Let's talk Privilege

[tanndell]

Two rants in a month?  I'm on a roll.  But I believe that I genuinely have something to say about the recent outrage regarding a certain fic set in Haiti in the spn_j2_bigbang.  Again, it's something that's been intensely discussed and fantastic points about privilege, racism and ignorance have been highlighted, but as a FoC there are responses from the enlightened part of fandom that I just don't understand, and I think they need to be queried.


1) How could they write about Haiti?: Let's look at the larger issue here.  For a writer, any writer, there are no subjects that are sacrosanct.  Not natural disasters, terrorist attacks, racial riots.  Nothing!  If anyone believes that events (current or historical) should be expurgated from the fictional realm, then there are large chunks of narrative that would have to be erased from my personal canon.  The only demand I have from a writer, any writer, is that they should be sensitive to the subject that they are addressing.  'This is the best idea ever' is not the appropriate response to an earthquake that killed thousands of people.  I don't care if that response comes three days after the event or thirty years later.  It is never right!  That is my problem with this fic.  That, and the inherent wtf ignorance of it.  It is unforgivable that Haiti gets reduced to a backdrop and nothing more in this fic.  That's a real place, and they are real people, and no writer worth their salt should use it reductively.  But that's true of all writing.  To say that time-sensitivity puts Haiti out of bounds is ridiculous.  Haiti has a story too.  It deserves to be told as does any other.  What it doesn't deserve is to be told like this. 


2) We should never write about other cultures, because that would be appropriative:  And this is the one that really irks me.  Are all of you, intelligent and aware people, telling me that writing about other cultures is out of bounds?  Because, just no!  The lesson to be learnt from fics like this, and I hope the writer has learnt it, is not to make the same mistakes again.  You are allowed to write about India, and the Middle East and Japan, and Africa.  In fact I'd be delighted if you did it.  I'd be glad to see people putting in time and effort trying to understand my culture as I am trying to understand theirs.  People who see that writing fiction about another country (particularly one that lacks the same privileges of their own) is a much more complex proposition and that they have to be doubly sensitive to it would be welcome .  To completely eschew it is both privileged and escapist.  I've read interesting books about my culture (even though they fail on several counts) written by white men.  I judged them.  But I judged those who critiqued and never even tried a lot more!  Nobody's going to write a perfect work when they have privilege.  When I personally write about class, or genderqueer lifestyles, or disability I am aware at every step that I may be going horribly wrong or being terribly offensive.  But I try!  I try to learn, I try to educate myself, I apologize if I have gone off-kilter, and then I write again.  I expect all writers to do the same.  If I only wrote about what I knew or what I experienced, I wouldn't be writing fiction, I'd be writing a journal.  It would be personal and it would be insular.  As a writer, I have the right to explore other cultures.  I also have the responsibility to try my best to understand them and be sensitive to them.  Please do not let guilt take that right away from you, and don't let privilege take the responsibility away from you.


So to all of you out there, particularly those of you who are struggling with white privilege in the face of this particular fic, the problem is not with the setting, the problem is not even that it assumes a white privilege.  The problem is that it is a display of blatant ignorance and lack of sensitivity.  Write about other cultures, write about other people.  Just try and avoid the obvious pitfalls (and even the less obvious ones).  Just don't stop writing about me because you're white.  I have been erased enough in fan-narrative, to not want to see it happen again.

Comments

[bjjones.livejournal.com]

*applauds*

I think you put a good perspective on the whole thing. It's about learning how to present other cultures not avoiding them. If we only wrote what we know - fiction would pretty boring.

Cause I seriously doubt all those author's out there on the NY best seller list only wrote what they know and in their own culture.

[tanndell.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'm glad my ramble made sense. There are so many fics that I have problems with, but you know what, I'm reading about two white men. Let's not forget that. I don't think trying to broaden the horizon is a bad thing. I just don't think that creating magical black people, or joking about Colombian kids picking coffee beans is the way to go about it.

[ficwriter1966.livejournal.com]

That's beautifully said.

We try. We fail. We learn. And we try again.

[tanndell.livejournal.com]

Yes... Oh my god...Yes. That's exactly it. And refusing to do it is not the answer. Apologizing profusely if you get it wrong, and not making the same mistakes is.

[wrangler.livejournal.com]

All I can say in response to this is that, well, you've given me an awful lot to think about. I can see that my long-held opinions about time-sensitivity and the inaccessibility of other cultures are, well, wrong. I really appreciate what you've written here and also, for coming back to me about it. I hope to comment again when I've digested this post further, but I just wanted to say an initial 'thank you very much' because you've opened my eyes. You're not obligated to do that and, well, it's very much appreciated.

