Racefail 09

[leana106]

You know, I've been watching Racefail 09 on the sidelines for the last few days because people more eloquent than I had already stated what I could have ever wanted to say about it. And by the time I came in, it seemed to be winding down--the overarching discussion has been occurring for many years before, but this incarnation just blew up at the

Comments

[charlycrash]

I realise how potentially inflammatory this is, but with the whole "POC" thing - I have yet to meet anyone who would use the term to refer to themselves. Every black person I've known would refer to themselves as, well, "black

[leana106]

I use Black to refer to myself and other Black people, and whatever descriptor other people of other races want to use for themselves, but POC is a good catch-all for Black people, Asians, Latinos, mixed/biracial people, people from the Middle East, Africans etc. I don't think I've ever heard an individual call them selves a person of color, it's always been in the plural. YMMV, obviously.

It may be cultural, but I've usually only seen POC used in an academic sense, or during diversity training.

I think as long as you treated your characters like characters instead of confining them to stereotypes or tropes (negative or positive) then you're probably okay.

I'm curious though, have you been following the Racefail '09 stuff? I just heard about it about a week or so ago and really got into it in the last couple of days. It seems that before March it had been pretty confined, and I can see that a lot of people have just got into it.

[charlycrash]

POC is a good catch-all for Black people, Asians, Latinos, mixed/biracial people, people from the Middle East, Africans etc.Ah, I figured it was something like that. Y'know though, I do happen to rather like the phrase, as it goes some way to illustrating how (ignoring culture for a second) race is kind of a silly notion to begin with. Obviously some people look different to others, but as biologically-speaking it's not a case of stark categories but a multi-dimensional continuum.. I dunno, it seems a bit crap to cram people into one box or other because of some vague similiarity to a tendency in phenotype in people with a heritage form a certain locality

[leana106]

Oh man, race is possibly one of the stupidest constructs I've ever come across, but no one can deny that it's been useful for a certain suite of people and shaped a good chunk of how things are now. =/ But you run into a different sort of stupidity when well meaning people proclaim that they are color-blind and that they don't see race.

Even though I look (and identify as) black, I know that I'm at least 25% white (thank you Grandpa) and probably a bunch more going by what I know of our nation's long history of engagement with other races. That documentary sounds cool though. I'm surprised that the idiots changed their tune though, that they didn't deny the DNA tests or come up with some other explanation. I do wonder though how their fellow idiots treated them once it was revealed that they weren't 100% white.

There's stuff in my writing that I am very worried about in terms of subtext and implication - but I won't list it here, as it's probably not very interesting :/I don't mind. In for a penny, in for a pound, I always say

[megyal]

I came here to look at your Kakairu recs, and I got into this instead. Thanks for the links.

[leana106]

You're welcome, I'm glad somebody's reading. :D If you want more of the commentary stuff then

[leana106]

Are you a member of michikohatchin? That's where I got all of my icons from.

And you read Gerri's post out of masochism. Although unfortunately, I've seen worse fail than this lately in Racefail '09. :(