Ursula Le Guin and Earthsea... and Buffy

[katekat]

Wow.  A friend of mine sent me links tonight to the youtube trailer for the Japanese version of Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea books called Gedo Senki.  We were bemoaning the fact that it's not going to show up in the US until 2009 because the SciFi channel (that made one of the CRAPPIEST book to TV adaptations I've ever seen) holds the rights to the U.S. market.  And he sent me links to LeGuin's negative view of both the SciFi Channel miniseries and the Japanese movie (although she hated the Japanese movie less).

At her site I came across an essay titled Shame, by Pam Noles.  Written by a highly intelligent woman of color, it talks about the continued and often seemingly ignored trend in sci-fi and fantasy to write from the white perspective.  It was prompted by the Sci Fi channel's magnificent ability to cast what was a book filled with people of color as all white.  LeGuin actually talked about their "whitewashing" on Slate when the miniseries came out.

I followed other links to find this freaky and sad gem written by Douglas Blaine... and before you go agreeing with his viewpoint (not that I think you will), read Tobias S. Buckell's refutation because every word he says is worth reading, and worth practicing.

Pam mentions Buffy in Shame, and again in her response to the responses.

She says, in the original essay:

Am I the only FoP [Fans of Pigment] forced to develop a veneer of denial in order to function at the gaming tournaments, at the conventions other than the comic book fest in San Diego, or while watching "Buffy" and wondering if The Hollywood People who had ever actually been to Sunnyvale? Because, you know, if they had, there'd be five Asian/Pacific Islanders and at least three Latinos in the background. Am I the only FoP who was reduced to searching the people in the background because the people in the foreground were always a given? Am I the only one to wonder why the Los Angeles of "Angel" looked a lot like the New York City of Woody Allen's films?

There's a fic of tabaqui and reremouse's where Gunn asks where the hell all the people of color are (it's called SNAFU and is Spander if you're so inclined) in Sunnydale, but most of the time I think people in the Buffy 'verse stick within the boundaries set out by Joss.  And maybe that's too bad.

Comments

[psychoadept.livejournal.com]

I know for my part, it's an issue I usually stay far, far away from. The main reason for that is the militant anti-racism atmosphere I experienced at Antioch, which frankly I think was working against its own interests. Like Blaine, I grew up in an all-white community, and my attitude when I went to Antioch was that a black person was person with black skin. I had no idea of the social and cultural issues that went with it. I'm certainly more enlightened now, but I often wish I weren't. Because my first direct experience with the anti-racism movement was to be told, essentially, that because I'm white I am inherently racist and my opinions on racism are invalid, I am in a way more racist than I was before. I'm afraid to talk about racism. I'm always a little nervous around black people (and, yes, it is centered more on blacks than other races), until I know enough to be sure that they're not going to take anything that comes out of my mouth as racist. I'm certainly afraid to try to portray a person of a different race in a meaningful way in writing, and I'm hesitant to include minor characters of other races for fear of being accused of tokenizing them. I hate that this is my feeling on the whole subject, but I freely admit I'm not brave enough to try to act against it on my own.

My larger point, though, is that I think my experience is similar to what's happened in the larger sense. I think Blaine's attitude about not being able to write characters of different races relates to a feeling of exclusion. I think whites, at least those who are aware of the issues involved, have been told so often that we're the bad guys that we feel like we don't even have a right to participate in the debate over racism, that if we attempt to engage in dialogue on the topic we're just treading where we don't belong, and that anything we say about someone of a different race is, by its very nature, subject to criticism.

What LeGuin says about cultural imperialism is part of the problem. Unless we were fortunate enough to grow up in an atmosphere where we regularly confronted the ideas involved, those of us who are conscious of the concept of white privilege are so afraid of unknowingly exercising it that we're paralyzed. We really have experienced a sort of reverse racism. Should we get over it, try to get a better handle on the issues and take them on anyway? Yeah, of course. But when confronted with someone who has judged me without even bothering to get to know me first, my instinct is to run far and fast in the opposite direction. Likewise, I think that's what's happened with this whole issue. Few people have the courage to try to engage an issue in an atmosphere where they feel like their voice doesn't count anyway. I think this problem is going to persist until the larger atmosphere is more one of compassion and discussion than condemnation.

(As a footnote, I know I've made some generalizations here, and I know plenty of individuals who don't fit them. Still, this has been my overall impression.)

[katekat]

Unless we were fortunate enough to grow up in an atmosphere where we regularly confronted the ideas involved, those of us who are conscious of the concept of white privilege are so afraid of unknowingly exercising it that we're paralyzed.

See, this is really why i posted the above - because i didn't grow up in an atmosphere where I regularly confronted ideas of race. And I think the only way to reduce the paralysis you're talking about is to talk about race, remind ourselves what the issues are, and engage again in the conversation. It doesn't have to be all at once, it's not always going to be positive, but the only way to make change, the only way one can change - for me - is to rexamine ideas. To remind myself that there is a racial situation in this state/country/city/school/world that I don't experience in the same way as people of color do. To remove some of my fear by trying to research, informing myself about the problem, and occasionally engaging with rabid people from both perspectives. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the only way to stop the rabid disenfranchising is to become informed of why people felt the need to take away your power in the first place (not that i'm saying you're not aware, because i'm pretty sure you are), but then being able to respond to them that if they want to change the world they have to engage in discussion with more than just people of color - they have to change the minds of those hegemony. Disenfranchising white people isn't the way to do it, and I don't think any of the people I linked to above would maintain that it was.

thank you for commenting btw. you're one of three people on the flist who didn't read that and go "oh hell no, i'm not touching that with a ten foot pole" and i really really really appreciate that.

[psychoadept.livejournal.com]

gotta work. will reply to this later...