The Home of Steven Barnes
Author, Teacher, Screenwriter


Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Cape Town ladies sing this song, Doo-Dah, Doo-Dah...






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Well did the shoot for FROM CAPE TOWN WITH LOVE on Monday. Got beat up, kicked into a swimming pool--great fun. Sore on Tuesday, tell you true. But wouldn't have missed it for anything.


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Been carrying on a conversation with a lady in the SF field. I started by posting a few thoughts on "The Stand" by Stephen King, and the fact that I think it quite typical of genre work, racially: blacks are either saints or sub-human monsters, nothing in-between. This lady (Call her Gail) responded pretty much as I expected, defending King on the basis that he doesn't have many black characters because he grew up in New England.

Do you catch the mistake she made? I wasn't complaining about the lack of black characters--I complained that the black characters he DID have were 90% sub-human, 10% impossibly good. Now...if I'm reading this right, Gail (and countless others) defended King's choice of imagery by suggesting that, in the absence of personal knowledge, he assumes 90% of black people are sub-human? I don't think that is quite what she meant, but wouldn't that be an interesting doorway into human psychology. Are people really saying: "in the absence of direct experience, we will tend to think negatively of others?" or was it "in the absence of direct experience, whites will tend to think negatively of blacks?"

Well...considering our national history, the second certainly exists as a possibility. Actually, going further through STAND I notice something interesting. When King actually gets into Mother Abigayle (the ultimate spiritual guide) and her history, he does it quite well. The beautiful characterization we have come to love from him. I had ZERO complaints with this section, about her girlhood, performing in a talent show, her sexual feelings for her three husbands. Quite lovely.

But if you look carefully, you'll notice something: he was trying. He was actually thinking about it. When he just flows, he goes back to the black-as-evil motif: danger, death, corruption, the unknown, the damned, the twisted. Now, this has little directly to do with race relations. This seems to have far more to do with the fact that human beings are not adapted for night-time hunting, and for most of our history, the night HAS meant danger and death. This naturally seeps into our language. Black people just happen to be at the losing end of this one, too. Sucks.
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Anyway, in extended conversation, Gail and I spoke of imagery in books and film (she refuses to believe that the lack of black male sexuality in film reflects a bias on the part of white audiences, preferring an endless series of epicycles: every film with such imagery just HAPPENED to be lousy, you see. It was fascinating that she was able to look directly at a list of movies that have earned over 100 million, and not see one of them as having sex. Fish really can't see water, can they?)

This carried over to the question of black fans and writers in SF. She believes that the lack of such has nothing to do with the lack of representation on covers and in content. "You are either attracted to speculative ideas or you are not." I just loved this. It is EXACTLY the reasoning used by male editors to explain why there were so few women writers/readers in the field. Maybe women just aren't interested in the future, in speculation, in technology. It certainly can't be anything WE'RE doing.

I suppose I should totally discount everything I've ever heard from women about how desperate they were for role models of strong females. How heroines and images of female scientists and explorers are inspiring. Science Fiction isn't just "a literature of ideas." It is also an HEROIC literature. If people want ideas, they'll read non-fiction. We read fiction to help us gain perspective on our lives, to see models of people dealing with stress and pain and love and hope. And for decades, women have complained that men keep women in these little conceptual boxes, and that it limits women's entrance into the sciences, politics and art. And limits their interest in the degrading or exclusive literature.

And here was another perfect example: if someone is doing it to you, you grasp that it is damaging. ("Men excluding women diminishes female interest in the field.") On the other hand, if whites exclude blacks or Asians, lack of black or Asian participation in the field MUST be because...well, there is something different about blacks or Asians. Maybe they just aren't interested in speculation (shall I mention what this sounds like? Or can you guess?) possibly because they are so caught up in the struggle for survival. Uh...but Asians actually do BETTER than the average white family. Well, then, maybe its not in their culture. Ah...Japanese comics, television, animation and film is FILLED with SF imagery. And while the average black family has less wealth than the average white family, that leaves, let's say, half as many potential fans/writers per capita? Which explains nicely why I was the only black male SF writer in the field for twenty years.

Good one, Gail.

Can you see how this works? "They" are racist, sexist, culturally elitist, fools or knaves. When "Our" group does it, why it's totally understandable, and must be because the other group, is well..."not like us."

I can't think of an arena where this doesn't play out. Both Liberals and Conservatives love to fantacise that they are better, smarter, more American than the other. Both blacks and whites want to believe that their side has less racism or prejudice. Both men and women believe that their gender has held the world together (except for those interesting critters who hold the opposite gender higher than their own. I've always thought it would by hysterical to have a situation comedy of a marriage between a male feminist and a female masculinist [if such a word exists]. Their arguments would be a stone hoot.)

My guess about Gail is that she is a typical fan. She felt that the field was the Home she had sought for years--felt welcome and valuable. Found friends, lovers, employers. Bought into the mythology that SF readers are open to everything, less prejudiced than the outer world, existing in a world of pure intellect, incredibly tolerant. "Fans are slans," itself the exact type of prejudice and us-them thinking that they fled from the outer world.

And the idea that basic human tendencies toward tribalism might be here, in this citadel of higher thought, is disturbing as hell. The idea that SHE might be the oppressor now...that she is using the exact same logical formulations that men used to shape and control women...that is probably something she'll have quite a bit of trouble wrapping her mind around.

This is what it is to be human--to hide your unconscious beliefs (90% of the Others are monsters!) from your conscious mind (Mother Abigayle's beautiful story.) But if I'm right about this, it explains so much of human history, American history, human struggle. Men discount women's aspirations, women discount men's mortal sacrifice. Whites and blacks, deep down, each think they are better than the other, but play the conscious politically correct game of not QUITE saying it aloud. Obama's election means racism is over! Let's not notice the racial distribution in the Senate, shall we..?

