but brown people outnumber your by a very long way

Which is what makes comments like @556 amusing; some people think “diversity” means white people making room for everyone else, which on a global scale is kind of the other way around. Convincing humanity at large that diversity is a good thing is long-term cultural protection for white people.

Ann: I’m sorry you had to pull back. =( The hardest thing about being an activist of any kind, I think, is that some people are just short-sighted and obtuse, and those things can’t be fixed. Say some bad words, eat some chocolate, and try not to dwell on the stupid. It seems like, in this recent mess at least, for every troll and asshat, there are two people getting their eyes opened, even a little bit. I, personally, find that very encouraging. Progress happens at the pace of evolution. Every generation gets it just a little less wrong.

And Bruce? Hug?

Good on all of y’all still trying.

And thank you for the good wishes. We very much are all in this together.

I just wanted to make sure you realise I am *white*. I’m a fumbling would-be ally, on the same road of discovery as so many others. So I post and read this material as a learning experience for me, as much as anyone else. If there is any intersectionality, it’s because I’m female, as many of those involved in RaceFail are, and the gender component has not been insignificant. But I’m definitely Whitey McPasty Person. I don’t even have a Cherokee great grand-mother [/sarcasm]

Also different in my case in that nobody was choosing to do it, except in very specific moments. My stuff – losing all ability to control my emotions, constant pain and exhaustion, sporadically losing the ability to make new memories and having old ones muddled or erased, nerve scarring making an ever-lengthening list of learning disabilities – wasn’t the result of anyone’s choice. It makes a huge difference, if anyone reading is wondering. Being targeted is a special kind of awful, that makes everything worse; one of the many horrible things about abuse is that the victim is given so many opportunities to believe they deserve it, and one of the hardest parts of recovery is learning to believe that they don’t.

http://yuki-onna.livejournal.com/450101.html

And that, gentlemen, is the reason this whole issue matters. I’m sure it won’t make *your* lives different or better, but brown people outnumber your by a very long way. Unless the idea of mass misery and disenfranchisement makes your heart sing, then doing something to make SF/F and other genres inclusive, can only be a good thing.

“You seem to make the assumption that we all believe diversity can work. Not all of us do, rendering many concepts like “white privilege” moot.”

This kind of statement is why I can’t engage over here any more. There’s a lot more work to be done here than a simple issue of how to write more non-white characters.

<A href=”url”>linking text</A>

for example,

<a href=”http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/links.html”>w3 how-to</a>

gives

w3 how-to

Preview is definitely your friend in doing these!

Duncan, I’ve noticed that well-written f/sf characters can come in any color, size, shape, gender, orientation, leg count, …, chemistry, and that poorly written ones do, too. Unless they’re wearing a tux, there don’t seem to be many males who are bow-tie wearers, but I read them anyway.

> for ]
< for [

Yeesh. Typist Fail.