Things that make you go HMMM...
Dec. 26th, 2004 05:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
holzman_tweedSince I'm planning on attending Arisia this year, I took a look at the program precis.
Several years ago,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jadegirl and I attended Chicon 2000. While we were there, she overheard some people discussing "marginalized groups in fandom." She had thought this might be a discussion of people coming from demographics that tend not to be very well represented in fandom, such as Blacks or the poor. To her shock and consternation, it turned out that they were talking about Klingons and Furries -- fanish groups who are marginalized within fandom.
Time passes.
This year, Barbara Hambly is the guest of honor. Ms. Hambly has made a career of writing stories about people who are very powerful in one regard but severely constrained because of their membership in a marginalized group in society. For example, powerful wizards who must agree not to use their power on non-magi even in self defense because the magi realize the non-magi will overwhelm them and kill them if they aren't convinced they're safe. Or wizards who are constrained in what they may do in society because they happen to be women.
Most recently, she's been writing historical fiction mysteries about one Benjamin January, A Free Man of Color. Musician, Paris-trained surgeon, and veteran soldier, he is constrained by the realities of his race in New Orleans in the early 1800s. She's had a thing or two to say about the structure and function of American racism in the 8 or so books in this series to date.
So it is a defaning silence, or perhaps a blinding darkness, to find that in a program precis that contans multiple panels about sexual orientation, gender, transgender, disability, and nationality that there is not one single panel about race.
Klingons and Romulans don't count.
Hopefully, there will be a last minute rectification to this inexplicable gap that is only possible by completely ignoring the last 8 years of the GoH's career.
Or else, let us pose the question: Why are fans so unwilling to talk about race?
Several years ago,
jadegirl and I attended Chicon 2000. While we were there, she overheard some people discussing "marginalized groups in fandom." She had thought this might be a discussion of people coming from demographics that tend not to be very well represented in fandom, such as Blacks or the poor. To her shock and consternation, it turned out that they were talking about Klingons and Furries -- fanish groups who are marginalized within fandom.Time passes.
This year, Barbara Hambly is the guest of honor. Ms. Hambly has made a career of writing stories about people who are very powerful in one regard but severely constrained because of their membership in a marginalized group in society. For example, powerful wizards who must agree not to use their power on non-magi even in self defense because the magi realize the non-magi will overwhelm them and kill them if they aren't convinced they're safe. Or wizards who are constrained in what they may do in society because they happen to be women.
Most recently, she's been writing historical fiction mysteries about one Benjamin January, A Free Man of Color. Musician, Paris-trained surgeon, and veteran soldier, he is constrained by the realities of his race in New Orleans in the early 1800s. She's had a thing or two to say about the structure and function of American racism in the 8 or so books in this series to date.
So it is a defaning silence, or perhaps a blinding darkness, to find that in a program precis that contans multiple panels about sexual orientation, gender, transgender, disability, and nationality that there is not one single panel about race.
Klingons and Romulans don't count.
Hopefully, there will be a last minute rectification to this inexplicable gap that is only possible by completely ignoring the last 8 years of the GoH's career.
Or else, let us pose the question: Why are fans so unwilling to talk about race?