Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: determined

My Response to the Racism Ruckus

Last night janetmiles directed my attention to a large fuss about racism, which has boiled all over LiveJournal and beyond. A summary of the instigation and ensuing mayhem is here. I meant to explore the whole situation thoroughly, I really did. But all I could think was, "This is a stupid argument. This is a textbook example of how not to talk about race issues. This is a waste of my time." I just couldn't see any good coming out of it, and substantial harm already has -- feelings hurt, journals closed, and dire threats flung by people who really should have a firmer grip on their professional bearing. So after about ten minutes, I quit reading and went off to do other things.

I woke up with this idea fizzing in my brain. I am a writer, a reviewer, an editor, a teacher. I am going to do something totally different.


For those who need it, here are some basic resources about race issues. I'm taking a turn at "Racism 101" because brown-skinned folks get tired of it.
"Racism - Introduction" (This is the first in an extensive series of essays on race relations, including some matched pro/con pairs.)
Race, Racism, and the Law (from a law school)
"Racism - Getting to Basics" (from a blog about Middle Eastern sociopolitical meltdowns and fallout)
How to Help Stop Racism (from the Stop Hate website)
Teaching Tolerance (extensive resources for parents, teachers, teens, and children)

These are some of my favorite "canon" poets of color:
Alice Walker
Basho
Langston Hughes
Leslie Marmon Silko
Lorna Dee Cervantes
Paula Gunn Allen
Phillis Wheatley
Robert Hayden
Rumi
Zora Neale Hurston

These are some poets of color on Poetry Blog Rankings:
Antonio G. Fernandez
Janeya
Jon Sanders
Jy Obadele
Kamil

These are some of my favorite writers whose ethnic background and experience has influenced their work:
Booker T. Washington
browngirl
Frederick Douglass
Gloria Anzaldua
haikujaguar
John (Fire) Lame Deer
Joy Harjo
Octavia Butler
Sandra Cisneros
Sequoya
Sojourner Truth

These are some talented ethnic artists:
Aaron Douglas
Claude Clark
haikujaguar
Hayao Miyazaki
Katsushika Hokusai
Kevin Red Star
Marcos Pavon Estrada
Ruben Manuel Guerra
therebirthofme
William Barak

Me and You

The anthology Triangulations: Taking Flight contains one of my short stories in which all of the characters have brown skin; "Peacock Hour" takes place in the Whispering Sands desert. newWitch magazine (issue #15) published my short story "Peaches from the Tree of Heaven," which is not about racism, but rather about Chinese and Chinese-American cultures and family planning. Click the "poem" tag in the right sidebar for poetry examples; I've posted a variety of those on this blog. If people wish to discuss how well (or poorly) I presented ethnic characters and concepts, that's welcome as long as it stays civil and you can support your arguments with citations from the text. Quality feedback aids targeting.

If you are a writer or artist of color, and I haven't already listed you, and you would like to present your work to an audience rich in smart sensible people who like literature and artwork -- send me a link. If I get more than a few in replies here, I can pull them into a separate post later.

I disapprove of racism wholeheartedly. I've experienced a few incidents of it directed at me. I did not like it. I would not want to be stuck with it every day. I do not want anyone else to be stuck with it either. Racism is a disgraceful waste of human potential based on an atavistic instinct that is unseemly in sentient beings. This is what the Universe wanted me to do about it today. I've been working on this post for about two hours. This feels like time well spent.
Tags: art, blogging, community, education, fantasy, fiction, networking, paganism, poetry, reading, waterjewel, writing
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  • 49 comments
...go 1 level up... Expand
msminlr

msminlr

February 3 2009, 12:23:53 UTC 12 years ago

Have you ever noticed, that people are only "multiracial" if one of the "races" is African?

Yul Brynner wasn't "multiracial" even though his mom was from Central Asia (Mongolia, istr) and his dad was from Europe (Switzerland, istr).

Lou Diamond Phillips has an ancestry (according to IMDB) that includes Filipino, Chinese, and Cherokee, along with European-derived American, but HE isn't "multiracial".
ysabetwordsmith

Hmm...

ysabetwordsmith

February 3 2009, 16:53:34 UTC 12 years ago

I was going to say no, but the first examples I thought of aren't the same word or culture. "Metis" and "Mestizo" both refer to people of mixed descent, but the main focus there is Native American, where the Spanish-speaking Europeans mixed with locals. They often have some African heritage from slave days, but it wasn't the prime focus of the vocabulary, because the mixing started before that got into action.

Technically, biracial should be a combination of two sources, and multiracial three or more. Most Americans by this point have fairly mixed heritage. *ponder* I've heard "biracial marriage" or "mixed marriage" applied to a variety of situations where one partner is caucasion and the other conspicuously not: African-American, Hispanic, and Asian seem to the be main applications. The term "multiracial" as I've often heard it refers to people who are so mixed that they don't resemble a specific type: they're darker than caucasian, but their hair and eyes and bone structure all come from different backgrounds, so they don't look African or Chinese or Spanish or anything else. Just human.

So I think the use of the word varies by culture, and that might be based on region or class or racial attitude. When I think about it, the media and some other people do use it mainly when black is part of the mix.
msminlr

Re: Hmm...

msminlr

February 3 2009, 23:33:04 UTC 12 years ago

I *was* thinking mostly in terms of media references, especially the current crop in the wake of the election of Pres. Obama.

"Mestizo" definitely has more connotations of the Spanish / Native American mixture, while "Eurasian", which didn't occur to me this morning, tends to be more specifically French or English on the European side, from their colonial empires in that area. France Nuyen leaps to mind.

"Technically, biracial should be a combination of two sources, and multiracial three or more."
By THAT standard, most American Blacks are actually biracial, and a considerable number of them could claim multiraciality by virtue of having one or more Native American ancestors. Particular example: James Earl Jones.

I personally prefer to regard all the noticeable physiotype differences as the result of eddies in the human gene pool, where some group or other achieved isolation long enough for social selection to concentrate the genes for a particular eye shape or density of skin melanin or hair texture. All that is breaking down now, with the modern ease of world travel.
ysabetwordsmith

Re: Hmm...

ysabetwordsmith

February 4 2009, 01:11:23 UTC 12 years ago

>>By THAT standard, most American Blacks are actually biracial, and a considerable number of them could claim multiraciality by virtue of having one or more Native American ancestors. <<

Well, yeah.


>>I personally prefer to regard all the noticeable physiotype differences as the result of eddies in the human gene pool, <<

Same here. Just the other day, I spotted an article about how skin color could change in 100 generations, even without intermarrying with another group.

msminlr

Re: Hmm...

msminlr

February 4 2009, 03:32:31 UTC 12 years ago

I heard something similar on NPR last week.