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May. 18th, 2009 08:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
holzman_tweedQuoting from foc_u
"In the past few months, minorities have been denigrated by bigoted authors and publishers who have also asserted that Fen of Color are rare and piratically non-existent. Despite numerous discussions and attempts to enlighten on the fact that POCs are fans, writers, artists and just as integral to this genre as our white counterparts, we are continuously dismissed.
"On Monday May 18, 2009, we are asking anyone who identifies as a POC/non-white to post this banner, their speculative short stories, artwork, poetry or simply write a post on their favorite fandom on their blogs as an act of protest to show we will not be silent or invisible. The day of protest is entitled Fen Of Color United or more aptly, FOC_U.
"White allies can also show solidarity for this event by posting this banner and expressing the need for diversity and speaking out against the bigotry in the genre, through posts and/or their creative work as well.
My own thoughts:
People of Color have been a part of Fandom, writing, reading, gophering, SMOFing, attending cons, for longer than I've been alive. If you're in fandom today, you owe a debt to a number of People of Color for creating that fandom for you. Many more People of Color have been writing and reading without attending cons for a variety of reasons chronicled elsewhere but largely involving a disinterest in being surrounded by hordes of white fen who were and are far less slannish than we like to think we are.
The longest running comment thread in the history of this journal on DW or LJ was composed of white Fen falling all over themselves to tell me how wrong I was about there being racism in Fandom after 10 years of Barbara Hambly's work (historial fiction featuri a Free Man of Color) was ignored when she was goH at WorldCon. Perhaps this time around, we'll do better than that.
foc_u"In the past few months, minorities have been denigrated by bigoted authors and publishers who have also asserted that Fen of Color are rare and piratically non-existent. Despite numerous discussions and attempts to enlighten on the fact that POCs are fans, writers, artists and just as integral to this genre as our white counterparts, we are continuously dismissed.
"On Monday May 18, 2009, we are asking anyone who identifies as a POC/non-white to post this banner, their speculative short stories, artwork, poetry or simply write a post on their favorite fandom on their blogs as an act of protest to show we will not be silent or invisible. The day of protest is entitled Fen Of Color United or more aptly, FOC_U.
"White allies can also show solidarity for this event by posting this banner and expressing the need for diversity and speaking out against the bigotry in the genre, through posts and/or their creative work as well.
My own thoughts:
People of Color have been a part of Fandom, writing, reading, gophering, SMOFing, attending cons, for longer than I've been alive. If you're in fandom today, you owe a debt to a number of People of Color for creating that fandom for you. Many more People of Color have been writing and reading without attending cons for a variety of reasons chronicled elsewhere but largely involving a disinterest in being surrounded by hordes of white fen who were and are far less slannish than we like to think we are.
The longest running comment thread in the history of this journal on DW or LJ was composed of white Fen falling all over themselves to tell me how wrong I was about there being racism in Fandom after 10 years of Barbara Hambly's work (historial fiction featuri a Free Man of Color) was ignored when she was goH at WorldCon. Perhaps this time around, we'll do better than that.