Race in Speculative Fiction

This isn't a new problem in urban fantasy, regular fantasy, horror, or science fiction. It's been griped about repeatedly for several decades now.
Here's my take on the problem:
Ask anyone who's attended science fiction con's since the 1970's (like me for instance) what were the racial makeups of the attendees of these cons and pretty much everyone in the South will tell you that they were largely white. (Since I never attended a con outside of the South until just a few years ago, I can't speak for cons outside the South.)
The racial makeup of the writers that came to these cons was largely white as well. (Robert Aspirin was the ONLY SCFI writer I knew of back then who wasn't lily white. Everyone who met him enjoyed his company and he was a fixture on the southern con circuit for a long while.) As far as I know, no one planned it that way. Con committees tend to invite writers to be guests at their cons based on how well they've enjoyed reading their books and not by their appearances. Had someone showed up with horns and a tail we'd have gamely dealt with it much less someone of color. One thing you have to remember is that before the mid 90's most of us fans had NO IDEA what our favorite writers looked like unless the publisher chose to include a picture of the writer in their books (usually on the book jacket) or there was an interview in a newspaper or magazine that included a picture.
So why? About the only reason I know of that might have caused this is that the people who cared enough to go to cons happened to be mostly white. As for the writers, apparently the fantasy and science fiction fields just didn't attract writers of color for the most part in previous decades. (I don't know how many may have entered it in say the past 15 years since I stopped attending cons that often.)
Even so, there have always been and still are a great many writers in the field that no one knows anything about--including what race they happen to be.

So what's stopped the white writers of fantasy and science fiction from using characters of color in their creations?
Not much but there has been the occasional fuss made about white writers deliberately applying "color" to some of their characters. Apparently the idea is that you can't make a character of color believable unless you yourself are a person of color. Guess what happens after word of THAT gets around amongst writers? I guess it's no small wonder then that only the most determined of white writers use characters of color in their work these days.

As someone who's pure enough of blood to come equipped with a stinger, let me say this: All I want to do is read quality fiction that entertains me and entices me to reread it again and again. The same thing goes for movies. They must entertain me and if those movies also provide me with food for thought, so much the better because that means I'll insist on going out and buying a copy of it. Race and its presence or absence from the content, just doesn't figure into my book or movie buying at all.

Then again, there's another question that comes to mind: Are we supposed to count elves, fairies, dwarves, goblins, giants, halflings and etc. as whites or do they count as different races of people too?
----Thanks for the link to the essay. Definitely serious food for thought.
:)

"There have been some excellent advances in science fiction, and there's a whole subgenre of fantasy called sword & soul, based on African themes. I think that's awesome because I like the diversity and the different story motifs."

Like I said earlier, if the stuff is good, I'll read it. I give every new writer I come across at least one try.
Diversity is always good. People tend to forget it hasn't been that long ago that women were the ones having to struggle to get in the publisher's door.
:)

"Not to mention that I made evil white demons because somebody said that wouldn't make any sense. Oh yeah, watch me."
Bravo!
:D