Space Of Grace

Both coming out through AngryRobotBooks.Com, a new SF imprint via HarperCollins.

On the one hand, it's encouraging to see SF with PoC, that have PoC covers. On the other, checking out AngryRobotBooks, I saw it's three white guys in charge.

Still just looking at them lifts my spirits.

And Zoo City is set in South Africa!

==- + -==

ETA: I've not really wanted to do any sort of demarking on the fact that it's been a year since Racefail/Racefail-09 began. The people who behaved, as they behaved have left it behind and likely given it not much thought at all.

And truthfully, on the blogs of people who have mentioned it, the stream of comments from various well meaning white people talking about just how much they learned, is frankly distateful to me.

It was meaningful because it changed how they think? And now they're on their yellow brick road towards being better people?

What happened changed my life and will continue to. It changed how I see the world of publishing and it will continue to. It changed how I see white people and it will continue to. And it has left me exhausted and affected my health.

I really don't care about white people's watershed moment of illumination. Especially because what happened was just a magnified moment of many moments in many years.

And those moments are still happening.

So to all the white people patting themselves on the back for being so much more aware now. Is that all you're going to do? Be aware as you navel gaze? And you want me to smile at you?

You want me to think your "awareness" is real change? Just because you jumped on a bandwagon of chic? Or to refute a label of racist you saw looming? Or to pad your damn egoes?

Nah dread. Not righteous. Not righteous at all.

Expend some effort. Take up some of the bloody load. Then we'll see if I have a 'progress report' to make for next year.

Tracking The OTHER Avatar

Ain't It Cool has news.

... On this planet is an element that is so rare it is worth incredible amounts of money on earth. The trouble is that the indigenous people and hostile nature of the planet make it nearly impossible to mine. The main threat are 10 foot tall intelligent blue aliens called Na’vi.

Scientists have figured out a way to grow their own Na’vi (mixing Na'vi and Human DNA) which are completely blank slates and then recruit warriors and scientists to come in and project their consciousness into these creatures, thus allowing them to travel Pandora without causing war with the Na’vi....

... Worthington is a crippled vet, disillusioned, but a warrior at heart. This is the perfect assignment for him as he is freed from the restraints of his broken body.

...It’s easy to say “they’re ten feet tall,” but seeing them stand next to a person and almost double their height, seeing one try to navigate a structure intended for humans… well, it does make them feel like creatures instead of animated humanoids...

...the Wood Sprite returns...with a few dozen of its brothers and sisters.

Worthington’s Avatar bats one away without a thought and Neytiri acts as if he just broke a cross in half or spit on the Buddha.The little jelly-fish like seeds don’t seem to mind and all alight on him, completely ignoring Neytiri. She tells him (and us) just what these things are and that it is an amazing honor to be chosen by them...

...Worthington’s Avatar is now a part of Neytiri’s tribe and going through an important rite of passage. Gone are his human clothes, replaced by native gear and face paint, like a Native American warrior...

I recognize these are the thoughts of an 'average white, male, movie goer' and nothing like seeing the film itself. And yet, these are the visual quotes triggered in the mind of that 'average, white, male, movie goer'.

And he is describing what he's seen, including the Honky, wearing his temporary 'native' skin costume, being actually 'blessed'/chosen by beings the natives revere.

Do not ask me my thoughts on this movie. I think you can clearly guess.

Link of relevance: http://twitter.com/dontpaytopray

Her Tagword: Mongolrocco

So speaking of white people...

A little birdy has told me that Elizabeth Bear is in the midst of a trilogy loosely based on The Silk Road. It will of course be published by The Original Racists. If you don't know who they are, you only need to follow some of the yellow bricks of fail in SF in 2009.

Meanwhile, there's Bear; I'm left thinking she thinks Asians are quieter than us riotous Black folk who object to white women misrepresenting us in modern myth and popular culture.

Obviously she has not been paying attention to the angry individuals spearheading the protest against Live Action Last Airbender. I don't think Asians are going to be any happier with Bear's media contributions of them in current (& common) zeitgeist.

Ooh look, I used five-dollar words. What is the world coming to when a negress dares to interpret the words and perspective of a white woman who can't. learn. the lessons of a five year old.

"It's an epic fantasy in three volumes, spanning the cultures and empires of something not entirely unlike our own Central Asian Silk Road, and it features so much shiny I can't even beging to talk about without devolving into capslock and bangs. Nongols! Weather-witching with gunpowder! Magic ponies! Passive-aggressive martial monks! Impossible bowshots! Feats of bravery and derringdo! Stubbornest Princesses!"

Hey Asian Peoples! Hear that? Elizabeth Bear thinks you're shiny! I'll be over here with washcloths and sympathy tea.

If a tree falls in a forest, does it make a sound?

