People of Colour SF Carnival

Bulletin: This Is What DC Refuses To Do

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Back in August I mentioned a project being done, one named:

Everyone Survives To The 31st Century

I was hesitant then to promote it outside of emails and twitter dm's because it was so wonderful to me. I did not want to see some white jerkarse from DC slap a cease & desist on it and try and or succeed in getting it pulled down.

The Legion Of Superheroes as multiethnic and diverse. Truly reflecting the complexity that is human physical appearance on Earth with hints of sociological diversity as well.

But the project is over now. It is three issues and a coda showing what could have been had DC not been filled with individuals who put more stock in tokenism and propagating white supremacy and authority above even good storytelling.

Oh, they won't describe themselves as such, but a future where everyone from humans to very humanoid aliens are all white? And their general strain of only light skinned minorities have even bit parts to play? That colourism? The combination of the two? That's white supremacy plain and simple. That's the sociological disease that says only white people have been, are and will ever be important.

Odditycollector, in her social experiment (one of the few times the phrase means something positive on the internet) has thoroughly shamed DC.

And thoroughly delighted me.

Issue #1, Issue #2, Issue 3 & #Coda.

A space opera odyssey I could invest in, if DC had any interest in telling stories outside the echo chamber of white (& male) power.

xposted: Seeking Avalon

Labels: special bulletin, Year:2009

Author: Avalon's Willow » Comments:

Bulletin: State Of...

Monday, July 27, 2009

2009 has been 'The Fail Year'. Everytime one turns around, someone's being idiotic in a spectacular way, about race. The spectacular is the way it's different from all the other years. But spectacular is exhausting. Spectacular, you see, equals 'Post Racial' and that lie is one overfed, over indulged, blood sucking leech on the arm of activism.

Or at least my activism.

January to March took up all sorts of energy with Race Fail - Part 1.

Then came Part 2 (Mammoth!Fail) in April and May and Part 3 (Cover!Fail / Cover!Gate) in July, with Harlan Ellison being Harlan Ellison and using the word n****** and, Justine Larbalestier's blog hosted discussion on the whitewashing of book covers - including her newest YA book, LIAR.

There's still August, September, October, November and December to go, for five to three more big things. Big as in, not counting the little OMGWTF indignities and outrages. And this is all Speculative Fiction associated. This does not include the vetting process for soon to be Justice Sonia Sotomayor or the Philly Pool 'Complexion' situation, or Henry 'Skip' Gates or The Brooklyn Lesbians Of Colour Victims of Police Brutality situation.

• This isn't counting the email with the photoshopped watermelons on the White House Lawn.



• This isn't counting the email with the photoshopped 44th POTUS as a black square with jigaboo eyes.



• And I'm pretty sure there was a third email incident I'm just not remembering.



• This also isn't counting the racist political cartoon of a dead chimp with cops discussing the stimulus bill



• Or Pat Buchannan talking about how 'White Men Built America'

This Week In Blackness put it succinctly: 2009 is the new 1952.

Or at least for those of us who didn't live through 1952 with nonwhite skins, each incident is feeling a heck of a lot like how we've imagined moments in 1952 must have been like; frustrating, painful and eating into one's strength.

I've found it extremely exhausting, don't you find it exhausting just reading the list? Do you remember the things I haven't mentioned so far? Because there's been more. A whole heck of a lot more, both Speculative Fiction oriented and non-writing/political.

Some Hints: Wiscon, Readercon, Robin McKinely saying she's going to be considering the POTUS to be a tanned white man, Prince of Persia (with white male lead).

And of course Avatar: The Last Airbender being RACEBENDED to have white heroes and brown villains. Because PoC Heroes aren't Realistic / Don't Sell / Blah Blah White Privilege Excuses Blah.

2009 has been a banner year for saying "IF YOU AREN'T WHITE, YOU DON'T BELONG".

I pause now for a potentially blurry set of references: Cockroaches in Space. District 9, Alien Nation (remake).

IF YOU AREN'T WHITE, YOU DON'T BELONG

Sure, it's more overt than it's been in a while, but it's not as if folk don't know what the whitewashed covers, and white actors in roles for characters of colour have meant for all these years. It's not as if folk haven't known why in the future PoC rarely seem to exist or why The Forbidden Kingdom, despite being all about Jackie Chan and Jet Li, needed a white boy to move the narrative along.

So it's International Blog Against Racism Week - but I'm exhausted because 2009 has felt like a BLOG AGAINST RACISM YEAR. That said, however:

1. Teens Of Colour, reading and reviewing books

2. A Detroit organization, operating a library and offering support to young women.

3. Zulu Mech 1 Yes, African Mechas. A series produced by Wesley Snipes.

Meanwhile I'll continue regrouping enough to do more than blog occasionally about what absolutely infuriates me; regroup so I can go back to organizing the Carnival and not feel burned out just by living.

Labels: bulletin, FINALLY an Avatar tag, Year:2009

Author: Avalon's Willow » Comments: