IBARW 2: On the modeling industry, writing colorblank, personal experience, and link discussion

[keilexandra]

For general details, see my introduction post.

IBARW is almost over, and I've been working on this post for almost three days now. I still don't have a narrow topic. Everyone else is more mature and way more knowledgeable on the topic, as well as already covering a lot of things.

Oh look! I found something. This model for Marni is one of the few Asians in the industry, and she's so pale she might as well be white. I think the day-to-day encounters with racism are what frustrate me the most. That photo makes me so angry, and yet as oyceter said (wrote?), anger never helps discussions about racism. In the workplace, in schools, in life--racism is here to stay, but if I as a POC complain about, say, white privilege, most of the white people in the room will immediately rebut. White people are allowed to get angry about things that seem unfair to them--like affirmative action--but POC aren't allowed to complain about things that seem unfair to us. It's a vicious cycle.

Like many POC, for a long time I pretended to be white--calling my skin color "tan" instead of yellow or Asian, pretending not to care when everyone exclaimed over my 'tiny Japanese eyes" (I'm Chinese, FYI), and of course writing colorblind. Others, like John Scalzi, write colorblank--they know and think of their characters as multiracial but choose not to note race at all in their writing. And though I disagree with that, it's their choice. But the major burden lies with the writer--not the reader. The writer must choose to

I also notice that I've never considered a story--even in my head--involving black characters. I simply didn't include them in my worldbuilding, though Asian and Middle Eastern are represented. Is that personal prejudice, ingrained by my own Chinese heritage? Yet another example that POC can still be racist.

When I lived in Newfoundland, I remember there was only one black girl in the entire school (and only a few more Asians). But though I never spoke out directly against her, neither did I try to be actively antiracist. That's something I'm ashamed of now, because not-racist /=/ anti-racist. In fact, I would argue that being not-racist does equal good (notice I did not say harm) as being racist.

Then there are articles such as this one, calling race "the final frontier" in science fiction. I dislike the implication that one must be black/POC to write about race. Also, this paragraph:

The tendency to lump all black speculative fiction writers together also fails to acknowledge that these authors don't always tackle racial issues in their work. Robert Devney, 55, a longtime fan who attended the Readercon convention, calls Delany's "Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand" one of his favorite novels. But Devney, who is white, says of Delany's approach to race, "It's occasionally a point he wants to make and many times it isn't a point he wants to make."

seems, to me, is saying that as a black SF writer, Delany should be tackling racial issues in all his work. Are female writers expected to tackle sexism in all their writing? Are white writers expected to tackle any consistent issue in all their writing?

Just some food for thought.

Comments

[sethdickinson.livejournal.com]

I agree with much of what I've read here and in the list of Male Privilege.

But as food for thought: is it fair that I should have to feel guilty and ashamed of myself because of the color and gender I was born into?

[keilexandra]

No, it's not fair. But--is it fair that other people have to feel guity and ashamed of themselves because of the color and gender they were born into? Because certainly racism and sexism--and oppression in general--causes those feelings.

Life isn't fair.

[niladmirari.livejournal.com]

This made me think about the recent SciFi channel adaptation of Earthsea, and how they chose to cast all the (originally more or less non-white) characters as white folks.

Here is an essay about it by Pam Noles.

Le Guin's original denunciation of the project was published on Slate, and I can't seem to access it now.

[keilexandra]

Ugh, they actually did that? Horrible. I've never really gotten into Le Guin, but I applaud her anti-racism efforts in Earthsea.