If a white woman gets schooled by a herd of wild magic unicorns, does she learn anything?

The answer to one is yes, and to the other is a big fat No. No. No.

And people wonder why folk don't want to waste time or energy to lead them to the waters of information, enlightenment and education and then pinch force them to drink.

Pagemarker - October 2009

Privilege!Fail continues. Scared white men (& one woman) complain that SciFi has become femminized and thus weak.

It's like the Digivolution DNA Recombination of Sh.t.t.r.ly & E.ll.i.s.o.n.

One old white man (Scalzi) mentions Shelly.

ETA: The panic of these men at losing even a shaving of privilege is echoed in WWT in their panic at no longer being idolized on their way to touch the HetCisMale brass ring. Fear and loathing at no longer being obliviously accepted as the only people who are human; who ('s stories) count.

Utterly Repulsed By You

Dear Stargate Universe Fans,

There already exists, in our reality, a device which can essentially swap out a woman's personality and make it so when she returns all evidence of sex is gone and she would have no memory of the act.

The street name for this device is 'roofie'. A more clinical street name is 'date rape drug'.

The episode Sabatoge so far, as defended, is all about the two white characters named Rush and Eleanor, vouyeristically getting off on the rape of an Asian lesbian. And getting away with it, because the 'drugging' was sanctioned by SG Command (and the US Government).

Someone pass the smallpox blankets and the railroad timbers please - we're going back in time.

[I did not think I would have to make this post, here. I've already discussed it elsewhere and privately. But here is my public stance on just how far the SG franchise has sunk.]

-- Utterly Repulsed By You,
Willow

The Magical Black POTUS

The black man is in the seat of power. The magical bindings have come all undone. What was underground is now bubbling forth like vomit and right out of Speculative Fiction's very pale pink caucasian mouths (and fingertips).

There's a new power couple vying for 'Most WTF White People Ever'. Bull and Sh*tt*rly better watch out. J.Lamplighter and John C. Wright are coming for the crown and they will insult everyone from Muslims to Inuits to get it. Oh yes, and gays - Wright also wants O.Scott Card for a footstool.

No, I'm STILL not linking to these assholes. But I am watching history replay itself, however (in just 8 months). Where the white wife claims to catch a clue and then the white husband takes up the slack and tries to jism over everyone.

What I want to know is, how come I wasn't invited to the racism uncorking ceremony? I can chant Frederick Douglas and Marcus Garvey's names as well as anyone else. I got really good chanting Mandela back in my pre-teens too.

Note: Part of me, I admit, does wonder if this is all nothing but an attempt to drum up sales during an economic depression with the hope that the Klan, Neo Nazis, White Supremacists and Other Conservatives might pick up a book involving aliens or magic.

Learning Moments - Soaked In Tears

For the past couple of weeks, I've been taking a break and cringing everytime I saw something I wanted to talk about but couldn't find the energy to. There is a lot; comic book projects coming to fruition, my attempt at buying Razor Kid (which failed due to internet checkout weirdness), and a couple other things.

And I thought, perhaps what I needed to do was focus on things that make me happy and get rolling on that before doing anything else for a kind of boost. Because it's really felt as if the events of the first Four, five months of the year have just tapped me out.

And then I woke up this morning to see that a friend who hadn't been feeling very involved lately, had decided to take a first step towards interaction, by friending the new Scans_Daily.

That would be the Scans_Daily, run by individuals who found nothing inciting, contemptible or racist in this statement (made at their sister community noscans_daily:

"That's my opinion, so feel free to comment, suggest things and ask questions. You can also insult me and call me a big privileged white idiot who doesn't know anything about anime, but I won't hear you because I got Mein Kampf 2 on tape and I'm listening to it while getting a swastika tattooed on my shaved head. Also a unicorn, a really racist unicorn who hates unicorns of other colors because illegal aliens stole his job at the unicorn racism factory." {Do note the OP has since deleted their journal and their comments in that thread}

That would be the mods who banned someone (yes, box_in_the_box, has issues with agitation, not the point) for saying in the first comment that any post ending with such a statement was total fail, right from the start.

That would be the scans_daily mods who want, apparently, their comm to be a safe space from racism, transphobic statements, sexist statements and more. But who haven't educated themselves on the myriad of ways those statements can come about and who ALSO seem to want this 'safe(r) space' community without doing any of the damn work of creating such a space.

What do I mean about not educated? Well, one of the mods (I believe it was one of the mods, can't find the thread now) thought that the inclusion of the word unicorn proved that the statement was fantastical and meant as a joke. Never mind that there ARE racist jokes, where racists laugh. Said mod also didn't know about The Wild Unicorn Herd Checkin and why a statement about racist unicorns was very pointedly racist.

Yeah, I know, as if throwing Mien Kampf up in there wasn't a big ass clue.

