think the only time we actually come together and are a community is when we're putting ourselves on trial; but if we immediately fall back into cynicism and complacency then it really will have made no difference at all. *NODS.*

I agree - there is complacency in silence. If I pledge to "see something, say something," I guess I want a pledge that people will also practice some self-reflection and self-policing and not EXPECT that POCs are responsible for policing fandom. So, if I pledge to say something and self-monitor and self-police, will others do the same? Can we get some kind of fandom pledge along the lines of the warnings pledges people were putting up during an earlier fail? Does that even make a little sense?

I know I have and will failed and that my life experiences certainly do not make me immune from FAIL because no one's do, and especially not mine. But I think the only thing that we can change is ourselves, so there's that, so I want to think of some way to post this as an invitation to discussion on my LJ. I'm tired and my words are coming out wrong. Does this again make sense?