Thoughts on race and geekdom:
(For those unfamiliar, the term "people of color" is a term which is currently in use among minority groups as a term describing various racial minorities and their shared struggle for acceptance. Latinos, people of African heritage, of Asian heritage, of native American heritage -- all are covered by the "people of color" term.)
My last essay I put here involved gender and geekdom, and the whole nonsense about the "fake geek girl." In that essay, I noted that geekdom was not as racially diverse as it should be, and I'd want to do another essay on that point. Since that time, I've spoken to my geek friends of color; I've investigated and researched; and I came to a conclusion: I wasn't entirely correct.
There's a problem with diversity in geekdom, but that problem has nothing to do with the people of color showing up to the community. They're here. The problem is primarily two-fold: 1) how geeks of color are marginalized by elements of the community, and how the rest of the community allows it by not saying anything when it happens; and 2) how publishers and Hollywood and other makers of our media present people of color within our favored genres.
It isn't that there simply aren't geeks of African-American decent, for example. Heck, there's a whole con celebrating African-American contributions to the geek community, Onyxcon. (Incidentally, I'd love to go to such a con if I lived closer; perhaps someday. Seems a pretty awesome con.) They are here. Why, then, is it that we don't see them?
One unfortunate truth is that people of color are disproportionately represented in the lower socio-economic classes, and people who are too poor (whether of color or not) may not be able to afford membership badges to cons or other community events. There is an economic barrier there. But plenty of people of color are not living in poverty and can afford badges, and attend the cons widely. One of my favorite comic writers (who passed unexpectedly, far too young, quite recently) was Dwayne McDuffie, an African-American comic writer who added a wide range of diversity to his comics... an often uphill climb in DC and Marvel. And he was far from alone in being a person of color in that community, despite the often hostile work environment in that field.
The sad reality is that geekdom treats people of color very poorly, both through the media produced, and through the way elements in geekdom react to diversity here.
Let's take a look at one of our bread-and-butter settings fandom tends to enjoy: fantasy. When we think about fantasy, we think about elements drawn from medieval Europe. And traditional fantasy focuses heavily on those European myths. But historical Europe had a great deal of interaction with Africa. When fantasy breaks from the Europe-centric mold, it tends to look to Japan. Granted, there are parallels between medieval Europe and Japan, which can help explain some of this, but there are plenty of RPGs and movies and stories set in a fantasy world based on Japan or China, and almost none based on Africa (with most of the few that exist focusing on ancient Egypt). My own fantasy RPG, Arrowflight, is even somewhat guilty of this: our setting-book focusing on a pan-Asian fantasy culture has already been published. In my own defense, I'll note that I'm currently working on a setting based on the wide range of African cultures that could fit within a medieval-to-Renaissance period, and we've also established regions based on a multitude of other cultures across the world, but that doesn't change the point. African fantasy is a huge wealth of ideas for the fantasy genre, and it's virtually completely untapped. And, of course, there's nothing wrong with Asian fantasy -- it deserves love, too. Or Polynesian fantasy. Or Native American fantasy. Or you name it. Fantasy does not have to be Europe-centric, just because Tolkein drew from European myths.
Our movies and TV shows are, if anything, worse. Gene Roddenberry fought hard for every person of color he put on the bridge of the Enterprise. He told the producers he "wanted a little more color on the bridge," which was how he put his then-girlfriend Nichelle Nichols on the cast as Uhura. Nichols later attended a civil rights rally, and spoke with Martin Luther King, Jr. King told her how he and his family were huge fans of the show, how they always spoke about what they learned after an episode. Nichols said she was thinking about quitting, because all she did was sit on the bridge and say, "Hailing frequencies open." King convinced her to stay, saying, "for now, that's enough." And it was. Because one young girl watching the show excitedly told her family, "we made it to the 23rd century!" That young woman was Whoopie Goldberg, and Star Trek inspired her.
But we haven't moved far past that point yet. At one point, tokenism was needed step forward -- to remind people that, yes, there are people of color in our genres. There can be people of color in our fiction. But we haven't moved past tokenism. There's a scene in the superhero comedy movie, "The Specials," in which the all-white team gets action figures, and one of them is made black. In the commercial for the toys, a young black boy holds up the action figure and says, "He's a Special, just for me!" It's tokenism without a thought beyond that point. "Okay, I've got my black person. Check." If a comic book team has one black person, that's okay. Two... well, that's acceptable, but pushing it. But three black people? It's now not for everyone, but just for black people. That's how it's marketed, and that's how some people in the community regard it. Television shows and movies are the same way. Lost had a total of three black characters in a huge cast, but one was mostly background, while the other two were father and son who were only main characters for the first two seasons. One of my favorite science fiction movies, Strange Days, stars Angela Basset, but few people have even heard of it, even within geekdom. Walking Dead is set in the south, and yet there are only a few black characters, and there never seem to be more than two main characters at a time in the show (though admittedly I'm not caught up on the show). Dwayne McDuffie spoke of the difficult realities of trying to break down color barriers before he died, and he spoke of the rule of three.