How are Fans of Colour supposed to believe that certain words and online actions WILL NOT BE TOLERATED, when the mods of the comm have blinders on and are too busy or whatever to keep up with what's going on for Fans of Colour in the world of Speculative Fiction?

Then comes the part where the Scans_Daily and NoScans_Daily mods, throw up their Golden Rule Post, and at the bottom declare that racist talk won't be tolerated - WHILE CLAIMING THAT EVERY DISAGREEMENT MUST BE HAD CIVILLY AND CALMLY and
here, read it for yourself. They give examples of acceptable criticism.

So Tone Argument and then Tone Argument Exemplified when someone takes offense at it being said to be ok to call people on their privilege. Reason being he doesn't believe privilege exists.

This is acceptable? You gotta be kidding me. A person saying this is saying they know things about my POV on the world based on, mostly, my race, gender and sexual preference. How in the world is this "friendly"?

I'm HIGHLY insulted whenever someone says this to me and I certainly don't come to this comm for that sort of thing.

AND:

It implies that A) privilege exists B) being a part of some groups usually means X,Y and Z about someone and C) that said person said/ did whatever in part due to some some aspect of their background that the person criticising actually knows little to nothing about in most cases.

After all, isn't saying that to someone making more than a few assumptions about them?

AND:

I believe that regardless of what one is in life there are times and situations where being with be a plus and times when it will be a minus. I believe that this is a simple, inescapable fact of life.

Now if you mean do I think that "privilege" as is it most often defined in modern fandom circles exists then no. I believe that definition of things is, in fact, a sterotype which makes broad assumptions about people based on a few key facts about them and that life is far to complex to boil things down to such a broad level.

That opinion seems to piss a lot of people off...

And someone else immediately claims that racist is the second most nasty insult ever. Y'know, perpetuating the idea that people throw it around as an insult and don't use it as a descriptor:

It's a well-known fact that "you're racist!" is the second-nastiest insult in the English language. For non-rational, historically contingent reasons, it's more hurtful than "you're a totalitarian!" or "You're a Communist!" If you choose to make it a policy to let users drop an insult that vicious on each other, the idea that "rude remarks will not be tolerated" becomes absurd.

What do I mean by not doing the work? Well I was initially further disappointed that the mods would put the onus on Fans of Colour to help them refine a policy after they'd already put their post up (thus the seeking help note at the bottom). It appears that they've already begun to incorporate some of that refining (the post now includes references to tone - I wish I'd saved the original).

It meant that after dealing with the initial in your face racism, people had to then educate the mods. It's a little like educating the cowboys after coyotes already ran the cows out of the barn. I wonder if the mods realize how much it takes out of Fans of Colour to interact with them at all after they failed hard and failed harder.

And after all that 'Tell us what to do to make this place safer for you'. Even in a post meant to be discussing racism, people make racist statements and nothing happens to them.

No wonder I and many other FoC are exhausted, if either through words or actions the set up is that we have to police any space we're in if we want it to be safe for us - from educating the mods, to calling out isms when we see them. And we have to watch our tone, when we do so, our lose a place to be fannish in. And any allies that might be about, already on the cusp between what is comfortable and what is right, are then encouraged to silence by being told that to be outraged, is to break community rules and be booted out of the space as well.

I realize that many people would want to say (but can't because comments are NOT open) "But at least the mods are trying." You do not get an A for effort in not being racist. Either you pick yourself up, dust yourself up, and keep trying to be a descent human being, or you crawl back under the rock that spawned your maggoty existence.

Right now someone's lifted a rock at Scans_Daily and there are all these bleached white worm looking things wriggling in a frenzy to crawl back into darkness.

And I'm disappointed for my friend who was trying to dip toes back into the water not knowing it was filled with scum.

____________

Note: Future shorter posts may be likely, because it is better to shine a light for a small instant in the dark, than to stumble about (and let others stumble with you) with eyes shadowed.

Further Note: A link to the mod thought on the offensive passage. Duplicate thoughts on her personal journal

Last Note: If anyone's wondering why I haven't been discussing comics lately. Check the bottom of Kali921's post about Scans_Daily. Yet another black character a paler shade of white woman. I'm busy hunting down anything SF related that doesn't make m throw up.

On Banners & Controlling Space

The best thing about PNH closing down the thread at T.O.R (reopened sometime Monday)is that, as usual, once the white man forcefully shows he's got no intention of listening, we go have our conversations someplace else.

Undoubtedly PNH and Co. believe the issue to be dead since the thread is no longer moving. Undoubtedly they will be shocked and surprised to find out the conversation is still happening, extensively, just without any involvement by them what so ever.

Cause the truth was, we didn't need that thread to have the conversation. That thread was mostly to speak up for the white gaze. And once the white gaze closed down, it's no sweat to continue the conversation that's been going on all the wise, without the white gaze.

