Fanblogging WisCon: Why Is This Universe So White?

[The Straight Story]

Fanblogging WisCon: Why Is This Universe So White?

By Annalee Newitz EmailMay 26, 2007 | 9:13:44 PMCategories: Books, Current Affairs, Events, Film, Movies, Political, Television, Weblogs

Thehaitian Today at science fiction convention WisCon, a panel of fans and critics asked why science fiction, fantasy and horror are so damn white. What can fans do to get creators to wake up and realize the world is full of people of color who aren't criminals, aliens, or simple natives?

WisCon is the largest feminist science fiction convention in the United States, held in Madison, Wisconsin every year on Memorial Day weekend. Unlike typical SF cons, WisCon invites fans to do more than gush about their favorite character on Heroes, or complain about Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood. Here, smart geeks tackle the social questions that underlie entertaining stories, asking what kinds of ethics and values are are conveyed along with the bang-pow. Gender roles are a big topic here, but so are racial representations, religion, politics, and even young adult fiction.

On the "Why Is This Universe So White?" panel, Naamen Tilahun said he'd had to stop watching Buffy spinoff Angel because black character Gunn was so outrageously stereotypical. "First, he was this criminal figure, and then he had to be reprogrammed with magic in order to become smart," he said, referring to the way the character had to undergo a brain "upgrade" to become a lawyer in the show's last season. The message seemed to be that black men couldn't be smart unless they received magical intervention.

Audience members commented that white characters are presented as the norm in science fiction, and talked about how dissapointing it is that creators at major studios believe white audiences can't identify with black characters -- even though blacks are asked to identify with white protagonists all the time.

http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2007/05/fanblogging_wis.html

[Mythsaje]

1. Well, as an author myself

I have to say it's difficult, thought not completely impossible, to create a character who comes from a cultural background significantly different from my own. It's not a matter of not believing the readers could identify with the character, but that I couldn't do the character's background justice. All the research in the world cannot allow me to develop the character fully, and I would never wish to half-ass it. That, to me, would be a greater insult, to make the character two-dimensional because of my ignorance and inability to truly understand the sub-culture from which the character comes.

I can take a character with a background that parallels my own, to some extent, and create something of a hybrid, born of one culture yet raised in ours, and work with that, but, again, this does not truly do justice to the idea of multi-culturism within the piece of fiction in question. I will not "fake" it. I just can't bring myself to do so.

There are African-American sci-fi authors--Steven Barnes comes to mind. John Ridley is another. They are able to extrapolate from both their own sub-culture, and the larger surrounding culture of America, with great success, but they have the advantage of having lived in both.

The best I can do, and something I do rather well, in my opinion, is create sub-cultures that do not exist in our world, and deal with the problems of prejudice and fear through these fictional cultures. Vampires, lycanthropes, and other monsters created by a misstep of science, are as human, at their base, as any race of man known today. But they are also very different from the norm, as we understand it, and suffer for those difference in a myriad of ways.

One of the trickiest things about speculative fiction, particularly for me, whose work is often way beyond the realm of normality, is creating suspension of belief in an effective way. This precludes me delving too far into REAL cultures and sub-cultures that I myself do not grok.

I am, of course, speaking strictly for myself. I've considered this a number of times and, while I have characters from many cultures on Earth represented to some extent or another, my prime protagonists are nearly always either born of white North American culture, or born of cultures that have no direct parallel to any we now know.

One of the prime rules, is it not, is to "write what you know."

[The Straight Story]

3. Well written reply

And I agree pretty much - but I can say that I have seen, more so with TV/Movies than print, stereotypes in how other races are displayed.

I don't personally think it is prevalent, but then I have never really studied it :)

I could probably, if I looked enough, find something similar from the other side of the fence; to wit, white characters being portrayed as the bad guy, people with money being evil, people of faith being shown as evil, etc and so on.

The problem, as in sports like hockey for example, is exposure and participation.

Instead of white authors portraying other races to balance out the perception of prejudice perhaps we should find ways to get more people of other races and backgrounds to write (as you so eloquently wrote about above).

But again - I don't think it hurts to have the discussion, especially when we start seeing stereotypes bubbling up and miss a chance to educate and broaden peoples minds.

[Mythsaje]

7. As I am more or less devoid of "faith" myself

I cannot say I treat most of those with such with too much kindness in my works. My fantasy departs from the norm in that I try to de-mystify the mystical, so much as is possible, at least. I lean on metaphysical concepts where strict science does not satisfy, but I do not put much stock in any fashion in religious ideals.

One of my most powerful characters is terribly wealthy, perhaps one of the wealthiest men in human history, but his nemesis, particularly in the business sense, is almost his completely opposite. So it's hard to say if I express wealth as either good or bad in that context. It is a null point--it is the use to which it is put that gives it its moral grade.

I have, at times, considered creating an African-American protagonist, but have realized that it might be difficult for me to work out a decent back story for him or her without erasing everything but his or her skin color as a racial/cultural characteristic. I have included secondary characters of every conceivable race, and many other cultures, but it has been enough to touch upon their backgrounds briefly rather than try to extrapolate things that I cannot truly grasp myself.

In my first series I do have a protagonist that is Egyptian in origin, but her mindset is more or less American, her ancestry and birthplace having very little to do with her development due to the circumstances of her life.

In my second and third series, it might be possible to do otherwise, simply because both are futuristic enough that the prevalent cultures of the here and now aren't relevant, but the stories as they unfolded so far have not turned down that path. In my latest work-in-progress, the thing that sets one of the female protagonists apart is that she's a Normal, an ordinary human in a world where they are the minority. Race, as we know it today is, in many ways, of no consequence in a world where the branches of humanity are set apart by gaps far wider than the color of skin or the former nation from whence the character originated. Her opposite male protagonist, as things go, is half Japanese and half Norwegian, but those things that separate them the most is that she's Normal and he's a vampire, she an Advocate (attorney) and he her client.