And to make matters worse, the corporations which make the media then market it along the same lines. If it stars or focuses on too many people of color, then it's not going to sell well, and it's marketed poorly or not at all. One of the best comic books I've read in the last decade was Agents of Atlas, which had a team led by a Chinese-American. And it wasn't advertised. I only discovered it because I love old comic characters from the 40's and 50's, and Agents of Atlas brought back several 1950's heroes and threw them into a comic together. On the other hand, the atrociously awful "The Twelve" (which was a similar concept, drawing a bunch of old forgotten Marvel heroes from the 40's and throwing them into a comic together) was heavily advertised, and didn't have a single minority character in it. Instead, one character who was originally progressive for a 1940's comic was rewritten into a racist, homophobic killer, and another who came from a subterranean culture was revealed to just be a mentally ill man who made up the whole world he came from. Or you have the new Blue Beetle, a Latino teenager from a middle-class family... until a new writer came in and set his family in the barrio, and made his best friend into a gangbanger. There are countless examples.
But the companies which produce the material can only take so much of the blame. The "Special, just for me" is only for that minority, it seems. As a white male, I'm not supposed to like Black Panther, or Static Shock, or Steel, or the new Blue Beetle. Spider-Man's for everyone, because he's white, and white is supposed to be universal. But Static Shock is black, so he's for black people only. Or something. I don't really follow the logic. They're advertised in that way, though, and geekdom as a culture swallows the advertising line. Not universally, but enough. And we prove the companies right. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. "Comics/movies/tv shows starring minorities won't sell, so we won't waste advertising dollars on this. See? It didn't sell."
And beyond that, there's a growing amount of racism in geekdom, just as there's growing sexism. For example, I can point to this article about an amazing cosplayer. This woman's work should be celebrated. She's fantastic. I don't closely follow cosplayers, but I appreciate a good costume, and this woman is great. (Also, anyone who says Captain America can't be a black woman needs to be punched in the jaw by Captain America. Talk about missing the point...)
And yes, I say it's growing. In 1989, Billy Dee Williams was cast as Harvey Dent. The geek culture didn't bat an eye. Indeed, we embraced it, and looked forward to seeing him play Two-Face. A black Two-Face? Why not? But jump forward to 2011, and elements within the geek community were up in arms because Idris Elba was cast as Heimdall. How dare they cast a black man as a Norse god? Not that I think there were fewer racists in 1989 -- just that they didn't have the voice they do now.
There are a few factors I see involved in the rise of racism here. First of all, the lack of the fairness doctrine has led to increasing divisiveness in our politics, and that includes racist elements. Second of all, the rise of the internet has allowed people of like minds to get together, including letting racists find each other and get more comfortable with their views. Third of all, a black president has stirred up racist fears in some peoples' minds. (There are plenty of valid reasons to not like Obama; I voted for him, and I'm really not a fan of his drone programs. But you just need to look at the birther movement, with a mentality of "he's not like us", to see just one example of racism coloring dislike for the president.) There may be more that I'm not seeing, but those are the factors I'm noticing.
We, as geeks, need to do something about this. And we can't let the geeks of color do all the work. It's not just their responsibility to solve this; this is something we all have to do together, side by side. The beauty of geekdom is our shared community, and how we stand up for each other. As a white geek, I have a responsibility to help my fellow geeks. I need to support media which presents people of color in a positive light. I need to speak up about issues of race. I need to not tolerate racism when I see it in my community. And I ask my fellow geeks to do the same. We need to come together and drive out these elements -- the same elements who spew nonsense about "fake geek girls" -- and kick them to the curb. We need to demand better representation of minorities in our fiction, and we need to seek out that stuff which does so, even if it's not well-advertised. Word-of-mouth is amazing advertising in our community. We need to make sure our culture is one which encourages inclusiveness, regardless of skin color, of culture, of religious viewpoints, of placement on the gender spectrum, of sexuality.
Since the beginning of geek culture, since Frankenstein was penned during the year without a summer, our fiction has explored what it means to be human. We celebrate humanity. We do so for its diversity, not its homogeneousness. And to let the racists, the sexists, and the homophobes drive away our fellow geeks would be to be doing a tremendous disservice. Bullies rely on anonymity and ignorance to thrive. We cannot let them win. Watch for it. Call it out when you see it. Support our fellow geeks, be they a racial minority, somewhere other than "male" on the gender spectrum, somewhere other than "straight" on the sexuality spectrum, or however they may be different. Because we're all different. We're all unique. That's the point.