Meanwhile,

Yes, I'm aware about the project thingie involving banners and words. Yes, I haven't mentioned it. Yes, I'm not supporting it.

I am not so hard up in activism and speaking up and out that I need to put myself behind a leader I don't respect.

Also, you will have noticed that comments are no longer available on current posts. When people anonymously comment to tell me I'm crazy for being upset over the casual use of the word lynch - that's a sign I don't actually want to interact with anyone who doesn't already know how to contact me.

Blogger is free. So is Dreamwidth and Wordpress and how many others. If you want to respond, get a blog and link. There's no guarantee I'll read you, but you can say whatever the arse you feel like in your own space.

I said during Racefail V1 that I would only be dealing with graduate level folks from now on. Making sure people in desperate need of Anti-Racism Kindergarten can't just roll up in my blog, is me following through even more on that. I am tired of stupid white people sapping even that much energy from me that's needed to delete their words or exhale and delete their stupidity from my mind.

TOR

I was going to do a post today about Boycotting and the possibility it can also mean Constant Reminding Of Negative Associations To A BRAND - IE Tor.

However, giving the lynching comment in that thread, and seeing for myself that my comment using the word fuck, was deleted first and THEN the comment about lynching was deleted (after I tried to post again).

Tor Publishing = RACISTS

And it will = Racists to me for a very long time.

Sorry Mr. Buckell, but at least I can read Aerophilia without throwing up.

Hate & Loathing, people. Hate & Loathing. So much.

Fans of Color - Represent!

"Let's make it really clear, people. If you identify as a POC/nonwhite person and you read or watch scifi or fantasy, give yourself a name check in this thread. I am particularly wanting shoutouts from people who do not live in the US and who have still managed to read genre fiction.

I'm tired of people trying to render us invisible unless they have been given a memo about our existences."


DeadbroWalking is calling assembly and head count on fans of color into SciFi/Fantasy. Particularly Non American fans.

I know there are some Brazilians and other South American folk who occasionally read me. Y'all should go state name, sf generation and serial number. It'll be like Fandom Counts only chromatic.

Cause as Karnythia, (co-founder of VERB NOIRE) has said. Harry Potter did not get translated into 40 languages so that english reading white people could practice (their language skills).

Never Expect Better

Lois McMaster Bujold:

The other and more hopeful point is that never before have so many Readers of Color existed to *have* the conversation, or been able to communicate with each other to do so. When I went to my first midwestern convention in 1968, there was exactly one black fan, male; it's only in late years that I've had cause to wonder how brave he must have been to venture in. Octavia Butler, at a library program, once described a young black reader meeting her as a black SF writer, and saying in some wonder, "I didn't know we *did* that!" As far as I can tell, the biggest single factor driving the current shift and growth in diversity in genre readers has been the invention of the Internet.

...

I have started and deleted a couple of snarks. None fit. Let's just leave her own words up there. Emphasis (both of them) mine.

Oh. And this. First Issue: PoC in SF & Fantasy Blog Carnival

Wait. Wait. Can't leave things quite so bare. The Snark has come back to me.

"If a PoC/NWP reads a SF book in the woods, apparently, it doesn't count."

ETA: I'm now wondering if Viacom and Paramount Pictures when it comes to dealing with Avatar: The Last Airbender (live action) are just like LMB. They haven't set things up to see what PoC watch, so they're all surprised to find out that the fans of the animated series weren't primarily white.

Or maybe I'm just being too generous? And it's not about them fixing the Asian cartoon to make it more palatable to the poor little white children who had to endure a heroic fable without seeing anyone like them in it.

A Reply To Hapax

The Tor Thread:

* My query / 186 .

* Hapax response / 189.

*_________*

I think you are assuming a certain level of reader awareness and open mindedness as well as counting on individuals to have learning experiences, as you've claimed this thread to be, but which come at the expense of another's time, energy, personal pain and story put on parade (possibly for the umpteenth time).

When there isn't a parent/guide aware of the difference between being polite and being anti-racist or being polite and being anti-ablist or being polite and being for equality of gender or being polite and being for acceptance of multiple religions - then what's left is for individuals to draw their conclusions of the world from the fiction they read without questioning it.

I learned many things from books, specifically SF. I discovered there were other people like me, women who liked women, via SF. I discovered the possibilities and applications of math and physics and history and politics via SF. And then later in life I either had what I learned challenged or challenged it myself to discover more and discover deeper layers.

But everyone is not me. Everyone is not you. There are individuals who just want a good story and who are not equipped (due to socialization via home, or school) to question things, to wonder about things. The person who wrote the OP review has stated that she didn't see a problem and was ready to accept no First Nations people as the mere background conditions of the story the author wanted to tell.


