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bantha_fodderThere's been some stuff going on in fandom, stuff about inherent prejudice and racism. Though it's difficult for me to be coherant about this topic, I'm going to try.
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ciderpress made an amazing post here, a really thoughtful, interesting post that I strongly encourage every one to read. S/he talks about defining racism and fandom reactions, resistance, and the thing that never fails to make me angry, arguments against. liviapenn also has an excellent post here, wherein she talks about the actual phenomenon in SGA, this unconscious hand washing that is so predominant, and so incredibly frustrating. I strongly recommend both of these posts. Everyone in these sorts of arguments always starts by establishing their credentials, so I don't know if I should mention this, but Liviapenn is a white fan, and Ciderpress is a fan of colour. Interestingly, Ciderpress establishes this early on, whereas Liviapenn does not establish it at all.
And now I would like to establish my own credentials.
My mother-out-law sat with me one day, sipping her tea and despairing over her middle child; "I don't know," she said, "Why he's so racist. He didn't get that from us." "Yes, he did," I said, and she looked at me. "When you tell us stories from the hospital, it's always this Aboriginal boy or this Chinese woman, but it's never this Caucasian girl," and she got very upset, and then very quiet. "Do you really think I'm racist?" she asked me, later. "No," I replied. "But everyone has their prejudices."
And they do.
My mother is Malaysian born Chinese. When she came to Australia she tried to improve her English; she was marked down because of her accent, and her place of birth. When we visit Malaysia, she gets a funny look, at the her Australian passport and her place of birth. When I used to get in trouble as a child, it was sometimes with a glare, and a "don't do that, only Malays eat with their hands." At dinner during CNY, discussion around the table turned to Malaysia, as it always does, and at the mention of the mosques my mother's face turned cold, and unkind. I know that talk of mosques and Islam has become a different thing now, but in my parents' house it remains the same: the intrusion of the Malays into Chinese lives, and the urge my mother felt to leave the country of her birth.
My mother believes that Singaporean born Chinese shopkeepers are misers and bitter; that old Caucasian Australians are racist and prejudiced; that Malays are insincere and dirty.
My mother has her prejudices, of course she does. I have mine, too.
As I said, my mother is Chinese. My father is Caucasian-Australian. When I fill in forms, I check the boxes marked Chinese and Caucasian based on the purpose of the form; every time, my pen hovers over language spoken at home, and I am torn. When I was ten, I realised that not everyone ate rice two or three meals a day, and it stunned me. I have been verbally abused in regards my race exactly once: I was thirteen, and he was a dumb shit at my high school. I was yelled at by an old Chinese dude when I was parking my car at my mechanic's; my mechanic's office manager was so affronted on my behalf: those things he said were terrible, she said, and him your relative! She meant it in the kindest way, I know she did, but the old man was Chinese, and so am I, and in her mind clearly we are relatives.
When I turn on the television, I see people with white/pink skin; when I read books, they are books about white/pink people. Now that I am grown, I make a conscious effort to read books by Chinese people, books about Chinese people, and I consciously look out for children's books, in English, about Chinese children, for my own (who do not yet exist). My thesis at university was on immigration from China and the Overseas Chinese; my pet topic, the thing that can get me talking and about which I may never stop, is the Chinese Diaspora.
A couple of weeks ago I asked for characters of Chinese descent. Every comment I got filled me with such glee, such intense, awesome glee, because I got referred to all these texts with awesome Chinese characters in them, characters I could maybe relate to.
All of these things are to explain why, though I pick my favourite characters based on their actions and their words, I will make a special effort to learn about them if they are Chinese.
The prejudices of my mother and my father curl through my gut and through my heart and sometimes, I don't even notice them informing my decisions. But as Ciderpress says in the post to which I linked, it's often not a conscious choice, and it doesn't mean you can't be a good person.
I was going to list my own prejudices here, but then I realised that they are mine, and they're not things of which I'm proud, so I won't. It's enough that I know them, and that I am ashamed of them, and that I try to change them.
In conclusion, I'd like to reiterate that I think people should read Ciderpress' post, if nothing else, even if you've naught to do with it. Because you're a person, and you're prejudiced, whether you think you are or not. And all I'm asking is that you think about your prejudices, and how they affect the rest of us. Because some of us don't get a chance to not care, or be just like every one else; some of us have no choice.
