In the wake of the Fuck You Jim Butcher post a lot of the “It’s fantasy, don’t get offended” rhetoric is circulating again. Nothing new, but I’m a little perplexed by the argument that using real racial slurs (like Injun or Tar Baby) for fictional characters means that those real slurs are somehow neutered. That using real cities as backdrops and rewriting them to erase millions of people of color doesn’t mean anything…because it’s fiction. That including real sexist tropes & real rape culture is somehow a-okay because…it’s fiction. Fiction that is built on real racism, real sexism, & real classism is likely to be real offensive.
No one is saying that authors must write books that please everyone. That’s impossible. Fiction is supposed to be an escape for readers, (that is especially true of genre fiction) and when you use real social issues in your work you need to be aware of that fact. After all when your idea of an escape is a world where those social issues are present and often unaddressed or poorly handled? That says something about you. Don’t like what people think it says or that they’re angry when they discuss it? Might be time to examine your work and yourself a little more closely. Among other things, ask why your fiction needs to be rooted in real ‘isms. And just what are you & your readers trying to escape?
Fantasy, Reality, & ‘Ism’s -- Originally posted at The Angry Black Woman
They’re wrong about there not being a black character of any kind. Sanya (The knight of the cross) and Martha Liberty (White Council), John Stallings(Cop) all are. The races of a bunch of other characters aren’t ever mentioned or even alluded to. I have no idea what race Georgia and Will are, for example.
The character Injun Joe amused me to a ridiculous degree, but I’m also a NA named Joseph that has all sorts of weird pets, including a raccoon. So that’s probably why.
I don’t like the “It’s fantasy!” defense either. I’ve never been to Chicago, but I had wondered why a city that was 38% African American had exactly one African American character that was from that city. (Stallings – Martha Liberty isn’t from Chicago, and Sanya is from Russia).
If you want to see some truly godawful racist fantasy, give Monster Hunters International a shot. (Don’t.) The guy makes a character a hispanic woman apparently for the sole purpose of griping about liberals being the real racists that are keeping minorities down by coddling them. After all, it isn’t racist when a white guy uses a non-white character to copy and paste his racist rants into, amirite? He manages to fit absurd amounts of racism, classism, and sexism into one book.