Engaging with a story fully, be it text or media or opera for that matter is one of the best ways of interacting with information and realizing that it is not static. But it IS NOT something that everyone does either automatically, nor is it something everyone is raised to do.

In fact, it's my personal belief, that half the reason some books are challenged because they bring up issues around gender and sex and sexuality and depression and mental health and drugs and power displacement is because the challengers recognize that many readers are passive readers and the challengers fear that these books will be read and WILL be adding blocks of how the world is in the minds of others.

Must PoC and/or their Allies, raise a fuss with every book like this, for the sake of those passive readers? So they're aware there's controversy and might be brain tickled to discover what said controversy is about? Must everything that causes pain be a learning moment for those who are in the majority?

Because as I've said before, though some people feel that it's all about them and their learning moments. They're not that special - simply because they're ALWAYS having, or demanding, said moments from PoC and others who're just trying to live their lives.

I would much rather people were thinking to start with and NOT releasing books into the world that perpetuate these pains than be part of a daisy-chain of objectors dealing with being called book burners and over-sensitive too PC mambypambies, or whatever the insult of the month is, orcs, nithings, etc...

White people do not believe they need to learn about racism. Yes, this is a broad generalization, but not quite so broad, really. White people tend to believe that the word racist is a highly charged grenade and when it's used against them, it's actually being lobbed in some kind of street warfare and that it is not a matter of someone going "Uhmm.. you've got some privilege on your chin there and some racist thoughts dotting your shirt." And on some occasions. "Pssst. You left the house without pants."

Since learning about racism involves confronting one's internalized racist thoughts, there's a whole lot of avoidance which leads to things like this book, where there was an avoidance of the issues such as the PEOPLE themselves were left out - genocide, it's just too messy.

Thank you for answering my questions.

Dressing On The Side

Over on DeeWee, user Sami brings up a point that has been a ghost in my mind. Once I read her words, however, I was hit with the thought of YET ANOTHER INSTANCE OF DRESSING.

A book without First Nations Peoples, but is about the expansion of the West in America, is a book with dressing. And not even a regular meat coated in dressing cause that's all it needs to be authentic.

It's just the dressing to the side.

"I'll have the Pioneer History in my Fantasy Please, with a little native fauna to the side. Hold the Amerindians, just give me a little fauna dressing, make that megafauna and I think I'll have some magic sprinkles with that."

It's already a problem when minority characters are treated like white folk born with all over natural tan, or exotic no-surgery eyeshapes - just as it is a problem with stereotypes. And now here's something for those who think it's too much hassle to even try.

ERASE THE PROBLAMATIC MINORITIES. IMAGINE THE WORLD WITHOUT THEM.

History is the story of the past we all agree is true. It changes as society changes and recognizes how much 'we' all lied to tell the story we wanted to be true.

FICTION is a part of that history.

SPECULATIVE FICTION comes with an aura of supposedly being neural, futuristic equal, totally tolerant. And it lies. Because the people speaking the most and loudest are shutting others out from saying what is true. They prevail. Their vision.

And now an author is casually telling other writers and the next generation of readers that they DON'T even have to try. They don't have to mind the real world context and baggage and pain. They don't have to considerate.

Just write the ones you find troublesome out AND THEN start your tale. When someone asks why there's no mention of genocide, bloodshed, slavery or racism, you just go "Well those people never arrived so it wasn't a problem."

Extra bonus points? Have a fellow writer and friend throw money at the charities of 'those people' and then claim everything's solved and ok now.

2nd verse, same as the first

Lois McMaster Bujold, A PARAPHRASE:"Stop picking on the white woman's fiction and actually DO something for the 2 million strong, not at all disappeared Native Americans. Here, look at these charities I found and JUST contributed to, PROVING that I really care about the important issues."

*__________*

1. Sometimes a paraphrase will save you clicking a link that'll raise your blood pressure.

2. Warning: The spoiler coded c/p includes phrases like 'Due Process' and 'Evidence' when it comes to judging the words/actions of a white author. Apparently all the theory and citation laid down in the Tor comment thread is not evidence enough. Also the c/p includes the thought 'Only NDN's should be complaining.' And the phrase 'I asked my friend...'

3. Is there a slick ass salesman out there telling all these white authors 'just the right words to say' and happily omitting the fact that it makes them sound like white privileged, progressives as a comforting label, twits? Oh wait, that salesman is the institutional racism embedded in society, always there with them from cradle to grave.

OK, I’ve gone away and thought about this for a few days. Let’s try again. (Also resolved: do not make blog posts after midnight, or after consuming a sleeping pill that isn’t working.)