We're in this together.
My last essay I put here involved gender and geekdom, and the whole nonsense about the "fake geek girl." In that essay, I noted that geekdom was not as racially diverse as it should be, and I'd want to do another essay on that point. Since that time, I've spoken to my geek friends of color; I've investigated and researched; and I came to a conclusion: I wasn't entirely correct.
There's a problem with diversity in geekdom, but that problem has nothing to do with the people of color showing up to the community. They're here. The problem is primarily two-fold: 1) how geeks of color are marginalized by elements of the community, and how the rest of the community allows it by not saying anything when it happens; and 2) how publishers and Hollywood and other makers of our media present people of color within our favored genres.
It isn't that there simply aren't geeks of African-American decent, for example. Heck, there's a whole con celebrating African-American contributions to the geek community, Onyxcon. (Incidentally, I'd love to go to such a con if I lived closer; perhaps someday. Seems a pretty awesome con.) They are here. Why, then, is it that we don't see them?
One unfortunate truth is that people of color are disproportionately represented in the lower socio-economic classes, and people who are too poor (whether of color or not) may not be able to afford membership badges to cons or other community events. There is an economic barrier there. But plenty of people of color are not living in poverty and can afford badges, and attend the cons widely. One of my favorite comic writers (who passed unexpectedly, far too young, quite recently) was Dwayne McDuffie, an African-American comic writer who added a wide range of diversity to his comics... an often uphill climb in DC and Marvel. And he was far from alone in being a person of color in that community, despite the often hostile work environment in that field.
The sad reality is that geekdom treats people of color very poorly, both through the media produced, and through the way elements in geekdom react to diversity here.
Let's take a look at one of our bread-and-butter settings fandom tends to enjoy: fantasy. When we think about fantasy, we think about elements drawn from medieval Europe. And traditional fantasy focuses heavily on those European myths. But historical Europe had a great deal of interaction with Africa. When fantasy breaks from the Europe-centric mold, it tends to look to Japan. Granted, there are parallels between medieval Europe and Japan, which can help explain some of this, but there are plenty of RPGs and movies and stories set in a fantasy world based on Japan or China, and almost none based on Africa (with most of the few that exist focusing on ancient Egypt). My own fantasy RPG, Arrowflight, is even somewhat guilty of this: our setting-book focusing on a pan-Asian fantasy culture has already been published. In my own defense, I'll note that I'm currently working on a setting based on the wide range of African cultures that could fit within a medieval-to-Renaissance period, and we've also established regions based on a multitude of other cultures across the world, but that doesn't change the point. African fantasy is a huge wealth of ideas for the fantasy genre, and it's virtually completely untapped. And, of course, there's nothing wrong with Asian fantasy -- it deserves love, too. Or Polynesian fantasy. Or Native American fantasy. Or you name it. Fantasy does not have to be Europe-centric, just because Tolkein drew from European myths.
Our movies and TV shows are, if anything, worse. Gene Roddenberry fought hard for every person of color he put on the bridge of the Enterprise. He told the producers he "wanted a little more color on the bridge," which was how he put his then-girlfriend Nichelle Nichols on the cast as Uhura. Nichols later attended a civil rights rally, and spoke with Martin Luther King, Jr. King told her how he and his family were huge fans of the show, how they always spoke about what they learned after an episode. Nichols said she was thinking about quitting, because all she did was sit on the bridge and say, "Hailing frequencies open." King convinced her to stay, saying, "for now, that's enough." And it was. Because one young girl watching the show excitedly told her family, "we made it to the 23rd century!" That young woman was Whoopie Goldberg, and Star Trek inspired her.
But we haven't moved far past that point yet. At one point, tokenism was needed step forward -- to remind people that, yes, there are people of color in our genres. There can be people of color in our fiction. But we haven't moved past tokenism. There's a scene in the superhero comedy movie, "The Specials," in which the all-white team gets action figures, and one of them is made black. In the commercial for the toys, a young black boy holds up the action figure and says, "He's a Special, just for me!" It's tokenism without a thought beyond that point. "Okay, I've got my black person. Check." If a comic book team has one black person, that's okay. Two... well, that's acceptable, but pushing it. But three black people? It's now not for everyone, but just for black people. That's how it's marketed, and that's how some people in the community regard it. Television shows and movies are the same way. Lost had a total of three black characters in a huge cast, but one was mostly background, while the other two were father and son who were only main characters for the first two seasons. One of my favorite science fiction movies, Strange Days, stars Angela Basset, but few people have even heard of it, even within geekdom. Walking Dead is set in the south, and yet there are only a few black characters, and there never seem to be more than two main characters at a time in the show (though admittedly I'm not caught up on the show). Dwayne McDuffie spoke of the difficult realities of trying to break down color barriers before he died, and he spoke of the rule of three.
