End Apartheid Now

We have lost BlackAmazon. Go here to see her signing off.

Ragnell has a post up, about how the feminist community failed to police itself. It is not a bad essay. Where it fails, however, is in aspects Ragnell no doubt was hesitant to get too deeply into outside of analogy; which was brilliant.

"If Feminism was a well, and racial equality was the only process available to purify water, we'd all be drinking sewage.

Admittedly, no one is perfect, but in general most people are willing to admit their shit does indeed stink. But every time someone at the Feminism Well points out that the water smells funny, the rest of the room shouts them down insisting that only the cleanest, clearest water comes from the Well of Feminism, and the idea that it may be polluted is a dirty lie spread by the Patriarchy in an attempt to prevent us from drinking water and hawk their Super-Concentrated Bottled Man-Juice (TM), now with EXTRA Oppression Power!"

I started this blog because Ragnell and Kalinara inspired me into having a voice on comics. The list of bloggers and journalers who inspired me to have an open and obvious black voice on something that inspired me as a child and helps me think of the future; that list is too long for me to remember clearly from day to day. It starts with my former roommate, sweeps through her LJ friends list, hops a ride through deadbrowalking, circles PoC Daily, loops around TheAngryBlackWoman and pulled into a stop not just at this blog, but in the creation of The People of Colour Scifi & Fantasy Blog Carnival.

But it's now missing two.

Any further words I'll have on this subject are likely to be beyond inflammatory. Just know, however, the next time someone says to me: 'It's only a comic / It's a colouring error / What's wrong with a ghetto backstory? / What do you mean you can't see the CoC's? They're not OBVIOUS that's all / You only want a Black Superman, Superman is for everyone! ' and other shit like this, I will get angry, just as I have been angry.

I will let them know their racist, privileged bullshit has no place in a fandom/community devoted to heroic actions, hearts and deeds. Apartheid has no place in comics fandom.

I will remind myself that the flames of my anger are fuel to keep going.

My voice may be coming from left field, from my chosen patch of territory. But this is my chosen patch. And I feel a need to keep going at least long enough to see others in my corner, so that when I burn out, it's not left undefended.

And no, I'm not so naive as to think I won't burn out.The rest of society is too well trained in racial deafness. I just watched two others burn out right before my eyes. But until then - I am a queer, wellspoken, black female immigrant. I may well be a womanist. And I plan to make comic reading, racist, privileged lives uncomfortable and uneasy as MUCH as I can.

Will and determination as a super power? I'm sure you've heard of it.