I have no argument with the larger issues of cultural/racial erasures and historical crimes in the real world; these are real and harrowing (and universal, the more you know about everywhere. _Carthago delenda est_ and all that. But 20,000 wrongs don’t make a right, merely a trend.) Ditto on-going local oppressions; despite the fact that Native Americans are over two million strong, voting citizens, fellow exiles in the 21st century, and many are educated, articulate, and perfectly able to speak for themselves (most of the major tribes have websites now, a thought both hopeful and boggling) poverty and discrimination do still fall disproportionately upon many others. Back to this in a moment.

I still have a profound problem with any argument that leaps from hearsay to condemnation without any intervening stop at “evidence”. It doesn’t matter *what* the subject is, the *form* is wrong, even if the conclusion after examining the evidence bears out the initial belief. And it’s just as wrong in a court of public discourse as it would be in a court of law. Worse, someone making this leap throws every other assertion they may make into doubt -- were they all arrived at as casually and cheaply? Don’t do this, people, and don’t let others get away with it, either -- because someday, your own life or happiness may depend upon just such due process.

But I also believe that a person who holds admirable opinions, yet does nothing, is scarcely distinguishable from a person who holds execrable opinions, and does nothing. Virtual virtue doesn’t count. Talk is cheap (especially on the Internet.) As Stephen Leacock swears he heard two Scottish Calvinists arguing on a train, on whether damnation is achieved through good works or grace alone, I’m on the good works side, myself.

The past is beyond anyone’s reach, and history is fractal -- one sperm over, and we would all have been our siblings, and our own self-centered universes would never have sprung into being at all -- so what can an ordinary person do right-here-right-now about any given hurt in the world? The two standard answers are money and time -- well, and blood, but I don’t direct where that goes. And “start anywhere” is usually pretty good advice, when one is spoiled for choice.

So I asked my friend who knows about such things, and she supplied these, her favorites -- more could perhaps be added:

“Oglala Lakota College -- www.olc.edu (They always need contributions to help students pay their loans, without which they can't graduate.)
Lakota Funds (making mini loans for economic development and training people to run their own businesses) http://www.lakotafunds.org/
Soaring Eagle -- not Lakota, but Cheyenne is a neighboring tribe; this is a residential home for elderly Cheyenne started by their long-term priest, Father Emmett Hoffmann, to help elderly folks who needed care (and keep them from being sent off to Denver, away from family and anyone who spoke their language): www.soaringeagle.org/
Also, Running Strong for American Indian Youth -- not limited to Lakota, but does do neat things there -- organic gardens, etc.”

Didn’t take me long to choose, as I’m always for education -- which reminds me that I need to contribute to the engineering scholarship fund in my Dad’s name back at OSU -- but to make it extra easy --

https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/6/donate.asp?formid=DonateOLC

It’s as much of a snap as Amazon.com, I found.

And you may at least congratulate yourselves for tipping me over from “I really ought to do that one of these days,” to “There! Done!”

Full disclosure: It was I who invited Pat over, a few years back, to watch a fascinating BBC documentary DVD titled “Walking with Prehistoric Beasts”, which started the cascade of interests that resulted in the book you aren’t reading. So, while the first rule for avoiding Internet insanity is still “do not feed the energy monster”, I really cannot tiptoe away from this. Even though it would be *infinitely* smarter to do so.

Ta, L. (Don’t say I never revise…)

ETA: In other news, W.S.'s racism has begun to distort his concept of reality even more virulently, showing more obvious outward signs of mental instability. I advise all to continue to avoid. Getting into arguments with those who cannot deal with reality as it is, that is those who do not wish to get better, is fruitless and wearying and depressing.

Still Alive

Still resting (now I'm battling some kind of cold - ugh). Still focused on my blood pressure and health.

Still getting ridiculous comments in the moderation queue. And said comments are still making me feel the net is filled with crackers and honkeys dressed up in nice suits, trying to pretend they're east coast debutantes and ivy league legacies they've actually thought about the meaningful things in life that don't involve licking the insides of their mouths and staring at their own navels.

Of course if the purpose of these comments is to make me think white menfolk can't jumplearn - then mission accomplished.

Also, apparently only Deepa D is authentically brown.

O.o

In other news, while I'm not looking up indie comics I'm attempting to wrap my head around D&D 4th Edition.

I find the Shadar Kai ridiculous, in case you wondered. They're so very...white. Of course someone will tell me it's not just white folk who've created a culture of Urban Tribalism, appropriating the markings (tattoos) of non white peoples, including piercings and hair styles. Personally I'm imagining the Shadar Kai at their own Burning Man celebration. Or would that be Burning Raven?

And oh yeah! Dear outraged white people - yes, I am imagining a world where y'all don't exist - aside from being a group of humans who don't live past 23, who indulge in extreme activities and who live worshiping a 'Dark Queen'.

It amuses me.