Of course, sometimes I emphasise the difference myself, the decorations in my window at New Year and nattering away in Mandarin or Malay, and the little shiver of delight I feel when I hear strangers walking past speaking in Mandarin or Malay is indescribable.
ciderpress made an amazing post here, a really thoughtful, interesting post that I strongly encourage every one to read. S/he talks about defining racism and fandom reactions, resistance, and the thing that never fails to make me angry, arguments against. liviapenn also has an excellent post here, wherein she talks about the actual phenomenon in SGA, this unconscious hand washing that is so predominant, and so incredibly frustrating. I strongly recommend both of these posts. Everyone in these sorts of arguments always starts by establishing their credentials, so I don't know if I should mention this, but Liviapenn is a white fan, and Ciderpress is a fan of colour. Interestingly, Ciderpress establishes this early on, whereas Liviapenn does not establish it at all.And now I would like to establish my own credentials.
My mother-out-law sat with me one day, sipping her tea and despairing over her middle child; "I don't know," she said, "Why he's so racist. He didn't get that from us." "Yes, he did," I said, and she looked at me. "When you tell us stories from the hospital, it's always this Aboriginal boy or this Chinese woman, but it's never this Caucasian girl," and she got very upset, and then very quiet. "Do you really think I'm racist?" she asked me, later. "No," I replied. "But everyone has their prejudices."
And they do.
My mother is Malaysian born Chinese. When she came to Australia she tried to improve her English; she was marked down because of her accent, and her place of birth. When we visit Malaysia, she gets a funny look, at the her Australian passport and her place of birth. When I used to get in trouble as a child, it was sometimes with a glare, and a "don't do that, only Malays eat with their hands." At dinner during CNY, discussion around the table turned to Malaysia, as it always does, and at the mention of the mosques my mother's face turned cold, and unkind. I know that talk of mosques and Islam has become a different thing now, but in my parents' house it remains the same: the intrusion of the Malays into Chinese lives, and the urge my mother felt to leave the country of her birth.
My mother believes that Singaporean born Chinese shopkeepers are misers and bitter; that old Caucasian Australians are racist and prejudiced; that Malays are insincere and dirty.
My mother has her prejudices, of course she does. I have mine, too.
As I said, my mother is Chinese. My father is Caucasian-Australian. When I fill in forms, I check the boxes marked Chinese and Caucasian based on the purpose of the form; every time, my pen hovers over language spoken at home, and I am torn. When I was ten, I realised that not everyone ate rice two or three meals a day, and it stunned me. I have been verbally abused in regards my race exactly once: I was thirteen, and he was a dumb shit at my high school. I was yelled at by an old Chinese dude when I was parking my car at my mechanic's; my mechanic's office manager was so affronted on my behalf: those things he said were terrible, she said, and him your relative! She meant it in the kindest way, I know she did, but the old man was Chinese, and so am I, and in her mind clearly we are relatives.
When I turn on the television, I see people with white/pink skin; when I read books, they are books about white/pink people. Now that I am grown, I make a conscious effort to read books by Chinese people, books about Chinese people, and I consciously look out for children's books, in English, about Chinese children, for my own (who do not yet exist). My thesis at university was on immigration from China and the Overseas Chinese; my pet topic, the thing that can get me talking and about which I may never stop, is the Chinese Diaspora.
A couple of weeks ago I asked for characters of Chinese descent. Every comment I got filled me with such glee, such intense, awesome glee, because I got referred to all these texts with awesome Chinese characters in them, characters I could maybe relate to.
All of these things are to explain why, though I pick my favourite characters based on their actions and their words, I will make a special effort to learn about them if they are Chinese.
The prejudices of my mother and my father curl through my gut and through my heart and sometimes, I don't even notice them informing my decisions. But as Ciderpress says in the post to which I linked, it's often not a conscious choice, and it doesn't mean you can't be a good person.
I was going to list my own prejudices here, but then I realised that they are mine, and they're not things of which I'm proud, so I won't. It's enough that I know them, and that I am ashamed of them, and that I try to change them.
In conclusion, I'd like to reiterate that I think people should read Ciderpress' post, if nothing else, even if you've naught to do with it. Because you're a person, and you're prejudiced, whether you think you are or not. And all I'm asking is that you think about your prejudices, and how they affect the rest of us. Because some of us don't get a chance to not care, or be just like every one else; some of us have no choice.