This stuff is fascinating to me, it really is. And despite it all...God, I love people. Really, we're just wonderful. If only we weren't quite so afraid of each other, and ourselves.

14 comments:

LaVeda H. Mason said...

:applause:
A long way we've come...
A long way yet to go...
:tears:

Pagan Topologist said...

That sitcom idea sounds awesome, Steve. I think I have always been one of those males who feels that women are superior.

Taking a technical "We can fix this" viewpoint about racism in sf fandom, I constantly look for ideas in this regard. Does having more black Guests of Honor help?

Steve Perry said...

Got to love that facial expression as you are kicking at Blair.

All about The Method, eh?

Who are the actresses? Anybody we know?

Anonymous said...

"...I've always thought it would by hysterical to have a situation comedy of a marriage between a male feminist and a female masculinist [if such a word exists]. Their arguments would be a stone hoot.)..."

A lot of feminists, like me, are pro-women *and* pro-men (and pro-children and pro-intersex-adults). :D Some other feminists are pro-women and anti-men. >:( They're total assholes, but technically speaking their pro-woman stuff is a type of feminism as well since it's pro-woman. :/

Now your sitcom idea here would be a real hoot if the husband was a female supremacist feminist instead of a pro-men-too feminist and the wife was a male supremacist. ;)

"...Taking a technical 'We can fix this' viewpoint about racism in sf fandom, I constantly look for ideas in this regard. Does having more black Guests of Honor help?..."

Me, I rarely notice the Guests of Honor at SF events but I do read a lot of SF/fantasy/etc. and would like to see more black authors get the chance to get SF published in English (whether they're writing in English in the first place and need the chance to get published at all or writing in something else and need the chance to get published in translation too).

Heck, why is it that almost all the books from Africa I see in translation in the library are in translation from French? I'm sure there's even more good stuff out there written in Swahili, Yoruba, etc. than what I've found and read but it's not getting translated and so foreign language learning losers like me can't read it! :/

Now I'm going to go search the web:

http://www.blacksciencefictionsociety.com/

http://ghanageek.wordpress.com/category/science-fiction/

http://sciencefictionbiology.blogspot.com/2010/01/pumzi-afican-science-fiction.html
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/01/pumzi/

http://www.sfwa.org/2010/03/can-you-define-african-science-fiction/

http://home.intekom.com/akaine/sfsa/gallery.html (someone's missing!)

Steven Barnes said...

Kellita Smith (Bernie Mac's wife on his show) played "Marsha." We actually have a very recognizable name as Sophia Maitlin, but I'm not sure I'm supposed to talk about that yet. We'll shoot that sequence soon, and then I can talk.

Steven Barnes said...

I'd say having more Black or Asian GOH's helps. Can't possible hurt.

Anonymous said...

"Heck, why is it that almost all the books from Africa I see in translation in the library are in translation from French"

Because French is a more common language in Africa then English.

Anonymous said...

"Because French is a more common language in Africa then English."

That doesn't answer the question "Heck, why is it that almost all the books from Africa I see *in translation* in the library are in translation from French?" (emphasis added).

It's like the way "Because chicken is more common than tuna" doesn't answer the question "Why is it that almost all the canned fish I see in the supermarket is tuna instead of salmon, sardines, etc.?".

Anonymous said...

"I'd say having more Black or Asian GOH's helps. Can't possible hurt."

Yes, I agree that it can't possibly hurt! :)

I just thought that in the case of the portion of SF readers who are like me it wouldn't help much either. For some other SF readers, the ones who are in the fan communities that have SF events with GOHs, I bet it would help more.

Pagan Topologist said...

Curious. I always pay attention to who is the Guest of Honor at a con, and I generally make it a point to buy one or more of his or her books. GOH speeches are one of my favorite programming events at cons.

Nancy Lebovitz said...

I think there are people of color who don't say they're less prejudiced-- they say their prejudices are a consequence of white racism, and don't need to be addressed because people of color don't have enough power for their prejudices to matter. The last may be too general-- they might just mean that any prejudice they have against white people has too little power behind it to matter.

I suspect that the concept of fandom as unprejudiced got set in the 50s, when it might actually have been less prejudiced than the mainstream society. Or I might be kidding myself about that.

Anonymous said...

"Curious. I always pay attention to who is the Guest of Honor at a con, and I generally make it a point to buy one or more of his or her books. GOH speeches are one of my favorite programming events at cons."

That makes sense when you're going to a con! :) Having more black Guests of Honor at SF cons would address racism among the part of SF fandom that goes to SF cons too instead of just comics cons or anime cons.

Me, I don't go to cons for the stuff I like to read. I just read the stuff (and sometimes buy the stuff or recommend that my local library buy the stuff). That goes for SF, fantasy, mystery, comics, nonfiction, all sorts of stuff. Doing anything differently at SF cons probably wouldn't address racism among the part of SF fandom that's already uh, a who to the what now? when asked about con Guests of Honor.

Then there are the SF fans who go to other cons with some SF (comics cons, Trekker cons, anime cons, microniche cons like yaoi manga/anime cons, etc.) instead of SF cons, and your idea of having more black Guests of Honor would work with those cons too, right?

"I think there are people of color who don't say they're less prejudiced-- they say their prejudices are a consequence of white racism, and don't need to be addressed because people of color don't have enough power for their prejudices to matter. The last may be too general-- they might just mean that any prejudice they have against white people has too little power behind it to matter..."

I doubt this applies to a person of color being racist against some other people of color. Like when an Asian is racist against blacks (I've heard this even IRL, and it bites too).

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