Despite being amused and occasionally intrigued by the shared world/ tweak your own concept, however, I still want to shoot stats in the face. And I will likely never play with people who need to roll die every five minutes (and or slash something to bloody bits). Stats look like chains of numbers meant to shackle a bunch of possible players who've no idea how to control themselves.

But other aspects of my geeky self glory - Medusas and Mariliths, and the Astral and Elemental Chaos Planes -- pretty pretty storytelling elements. Oooh.

Cause I'm Really Not Joking

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

---

_______

My Fav LoLCat Image of all Time.

PS: The Kitteh is Ecru.

Springfield Elementary Needs Substitutes. But Not Me.

Willow spend the day in the ER today. Her blood pressure was ridiculous and luck and more were the only things that caught it and sent her somewhere for monitoring. As said by the doctors - "Someone that young shouldn't have BP that high."

That said - Willow, (meaning me), is not going to risk her health over the failings and attempted learnings of white people.

In general I've been pretty good at that. Though sometimes, the sheer "WTBlueBlazes Was That Flying Ecru Cow Pattie!" has knocked the common sense right out of me. But this has become about some pretty, structurally important spoons in my life and those spoons are priceless when compared to 'White Learnings & Other Babblecock'.

When I hear about published writers in the White Tower of SF&F, talking about sending monetary support, or even taking the time to send snail mail in order to Save The World With Postage or things similar? - I'll reconsider reading the povs of white people I don't already know.

If I hear ambush, I'll blow the horn. And if I learn the Horde needs backup - I'll be there. But clearly even spot reading all the "Wow isn't it so wonderful to be having this conversation - it's so new" is disrupting my brain's chemical balance. I am probably not the only one. I'm sure there are First Nations and Indigenous Peoples who often go "Discovered what 'new' land, you willfully blind, appropriating, genociding, greedy, selfish` honkies."

...

...

...

I've thought about it for a bit and I've decided I might feel differently on Monday. Maybe. Depending on how my BP fares through the weekend. For right now? The next post on here might have to do with kittens, or webcomics, or kitten webcomics to give myself somewhere else to turn my eyes.

Black kittens in a webcomic by an Asian Artist and with an NDN colourist and a Latin@ letterist - who also helps them translate the comic into Portuguese. The web is big. It's probably out there.

Revolution of the Pocketbook

I don't buy Kraft products. Kraft is owned by Phillip Morris and court win or not, I just feel icky when I think my buying mac & cheese puts even a single red cent into the hands of a cigarette company; however far up in the ownership list it is.

I forgot JC Penny existed, because I stopped buying from them over Dr. Laura and the Ellen show. I got used to living my life without JC Penny.

I avoid Walmart if at all possible, and luckily for me, it's very possible.

I don't watch a lot of tv anymore because I'm sick and tired of the black faces being majority mindless comedy and white faces in just about everything else. I wait for friends to recommend tv series for me and watch them via Netflix.

I also don't eat foods with MSG in them, no matter how much they remind me of my childhood - because I just don't want to do that to my body. I might not be able to eat as healthily and with as many fresh ingredients that I'd like - but avoiding msg is something easy I can do for my health.

And I've recently made a commitment to by a brand of toilet paper I already like - because I've discovered that most TP in the US apparently comes from virgin trees. That's waste I don't feel comfortable supporting, just for my ass.

I call all this, living my life by my principles. Are there times when I make compromises against my principles? Yes. But I determine those moments and those compromises are a conscious choice for whatever reason - from buying water in a bottle, if I absolutely can't find a bottle of apple juice or something else healthy somewhere to deciding I can't afford birch sugar, so I'll buy beet or cane.

There's a list that a friend of mine put up, that I contributed links to, concerning the various authors behaving badly (not linked on purpose). And that list has been pointed out and called a lot of things. The list-maker has been called a lot of things; some extremely offensive.

And I am both amazed, angry and well, quite frankly, laughing.

When one person says to an author behaving badly. "I will never buy your work again." Most authors apparently go 'And there goes my one expensive dinner out for the year' - quite snarkily, and go about their lives. But if that one person puts up a list to keep track, for her and her friends - all of a sudden that's labeled an enemies list or 'calling for a boycott'.

I said I wanted to shun certain authors, to me shunning would include not buying or borrowing from the library, any of their work.

I have given up Peter David and Emma Bull. I have given up Charles Stross, regardless of how much I've enjoyed his Merchant Princes series. I've sighed and firmed my resolve against anything by Robin Mckinley. I've discovered that seeing the word TOR makes me roll my eyes so hard they hurt. William Sanders and anything related to him got on my shit list last year.

Is there a difference somehow to my putting these names in a paragraph vs having them in a bullet point list?

Is there a difference to having a list in my head of authors I won't try or having their names spread out in several posts in a blog with a search box?

