Look, without our stories, without the true nature and reality of who we are as People of Color, nothing about fanboy or fangirl culture would make sense. What I mean by that is: if it wasn’t for race, X-Men doesn’t make sense. If it wasn’t for the history of breeding human beings in the New World through chattel slavery, Dune doesn’t make sense. If it wasn’t for the history of colonialism and imperialism, Star Wars doesn’t make sense. If it wasn’t for the extermination of so many Indigenous First Nations, most of what we call science fiction’s contact stories doesn’t make sense. Without us as the secret sauce, none of this works, and it is about time that we understood that we are the Force that holds the Star Wars universe together. We’re the Prime Directive that makes Star Trek possible, yeah. In the Green Lantern Corps, we are the oath. We are all of these things—erased, and yet without us—we are essential.
Junot Díaz, “The Junot Díaz Episode“ (18 November 2013) on Fan Bros, a podcast “for geek culture via people of colors” (via kynodontas)
Let em know dad.
(via kenobi-wan-obi)
I think the next time someone gets confused as to possibly why people were hoping Katniss would be portrayed as nonwhite, this quote above is why.
(via thelouringlady)
Excellent points.
In a way, narratives of the struggle of people of color whitewashed into science fiction so they are easily digestible for suburban white people (e.g. me) is the ultimate appropriation (at least in the realm of pop culture/fiction.) All of the struggle, none of the history.
These narratives are compelling and often well told in sci-fi, so I don’t find it surprising or that problematic that more privilege people find themselves in them – that’s what a great* story does. But seen through this lens it is really problematic, as commenters above also point out, when the more privileged parts of the "fandom” then accept only the whitewashed version, and exclude the reading of people of color.
*great as in well-made, compelling, not as in happy, good for the people in the story/history. I’m also sure that I’m not the first person to make these comments.
Thoughts?