Out Of The Loop! Like Whoa!

[eumelia]

It would appear, that I totally missed a huge, massive, enormous racism and cultural appropriation debate on LJ.

For specific and pertinent posts go to rydra_wong's link round up.

There were some links there that I'd previously read, but hadn't connected them to each other as stemming from the same debate.
In my innocence and ignorance I thought it was just a few identity oriented posts.
And suddenly I am bombarded (well bombarded myself) with links to posts, some of which were truly informative and others which made me go "Dude! WTF! STFU!".

I don't really have much to add to this debate since it seems to have quieted down.
But hell, there was an emergence of ugly, racist and ignorant statements from people so full of shit I found it difficult to stomach.

All I can say, as my people do, "Oy, what a mess".

And what a fucked up interwebs world.

I suppose it's too much to ask of people to be aware of who we are, the reality in which we live and that people are human beings.
And when they are written as characters, they represent people.
And one shouldn't use them as tropes and stereotypes.
Redundant?
Maybe.
But still worth mentioning.

Comments

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

The part that is currently amusing me the most is where people seem genuinely surprised that large chunks of the science-fiction world are acting like they're socially inept.

Not so much that they're specifically racist I reckon, just that they're assholes.

There's a reason Comic Book Guy in Simpsons is the way he is.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I really disagree with that.

Sci-fi geeks and nerds are socially inept, I think we're picky about who we become friends with and what we see as worthwhile and valuable.
Cons and Gaming events are social circles par excellence.
The socially inept thing don't fly.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Biggest difference there I think is my fandom experiances are largely pre-Buffy, and yours are post-Buffy. Buffy being the thing that brought a whole lot more interesting cool people into fandom-ey circles.

One of the big problems as far as I could tell (from only an admittedly brief look into the whole fuss) was that different people have very different ideas of what the word 'racist' means.

So when person A called person B a racist, person B was as offended as offended can be thinking they'd been called a skinhead KKK thug, while person A didnt mean it to be taken in that way.

I did find it interesting that it seemed to be particularly a generational thing. To younger folks, the word 'racist' was not as big an insult as it was to older folks.

[imfallingup.livejournal.com]

To younger folks, the word 'racist' was not as big an insult as it was to older folks.

Haven't read through the links yet so I don't know about this round of drama, but that generally has not been my experience.

[tinyrevolution.livejournal.com]

Yeah but when you're an inept white asshole, you don't need to be "specifically" racist to be racist ...

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Heh. :) This is very true.

Does it still count as racism if somebody is a jerk to everybody, irrespective of their gender or ethnicity?

[tinyrevolution.livejournal.com]

Well when it's mixed with sexism, classism, homophobia and personal arrogance sometimes it's hard to pin down ...

But I'd say it being more than one thing doesn't make it any less that one thing.

[imfallingup.livejournal.com]

Ask the person who's the target of that racism/sexism if they're affected differently by the people who are jerks to everybody.

I'm out of the loop too...

[constintina.livejournal.com]

I keep hearing references to this on journals, but I've missed the meat of the controversy and am now completely overwhelmed as to where the fuck to start or get an overview of WTF happened.

Re: I'm out of the loop too...

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

The link round up I posted is exactly where to start I believe.
I've noticed that these two are the where to start, or where the kerfuffle off-shot:
http://seeking-avalon.blogspot.com/2009/01/open-letter-to-elizabeth-bear.html

http://deepad.livejournal.com/29656.html

Re: I'm out of the loop too...

[constintina.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much. The link round up was...overwhelming.

Re: I'm out of the loop too...

[imfallingup.livejournal.com]

OH this is all still stemming off from this one, okay.

and HI eumelia, I've been lurking in your journal a bit and figured I should at least say something. -waves-

Re: I'm out of the loop too...

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Hi there!
Where did you come from? :)
I think I recognize you from a comm... would it be WJ?

Re: I'm out of the loop too...

[imfallingup.livejournal.com]

Yep, I've seen you posting over in WJ and then during the recent Gaza invasion you were getting linked a lot (as you may have heard a few hundred times) and I finally got around to adding you rather than randomly clicking over to your journal. I am slow at normal things sometimes :P

Re: I'm out of the loop too...

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Haha! No worries.
I've added you back, so welcome to my somewhat inconsistent journal :D

Re: I'm out of the loop too...

[imfallingup.livejournal.com]

Welcome! I'm inconsistent too, yay!