The premise, and, frankly, the underlying premise of all my work, is that humanity enfolds all of us, no matter what we are. We are truly together, regardless of our differences, and we'd know this without doubt should we ever encounter something intelligent that was NOT human...whether it proved a threat or not. As we have not yet done so, we focus on differences that are, in the larger scheme of things, so minor as to be ludicrous.

It is possible that we will see that change within our lifetimes, but, of course, it is also conceivable that it will not. Such a thing could never be predicted with any accuracy, despite the belief of those who are certain we have been visited by otherworldly beings.

There is only one "race" in my eyes. The human "race." There are different cultures and sub-cultures, but, when you get right down to it, there are more coming into being all the time. We seem to have some inherent need for such divisions--the more overweaning the dominant culture becomes, the more people seek out ways to separate themselves from it, be it through religious preference, lifestyle choices, or sub-divisions of what might be deemed "pop" culture. Or, for that matter, varying degrees of compatibility with the newest communication technologies. Take the kids who think text-messaging on their cell phones to be some glorious thing. To me, despite the fact I'm fairly comfortable with technological advances, that whole affair looks like a damnable nuisance. Yet a sort of language has sprung up among those who use it regularly, and, as is often the case, a sub-culture of a kind is arising in accordance with that language. One that neither I, nor others of my generation, can understand any better than my father can understand me as I rattle off some basic information about computers and the sub-culture that uses them on a regular basis.

You'll have to forgive me. I just finished listening to one of my favorite books from childhood on audiobook and it has, as always, bent my mind toward the strangely philosophical.

[Solon]

5. In fantasy, this is easier, than even science fiction, however...

The whole, "write what you know" axiom doesn't really apply to either, at least not when it comes to life experiences, most science fiction writers didn't develop nano-technology, or have been in orbit. Some, like Alastair Reynolds, are astronomers, and, in his case, he either leaves his characters raceless, or, since its hundreds of years in the future, and in different solar systems than our own, combines cultures/races, as appropriate for whatever developments he assumes will happen in the future.

Arthur C. Clarke, in 3001, made every character except the protagonist, who was from 2001, if I remember correctly, as dark skinned amalgams of all races on Earth, in other words, they are literally raceless.

As far as real cultures on the planet, as is, for let's say, near future speculative fiction, it can be a little more difficult. There is a danger of having your character stereotyped, if not by you, then by the reader, and there is always the possibility of offending others in a case like this. Then again, with a little imagination and a little sensitivity, it can be relatively easy to create a character that is not like you at all, from either a different race, orientation, or gender.

Another problem, if you can call it that, is that many science fiction writers assume racism/sexism/homophobia in the settings/time periods, they write about doesn't exist anymore. In cases like this, they probably won't even mention the color of the eyes of the protagonist, much less mention race at all. Even the names for such characters can give no clues, simply because, in speculative fiction, any naming constrictions that exist today don't apply anymore.

[Igel]

2. TV shows accommodate their audience.

When the audience is diverse, you have a problem, so you go for what's perceived as the common denominator.

Whites can't identify with black characters, the article said; the implication is that blacks are unfairly asked to identify with white characters. But blacks aren't the second largest part of American society--Latinos, an ethnicity, not a race--is. Can blacks identify with Latinos? Asians?

Now, written sci-fi is a bit different. Many of the characters are raceless. You only suspect they're white because of cultural attributes; but since many Latinos, Asians, and blacks are culturally indistinct (as far as what's needed for the stories I have in mind)--they don't conform to societal expectations as to their cultural attributions--those characters are raceless. But some of the characters are 'raced': The San character in Tad William's 'Otherland' novels, for instance.

I've read a bit of Spanish and French sci-fi, skimmed a little Czech and Polish sci-fi, and have read an indecent amount of Russian sci-fi. You know what? Most of the works reflect the cultural expectations of the writers. A Soviet sci-fi novel might have all good Soviets, all Russians; or it might emphasis the commonality of socialism by having a bunch of different ethnicities working ... all under a Russian commander. Etc., etc. Post-Soviet stuff is little different, but the racial harmony business is usually gone--you may get characters of different races, but they're all good Russian citizens, and their race usually matters (when you're confronted by a Korean folk monster in the Russian woods, it's best to have a Korean character around to explain things to the readers).

[Rex]

4. Debating ad nausea about fantasy and fiction.

Sure, why not.

Here, lemme start - Star Trek is WAY better than Star Wars AND D&D sucks with 3.5 rules.

[Mythsaje]

6. Wrong on both counts...

But that's your business.

[AnnieBW]

8. Consequently, why is fandom so white?

I've been around fandom for a long time, and the only time I've seen a major presence of non-whites was at the big Star Trek cons in Las Vegas. Then again, Star Trek has always gone out of its way to be inclusive. It's one of the things that I like about Trek. However, when it comes to sitting in the "Big Chair", three out of five Trek captains have been white men. Although I loved Angel, I agree that their version of LA was about the whitest I've ever seen. Only one major black character, and not a Latino in sight! :D At least Joss Whedon learned from that and made Firefly multi-cultural - and even had everybody swearing in Chinese.

The only show that I've ever seen that had a black cast was that dreadfully un-PC show "Homeboys In Outer Space". I thought it was a hysterical send-up of sci-fi, just like "Undercover Brother". But the few black fans that I know of thought that it was racist. Of course, you could get away from things altogether, like Farscape did. There, you had blue aliens, gray aliens, ones with tentacles, and all sorts of animatronic characters. The human-looking ones were the only "racist" ones.