Things we don't see (at Swancon)

So I've been thinking about cons, and con panels, and at the same time I've been thinking about racism and sexism and... stuff, and I have some vague thoughts about the way "minority" (which may not actually be in the physical minority) opinions and perspectives get ignored. Unsurprisingly, these are illustrated in particular by the panel I did on Race in SFF, but I'm planning on going into that in a separate post (the combined post got too long and rambly even for me)
( Read more... )

On being a nice white lady

So. I really, really don't like racism. I get very upset when people around me say or do (to my mind) racist things. I've recently decided that I'm sick of feeling vague and powerless about the whole thing and am going to see what I can do to fight against racism in the society around me, specifically local fandom since that's my real social home. I decided about a year ago to start the ball rolling by doing a panel on depictions of race in sff (since it's a really interesting and important topic, and not something I'd seen much discussed), this post is a vague meander on how that turned out, and is a follow on from my previous post about the general way certain POVs get under-represented at Swancons. I've kind of discussed it with stephiepenguin but she and dabear (my co-panelists) may still have very different perspectives on the whole thing.
( Read more... )