Of course, sometimes I emphasise the difference myself, the decorations in my window at New Year and nattering away in Mandarin or Malay, and the little shiver of delight I feel when I hear strangers walking past speaking in Mandarin or Malay is indescribable.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-31 12:41 pm (UTC)(A brief history in brackets - My family tree is Chinese/Irish/German and I've always been fascinated with my Chinese heritage on my dad's side. There is such a fascinating story on that lineage and the town I currently live in is where that family history springs from... Bendigo has a huge investment on the history of Chinese settlers during the goldrush and my ancestors are IN the special Chinese museum that was built here. The Lougoon's have standing in the Chinese community.
But the thing is... I look white, I take after the Irish/German side. So I have this fascination/obsession/investment but there's also this disconnection cause fuck it i'm so pale that I could glow in the dark. I'm a couple of generations removed. It's weird.)
Anyway. That adds nothing but I wanted to share, cause I find the topic of asianess etc so interesting.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-01 12:47 am (UTC)Your comment about the goldrush settlers in Bendigo made me make the silliest connection: I've started reading this series, the Phrynne Fisher mysteries, and they're set primarily in Melbourne in the 1920s but the most recent one I read traced a Chinese family's history in a goldmining town, and it was fascinating. She's done so much research, and it's pretty cool.
I can pass, sometimes (it depends on the situation), and that's a weird feeling, too, because inside myself I'm so Chinese, thanks to how I was raised and my family life, that's just how I see myself, but on the outside sometimes people don't know, and it's the weirdest disconnect. So it's similar, yes.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-31 01:04 pm (UTC)Thank you.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-01 12:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-01 06:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-31 05:51 pm (UTC)I just think that this particular ordeal started for the wrong reasons, and while there has been some worthy discussion as a result, the overwhelming reaction has ridiculously non-productive and horrible. It's exploded in such a way that it's not making anything better, or making people who could benefit from the discussion actually do so. People in fandom are doing what they always do - using discussions like this for purely selfish reasons, twisted it around so they can defriend people or friend people, and it's all just gross.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-01 12:37 am (UTC)And it's totally become twisted and selfish, and ugh. Sometimes fandom is such an ugly place.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-01 04:00 pm (UTC)Yeah, me too. I give her kudos, and am so glad to see so many others voice this as well, for staying so calm, cool and collected while the argument got out of hand.
I can kind of see why people are now saying they can't write COC. It seems to me the original author had no evil intentions and then got slammed. Would other writers want the kind of wank to explode in the comments of their story? Plus there are so many differnt perspectives, and good intentions gone wrong, that even if an author thinks they thought things through and they know what to do, someone could still read it a different way and be bothered by the fic.
I think a lot of good has come out of the discussion, especially when people like
I agree that there is nothing wrong with asking people to just think about things a bit before they write. But there are so many different people in fandom, that have so many different hot issue buttons, that a truly conscience writer might get frustrated with trying not to offend anyone and end up not writing anything.
It's one of these issues that I don't know what the 'fix' is or even if there is a fix. Posts like the one you recommended is a good start. But I also like the 'if you don't like it just stop reading' approach. I'm not saying that if something offends someone they must just stay quiet. And I think everyone agrees that exploding in the comments like what happened in the barista story is really unacceptable.
Every now and then I find something distasteful in fics, and I talk about it (usually in a locked post) on my LJ. I know that is not really a mature way of handling things either, but it's my way of venting things without starting a crusade in a public forum.
Bah...I should stop before my ramblings really get out of hand. Thanks for the link - it was more food for thought.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-03-31 06:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-01 12:34 am (UTC)Will you tell me why?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-01 12:38 am (UTC)Yes, but I'll feel a wee bit... silly? ridiculous? uncomfy? Something.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-01 12:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-11 09:44 am (UTC)And then someone referred to you as "Pen" and I thought "OMG I've been Perthed"
So, if you're who I think you are, hello, small internet! If not, hello also. Nice post :)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-11 12:40 pm (UTC)And yes, you've been perthed via the internets. Obviously. I would have thought the wobbling on about the chinese diaspora would have given me away. :oP
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-12 03:05 pm (UTC)You aren't the only australian interested in both fanfic and chinese history on the internet, you're not even the only one on my friends list :) (though admittedly