Othered Only Because You Say So

[yeloson]

So once again, white writers are crying tears and needing hugs and cocoa because they don't know how to write characters of color and they did it wrong and everybody hates them and their fee fees hurt.

Let me give an analogy.

If every time I spoke about women, I painted them as some mysterious other- magical and wise, vicious and cruel, stupid and helpless, lusty and animalistic, unfathomable and alien? You'd tell me I'm crazy and a sexist dick and you'd be right. (and yeah, there's guys doing this still.)

You'd say this not only because I'd be telling lies, but because these falsehoods are so easily shattered that I would have had to went through considerable effort in mental gymnastics, in not interacting with women (either literally or practically by behavior), that in the end, "But, but, no one pulled my head out of my ass, I NEVER KNEW" would not be a valid excuse. My not knowing would be the result of a lot of work on my part.

Women are everywhere and the only person I could blame for such fuckwittery at this point would be myself.

So. When you tell me that you couldn't possibly write any characters of color because they're so strange and you can't identify with them at all? Or that's why you had to fall back on stereotypes? You've just told me you've spent decades of your life doing mental gymnastics and avoiding people.

And, after a lifetime of aversive racism, and, you creating media that helps perpetuate lies, you want me to do the work FOR you of pulling your head out of your ass and then give you a cookie and tell you that you're a good white person, even though you're not willing to do any effort to undo what you've done to yourself?

So, no, the answer is neither to stop writing characters of color or to read a lot of books about POC and try to study them from afar or endlessly demand we educate you.

Get your head out of your ass and meet us as people.

And then you'll see why, "But X are people too!" is a phrase that only works if you start from an assumption that only your people were people to begin with.

Comments

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

Hot like fiyah!

[kialio.livejournal.com]

You've just told me you've spent decades of your life doing mental gymnastics and avoiding people.

This.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

Yes.

And, after a lifetime of aversive racism, and, you creating media that helps perpetuate lies, you want me to do the work FOR you of pulling your head out of your ass and then give you a cookie and tell you that you're a good white person, even though you're not willing to do any effort to undo what you've done to yourself?

This comment (), is an incredible example of this. Take note of who gets called out.

If it ever gets deleted, here it is:

I think my particular twitch is that it annoys me to be called evil when (a) I didn't create the evil in the first place, and (b) I am actively trying to expunge the evil as best I know how.

Yes, dammit, I have the evil in me. Stop yelling at me for having it, and start helping me try to get rid of it.

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

"Stop yelling at me (for not removing it myself) and start (serving me by doing the work for me)"

Go-go-Privilege-Rangers!

[bana05.livejournal.com]

u=dope

[valsadie.livejournal.com]

I want to print out and mail a copy of this to every all-white TV writing staff in Hollywood -- which would take a LOT of time, but I'd be willing to do it.

There's a chapter in "Billion-Dollar Kiss" by TV writer Jeffrey Stepakoff, explaining why there are so many all-white writing staffs, and pretty much it all boils down to,"Well, we don't know any writers of color!" Whine. And have you tried to meet any--? Do you even know any people of color?? The answers to these questions would be "No!"

All they're interested in doing is maintaining the status quo -- the same upper middle-class white people who've been writing everything for years and haven't stepped out of their little "comfort zone" for years.

So not impressed with any of them.

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

And that's it exactly. The level of effort you have to take is pathological. And then we look to self-segregationists to tell stories that -aren't- fucked up in the head?

You can call Josh Tyler out by name, it's okay--

[bellatrys.livejournal.com]

If every time I spoke about women, I painted them as some mysterious other- magical and wise, vicious and cruel, stupid and helpless, lusty and animalistic, unfathomable and alien? You'd tell me I'm crazy and a sexist dick and you'd be right. (and yeah, there's guys doing this still.)


--everybody else is (http://womenincomics.blogspot.com/2009/01/special-edition-don-need-another-hero.html), after all. (And no, I don't know if he's ever said anything about racial/ethnic issues, but I would be absolutely *shocked* if he managed to avoid the same amount of Hipster!Fail in that too...)

Re: You can call Josh Tyler out by name, it's okay--

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of Frank Miller and a bunch of shonen manga, but isn't it sad how many can fit under the shit umbrella?

It's been a fortnight of FAIL, hasn't it?

[bellatrys.livejournal.com]

Sanders continuing to fit-throw and self-immolate Helix; Luke whatsisface proving that he was just as bad as his association with Sanders made him appear, after all; gumminerd Tyler and all his coterie of supporters in comments steadfastly refusing to Get It no matter how many people try to clarify things for them; and now a frame-by-frame rerun of the last time this happened that matociquala started it?

Obese Zombie Napoleon says: I ATE FANDOM'S BRAINZ, HAHAHAH!

(I know I should really say something as one of the resident quasi-academic litcrit-trained white-fangirls-who-tries-to-be-an-ally, but so much FAIL makes me flail... (esp when I have other Issues with some of the authors in question, like OH YEAH YOU WRITE HOWLING STUS W/FLAMING HAIR, MISMATCHED EYES, TRAGICKAL PASTS AND UNPARALLELED SUPERPOWERS WHOM EVERYBODY LOVES & WORSHIPS NO MATTER HOW SHITTY THEY ACT, AND TAKE CRITICISM LIKE A FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD SUVIAN ON THE PIT OF VOLES, WE SHOULD LISTEN TO YOU ON ANYTHING? YAHRIGHT! - *that* would probably not be relevant or "constructive" debate, would it?

Re: It's been a fortnight of FAIL, hasn't it?

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

Well, this is exactly why I point out lifetime of head-in-ass-ness.

It's really the only way to understand how so much fail continues to happen. On the internet, people form sentences, but that doesn't mean they form thoughts.

"Real Life" too

[bellatrys.livejournal.com]

On the internet, people form sentences, but that doesn't mean they form thoughts.

This is exactly why the thought of going on to grad school made me seriously contemplate driving off a bridge. Four years of dealing with this from fellow classmates and too many professors as a Phil major had made me want to drive off a bridge rather than go to class many times already, there was no way I could handle more years of taking it ratcheted it up many notches, (and I didn't have the resources to do what I really wanted, which was go to art school anyway over parental unapproval and unhelpfulness) so I called it quits at a BA despite massive peer disapproval ("There's no POINT in majoring in Phil if you're not planning on going to grad school" I heard a lot.

I mean, there's only so many times you can go "But, but, but, this doesn't make any sense! This isn't even a coherent statement! It has no connection to any objective reality, nor even to any subjective ones outside the author's own head! I don't CARE if he has more degrees than I have fingers, it's STUPID!" and then think "I'm paying HOW MUCH for this?" before the Diminishing Returns thing kicks in.

(BTW, you mention Miller, well apparently he managed to work in the word "whore" in the opening monologue of "The Spirit." Shortpacked seems terribly prescient...)

[a-white-rain.livejournal.com]

I really loved this post. This bit is my favorite:

And then you'll see why, "But X are people too!" is a phrase that only works if you start from an assumption that only your people were people to begin with.