I'm already avoiding Urban Fantasy with white protagonists - so I've already been avoiding Anton Strout. Jim Butcher got in under the wire before my disgust and dismay at an entire genre set in and I keep hoping he never says a word, cause a 50/50 chance of him saying the wrong thing is too much. But if I hear something unappealing about him - you can bet that I will clench my teeth, sigh, and erase him from my 'Books to collect' list.

Readers choose to pursue or not pursue certain authors or series based on their own personal taste. That taste can include whether or not they think the authors are asshats. The whole world is not like comics fandom, where as much complaining as happens, many people just still keep buying because of a need for a complete collection.

It's called free will, whether one believes that will to be a privilege of G-d or constitution. And another aspect of such choice is called a free market.

So what's the big to do?

Is it because it's PoC/NWP who're making a list and the authors on that list are white? Is this just another twist on the concept of reverse racism? Cause it seems that way.

Anton Strout (or someone using/sharing his IP addy) calling an Asian Hawaiian woman 'you little macadamia nut' sure as hell makes it seem that way (again not linked on puropse - but IP logging = win).

When Scalzi made his first entry about Racefail 09 - The pdf I had from Tor's free offerings got deleted off my computer. Immediately. And I put the rest of the authors excluding Buckell and Misty Lackey in a holding folder for further deletion consideration.

Authors behaving badly aren't worth anyone's spoons. But I know they're definitely not worth mine. They're not worth my free time. They're not worth my money. They're not worth me recommending them to my local librarians as potential purchases.

So I say, a little like the crowd at the National Mall on January 20th of this year:

"Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye"

I Am A Story Teller

I have been adding links to my sidebar. I point out this one in particular because it echoes what was between the lines of my Open Letter; the post that started it all. It further defines what I assumed writers willing to talk about 'Writing The Other' would already know.

I threw a book across a room, because:

1. A being associated with the word Caribbean; ate humans, and was enslaved. And I thought, "Your WTF Spaceship Is Waiting E.Bear" because in that tale, I and those like me were being given an old, tired blueprint/map in our escape to fantasy.

2. The being who assists others in their quest, but whose story is traditionally one of being arbitrarily listened to, and of being tricked and betrayed - now had dark skin. This new map said; you can be powerful, but only in relation to the story of another person's quest. And only in this story all about their culture.

And of what I read, that being didn't want their life disrupted. But it had to be, or the paler characters would never fulfill their dreams. And it didn't matter that the unwilling adventurer is its own trope. What mattered to me was being told, via that story "But you're an important part of THIS story, with celtic faeries and white dreams, why aren't you grateful? Why aren't you excited? What's so important in your little life, making your music, when you could be part of this grand white tale."

And it's not like I don't enjoy Arthurian Legend *points up to blog title* It's not like I can't comprehend or recognize Quests to save the Land, the King and all the People; quests of Freedom; quests of Self Determination.

Especially considering I seem to be on such a quest.

It's seeing the familiar, worn and dreaded path. It's seeing a character with skin like mine and possibly hair like mine, not being given an option to say no. The lack of autonomy is an over used and tattered map/life lesson. Watching a black woman essentially be told - if this white man wants you, then he will get you. End. Done. It was having to throw away the visual image of someone who had history and a life of their own, up on a virtual slaver's block, with two pale characters bidding for them, in whatever form that bidding would take. [Seduction can be currency when the auctioneer is inside one's (the character's) head.]

---

_____________

* Asian Woman Blog Carnival: Deadline - DEADLINE: April 3rd 2009.

* PoC in SF/F Carnival Special Edition: De-Colonizing The Mind (Intra-PoC Dialogue) - DEADLINE: March 27, 2009

---

_____________






It Is Time To Tell Our Stories.

It Is Time To Go Somewhere That Wants To Publish/Spread Our Stories.

It Has Been A Mistake To Believe Anything Else Would Work.

Driving It Into The Ground - And Beyond

---

---

---

I think Orcs are green. I know I'm not quite willing to make the fist brown. Point is, I've reached the Macro stage right now. I'm not actively following links to more essays and I'm checking my moderation cue every two days or so.

I'm not an artist so I had to go for clipart. Still, I figured the upheld fist should have a blade of some sort, to properly distinguish it. Therefore that's what I hunted for.

Does anyone have an idea for a symbol for the Pallid Swamp Goblin Auxiliary?

PS/ETA: Hmm, does anyone know where to find a good image of a horn? Properly orcish? I think An Official Herald Of The Revolution - would make good imagery/a good stamp/etc. Then again, I might just end up doing 'High Priest/ess of Orc' for several people and that might be taking things too far. Perhaps I should not be encouraged.\

PPS: These are not cookies. These are bandaids. Just so we're clear. These are like things one sticks on a cast to try and distract from the broken bone.