[tanndell.livejournal.com]

You're welcome, and I hope I didn't come off sounding too aggressive. I just find it that in fandom, we argue both cultural erasure and cultural appropriation, and the debates around this fic were beginning to veer alarmingly towards the former. I look forward to hearing what you have to say after thinking about it a bit.

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this, particularly point #2. Certain screaming about cultural appropriation over the last few months has just added to my already problematic paranoia over posting fic (my issue, and not anyone's problem but mine), and what you said here makes sense, as does yesterday's post by muccamukk on DW.

I just wish fandom didn't need such disturbing catalysts to have productive dialogs.

[tanndell.livejournal.com]

Thanks for pointing me to muccamukk's post and thanks for commenting. I don't think there's anything being called out for cultural appropriation. But putting a gag order on another author, or yourself for writing about another culture is ridiculous. Hope my little ramble helped.
Unfortunately... productive dialog only comes out of disturbing catalusts.. both in fandom and in RL. But it's better than not happening at all.

[smidirini.livejournal.com]

I came here from niennah's journal. Thanks for this perspective on things.

I hope you don't mind if I link to this in my journal?

[tanndell.livejournal.com]

Hey you're welcome and thanks for commenting. Please feel free to link. I'd be very flattered.

[kaydeefalls.livejournal.com]

Very well said -- this is exactly what's been bothering me about the reactions to the (clearly extremely problematic) fic. Thank you for putting it into words so effectively.

[tanndell.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for commenting and getting the point. The fic is problematic, hugely so, but let's focus on why it's problematic and not get derailed into ignoring cultures so that cultural appropriation cannot happen.

[littlemousling]

I really like how you've expanded on this part of the discussion, and I dropped a link to your post in AmazonZiti's comments, here, since she's collecting; hope that's OK!

Also, on a slight tangent, I thought you might like this, if you haven't come across it before; a big fic challenge is one way to encourage people to try, eh?

[tanndell.livejournal.com]

Thank you, and that's absolutely okay. I am very flattered.
And hmmm... I hadn't seen that before, but yes! That's a fascinating idea, and I am interested in seeing the fics produced by it. "With some acknowledgment of how the racial difference would make a difference to the story being told." That's the key! Good start, fandom!

[ladyk-d-azrael.livejournal.com]

Goodness me Supernatural fandom, what have you been up to?

Ok, so I don't know the exact context here, but I have something tangentially related – the other day I was on fandom secrets and someone was using their macro to bitch about how they hate slash because it's 'exploitative and appropriative'.

First of all, 'exploitative'? How exactly does one exploit fictional characters?

'No,' begged Harry, his green eyes filling with unshed tears, 'please don't make me do THAT with Drco Malfoy.'

'Silence!' snapped the writer, 'you'll do it and you'll like it, because I'M writing this dialogue MOHAHAHA!'

Also, the word 'appropriative' is being bandied about more and more, it seems to me. I have news for you, my little oh-so PC darlinks, everything about the act of writing is 'appropriative'. You observe life and then you recycle it for fiction, that's how it works. And as you say, if we're all only 'allowed' to write about our own races, sexualities, genders... that means I have to write only about white pudgy bisexual academics. Not enough there to make a novel... except a very surreal and self-indulgent one.

Also, this 'appropriation' business assumes if you identify as something (in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality) then you own it in some way and are entitled to speak for other people in those brackets. That's clearly bollocks. Gay authors don't always write good or convincing gay characters, for instance (*koff koff* Sarah Waters!) – it's a question of talent, empathy and observation, not what group the writer comes from.

[tanndell.livejournal.com]

Supernatural fandom is a place of much chaos. To cut a long story short, someone wrote a fic set in Haiti with a white doctor and his magical black sidekick (that's the summary, I am quoting) driving around trying to fix the problems of the survivors, and the big giant love story between the doctor and a photographer.

For some of the choicest quotes go here http://bossymarmalade.dreamwidth.org/502091.html

This line is just an example of the Race!Fail:
- Abraham (Trusty Haitian Sidekick) watched the cab turn into traffic, then turned to grin at Jared. “Jensen say I bad driver,” he said. “But American drivers crazy.”
Jared laughed. “He wasn’t American, Abraham,” he said, grinning back

But to come back to your point and mine, while I would love to read about the adventures of your pudgy white bisexual academic...That's exactly what I am arguing. For fucks sake I live in a country that has 7 religions, 36 languages, 90 odd dialects and at least 5 different ethnicities. Are you telling me I can't even write about my own country because I may be appropriating their culture? Where do you draw the line?

[ladyk-d-azrael.livejournal.com]

Also, you can't have it both ways - the semi-recent campaign of sci-fi fans saying 'more visibility for PoC characters, please' is case in point. If you want diversity in your stories then you have to put up with people trying to write outside their own race. Not to say that that doesn't often lead to massive FAIL in the wrong hands.

