Comments on: Final WisCon Programming Assignment!

By: naamenblog

naamenblog — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:11:44 +0000

Ico:
But she’s a black woman. And it’s the white men who are the heroes.
Speak truth to power.

Maevele:
Good to know it’s not that I’m imagining the characters are Asian
No, you are definitely no imagining their being Asian. It’s more a case of others going straight to the default of white and I have the same “white? Rly?” reaction whenever people try and argue that their all white.

By: Maevele

Maevele — Mon, 12 May 2008 03:08:19 +0000

I’ve been trying to understand the bit in the description about Avatar since I first read it, because I had the whole, “white? Rly?” reaction, and then thought maybe I had brought some fucked up assumption into my watching of it by interpreting them as, well, not at all white. Good to know it’s not that I’m imagining the characters are Asian.

By: Ico

Ico — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:26:19 +0000

one of the myriad of reasons I have yet to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 is the fact that they yellowed up Chow Yun Fat’s skin.

… seriously? OMG. I did not know this.
I *did* think the second Pirates movie was awful with that whole stupid cannibalism thing. And I was pretty annoyed that in the third movie Calypso, supposedly all-powerful sea goddess, kinda just disappears after she’s released. I kept thinking that she should’ve gotten to do so much more.

But she’s a black woman. And it’s the white men who are the heroes.

By: naamenblog

naamenblog — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:39:00 +0000

Juan:
There are usually some transcripts and descriptions that come out of panels at WisCon but it depends on the panels themselves. If there are any of those though I’ll be sure to link to them in this blog when I get back.

By: bankuei

bankuei — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:54:49 +0000

Naamen- feel free to quote- you know it’s all love (and war) up in this.

By: Juan

Juan — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:08:27 +0000

As a ‘was almost there but not quite then gave up on it’ fan of Firefly and [possibly closeted] Avatar fan and peripheral fandom member, I’m seriously hoping to see the results/transcripts/whatever from the panel. Sounds like it’d be an extremely interesting discussion and may help me conceptualize or understand something I’ve been trying to grasp and cope with the latter.

By: naamenblog

naamenblog — Tue, 06 May 2008 23:41:28 +0000

Cecilia:
Blogging is the same for me at times, I have some loose guidelines that have been helping me in the last month but still I have a love/hate relationship with blogging.

As for the whiteness of SF and cons I think its a variety of things, like bankuei said I do think that location and networking has a lot to do with it. I also think that society has imposed this idea that People of Color don’t like sci-fi and so it can make it a more solitary activity because you feel othered or different. And there is a catch-22 at work where POC don’t come to some conventions because it’s all (or mostly white) and they don’t want to deal with that isolation and then of course that leaves the convention as mostly white and on and on and on.

By: naamenblog

naamenblog — Tue, 06 May 2008 23:02:23 +0000

Nenena:
What, do they want Zuko and Azula to actually be drawn with yellow skin, or what?!
It’s sad that I think the answer to that is yes. Some white folks cannot see a difference in race without intense othering stereotypes. Fopr example one of the myriad of reasons I have yet to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 is the fact that they yellowed up Chow Yun Fat’s skin.

bankuei:
“Not enough othering” = MUST BE WHITE.
I like that quote mind if I use it at the panel, (crediting you of course)?

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:29:48 +0000

I think racism -does- play the part, but not necessarily in the way people think.

For one, cons are built on social networks. If you are white, and have only white friends (or even if you’re non-white, and have only white friends), what kind of core network do you get?

Then, who is targeted for outreach for the con?

Then, where is the con located?

Then, when we see flickr pictures of the con, what are people supposed to think?

All of that is even without getting into fucked up shit like blackface drow lynchings or boob touching geeks.

I’m not saying that everyone needs to run out and make POC friends, though I question these people very hard if they live in anything but a small town, where POC can be easily found if you’re not living a segregated lifestyle…

By: Cecilia Tan

Cecilia Tan — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:57:33 +0000

I’m really looking forward to this Wiscon. Blogging has been a real double-edged sword for me, so that panel should be interesting.

RE; Faux Diversity vs Real Diversity, that’s such an interesting topic for Wiscon as a whole, because there is so much “white guilt” in liberal sf circles. I was on a panel on a similar topic at Worldcon in Anaheim, only the target wasn’t sf tv shows, it was cons themselves.

There are so many folks, especially among the Wiscon crowd, who are defensive about the fact that they want so much to support diversity and yet sf fandom is, and remains, overwhelmingly white. Are there sociological forces at work that are beyond the influence of well-meaning fans? Or is there really a vast, untapped non-white sf fan audience out there that cons simply don’t reach? I don’t know. Many people want to “blame” the situation on inherent racism in both the culture and the sub-culture, but I am unconvinced. The blame game is pernicious, though. I try to think positive and just keep supporting causes like the Carl Brandon Society.