And to make matters worse, the corporations which make the media then market it along the same lines. If it stars or focuses on too many people of color, then it's not going to sell well, and it's marketed poorly or not at all. One of the best comic books I've read in the last decade was Agents of Atlas, which had a team led by a Chinese-American. And it wasn't advertised. I only discovered it because I love old comic characters from the 40's and 50's, and Agents of Atlas brought back several 1950's heroes and threw them into a comic together. On the other hand, the atrociously awful "The Twelve" (which was a similar concept, drawing a bunch of old forgotten Marvel heroes from the 40's and throwing them into a comic together) was heavily advertised, and didn't have a single minority character in it. Instead, one character who was originally progressive for a 1940's comic was rewritten into a racist, homophobic killer, and another who came from a subterranean culture was revealed to just be a mentally ill man who made up the whole world he came from. Or you have the new Blue Beetle, a Latino teenager from a middle-class family... until a new writer came in and set his family in the barrio, and made his best friend into a gangbanger. There are countless examples.
But the companies which produce the material can only take so much of the blame. The "Special, just for me" is only for that minority, it seems. As a white male, I'm not supposed to like Black Panther, or Static Shock, or Steel, or the new Blue Beetle. Spider-Man's for everyone, because he's white, and white is supposed to be universal. But Static Shock is black, so he's for black people only. Or something. I don't really follow the logic. They're advertised in that way, though, and geekdom as a culture swallows the advertising line. Not universally, but enough. And we prove the companies right. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. "Comics/movies/tv shows starring minorities won't sell, so we won't waste advertising dollars on this. See? It didn't sell."
And beyond that, there's a growing amount of racism in geekdom, just as there's growing sexism. For example, I can point to this article about an amazing cosplayer. This woman's work should be celebrated. She's fantastic. I don't closely follow cosplayers, but I appreciate a good costume, and this woman is great. (Also, anyone who says Captain America can't be a black woman needs to be punched in the jaw by Captain America. Talk about missing the point...)
And yes, I say it's growing. In 1989, Billy Dee Williams was cast as Harvey Dent. The geek culture didn't bat an eye. Indeed, we embraced it, and looked forward to seeing him play Two-Face. A black Two-Face? Why not? But jump forward to 2011, and elements within the geek community were up in arms because Idris Elba was cast as Heimdall. How dare they cast a black man as a Norse god? Not that I think there were fewer racists in 1989 -- just that they didn't have the voice they do now.
There are a few factors I see involved in the rise of racism here. First of all, the lack of the fairness doctrine has led to increasing divisiveness in our politics, and that includes racist elements. Second of all, the rise of the internet has allowed people of like minds to get together, including letting racists find each other and get more comfortable with their views. Third of all, a black president has stirred up racist fears in some peoples' minds. (There are plenty of valid reasons to not like Obama; I voted for him, and I'm really not a fan of his drone programs. But you just need to look at the birther movement, with a mentality of "he's not like us", to see just one example of racism coloring dislike for the president.) There may be more that I'm not seeing, but those are the factors I'm noticing.
We, as geeks, need to do something about this. And we can't let the geeks of color do all the work. It's not just their responsibility to solve this; this is something we all have to do together, side by side. The beauty of geekdom is our shared community, and how we stand up for each other. As a white geek, I have a responsibility to help my fellow geeks. I need to support media which presents people of color in a positive light. I need to speak up about issues of race. I need to not tolerate racism when I see it in my community. And I ask my fellow geeks to do the same. We need to come together and drive out these elements -- the same elements who spew nonsense about "fake geek girls" -- and kick them to the curb. We need to demand better representation of minorities in our fiction, and we need to seek out that stuff which does so, even if it's not well-advertised. Word-of-mouth is amazing advertising in our community. We need to make sure our culture is one which encourages inclusiveness, regardless of skin color, of culture, of religious viewpoints, of placement on the gender spectrum, of sexuality.
Since the beginning of geek culture, since Frankenstein was penned during the year without a summer, our fiction has explored what it means to be human. We celebrate humanity. We do so for its diversity, not its homogeneousness. And to let the racists, the sexists, and the homophobes drive away our fellow geeks would be to be doing a tremendous disservice. Bullies rely on anonymity and ignorance to thrive. We cannot let them win. Watch for it. Call it out when you see it. Support our fellow geeks, be they a racial minority, somewhere other than "male" on the gender spectrum, somewhere other than "straight" on the sexuality spectrum, or however they may be different. Because we're all different. We're all unique. That's the point.
We're in this together.