... And actually, having read as many of the above Haiti!fic quotes as I could bear, let me say that I am fervently hoping it's a troll, otherwise someone needs a crash course in post-colonial studies, STAT!

[tanndell.livejournal.com]

Exactly, don't appropriate my culture, but don't ignore it either... and I think that goes for all minorities. No, I don't think only people of colour should write the narratives. Seriously, let's have some more ghetto-ization shall we?

[ladyk-d-azrael.livejournal.com]

Back to your ghetto, back I say! 'A little fire will show these natives who's boss...'

(Now imagine me in a pith helmet.)

[tanndell.livejournal.com]

I see your sneaky ways to make me admit to some kind of non-existent sub-ness. I shall not do so.

[ladyk-d-azrael.livejournal.com]

Ha ha ha! Well played, young lady. Well played. BTW, me and Hanna were having a convo in Foster Place the other day which you would have enjoyed. She was saying that her animal rights lit-crit crazies would consider furries 'appropriative' of animal culture, and therefore not cool... so we started coming up with other non-PC fetishes. Nazism, obviously. But what about black and white minstrels? mmm, banjos and boot-polish get me sooooo hot. Raaawrr, I am the mighty whitey, come and stroke my pith helmet... my mighty machete. No, it's not a euphemism – what are you, a pervert?

[muccamukk]

I like your first point. There were a number of fics out there with Americans (and others) processing their feelings about 9/11. I'm in comics fandom, and a lot of canon talked about that too (to varying degrees of effectiveness, Captain America worked pretty well. The one with Doom crying, not so much). If I really, really felt like I needed to write about Haiti, however, I sure as shit wouldn't use it as a backdrop. I'd probably use Jericho Drumm (originally from Haiti, now lives in New Orleans) either as a POV character, or if I didn't feel confident in that level of insight, have a non-Hatian character with him as POV character. In any case, I'd do a hell of a lot more reading about Haiti than I've already done for writing Jericho in other things.

To completely eschew it is both privileged and escapist.

Word. I had a discussion over in my post about how even when one does not write characters of colour in a story, one is still writing them. By leaving CoC out, the author is writing them as not interesting/important enough to be in the story.

But yeah, this story had a lot of issues, it wasn't just about a white author writing characters of colour. It was about an author writing characters of colour really freaking poorly.

[tanndell.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reading and commenting. I appreciated your post so much that I'm glad you took a look at mine. As a comics fan (though not in the comics fandom per se) Jericho Drumm (though his nom-de-plume still icks me slightly) would be an interesting character to examine the Haiti issue through, but I think I could tolerate a fic that used white characters, if it examined it well. Bruce Wayne finding that all the money in the world wasn't good enough to just make the problems go away for example... I don't mind white PoVs, I just have aproblem when they are used to subsume the narrative of the culture that is being explored

[muccamukk]

I liked the post that talked about how this story was essentially White Man's Burden porn. (Possibly In the same way that Left Behind is Rapture porn for Evangelicals).

Well, Doctor Voodoo is vaguely better than Brother Voodoo, I think. Still. I'm currently Very Concerned about him, and am mentally prepping an angry letter. No year is a good year to kill of one's only Haitian character, but this year is worse than most.

[asimaiyat.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this post.

What I always want to tell people, when I see them saying they can't write characters of color, or characters from other cultures than their own, because they're afraid to do it wrong, is to be humble. As in, be aware that you have the potential to screw up, do your best not to, and be aware that you will probably screw up at least a little anyway, but it's not the end of the world if you apologize gracefully and do what's needed to repair any hurt you cause, and learn not to do it again.

It's like driving. You need to be really careful not to run anyone over. It's not that hard not to -- most drivers go their whole lives without running someone over. But you will probably run a red light or rear-end someone at some point, and it won't be a disaster, even if it feels like one at the time.

[winter]

Here from Metafandom, and I appreciate immensely that yous aid it - especially point 2. I've seen far too much of "only people of this culture should be allowed to write this culture", and far too little of people pointing out that this attitude contributes to the problem of "disappearing" minority cultures from the cultural mainstream - after all, most of the cultural mainstream is written by representatives of the majority culture, the simplest reason being because there's more of them. I've gone countless times from picking up a European book set in a far-away locale and culture or a minority culture in Europe to seeking out that culture's books - the textbook example would be going from childhood Kipling stories to books written by Indian writers.

The answer can never be to close our eyes and ignore everyone who is different.

[zorana84.livejournal.com]

lol I realised I pimped but never commented but this is the problem with talking out our posts beforehand hee! I'm still waiting for the fandom to post something about the fabulous race!fail in the episode itself tho..I mean come on IT IS FUCKING GANESH