Fighting the Derail, or Community Announcement
A Livejournal community has been founded in response to RaceFail 2009 that I think needs as much publicity as it can get. (I'd post it to fandom_lounge if not for the topic being so fundamentally Unfunny Business territory.)

It's called fight_derailing, and I'm going to quote from the introductory post:

"During RaceFail 2009, numerous fans have been working very hard to, first, point out that the Fail is unacceptable, and, second, to return to the conversations that the Fail is an attempt to derail: racism in science fiction and fantasy fictional works and in science fiction and fantasy fandoms.

This community is meant to be a place that rounds up the anti-derailing efforts in a central location for the benefit of those who want to continue the conversations about cultural appropriation, racial diversity and multiculturalism in SFF fiction and fandom, racism in ditto, and its intersectionality with other oppressions. It is not meant to displace existing conversations or efforts, but to be a resource that supports them and enables additional discussion and action."

The moderator is starting up a fundraising effort to help fans of color who want to go to Wiscon, but don't have the resources. She's also gathering background information for a similar fundraiser possibly to take place at Anticipation.

Spread the word.

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chikane
2009-03-09 08:16 pm UTC (link)

How about http://www.journalfen.net/community/unfunnybusiness/90615.html?thread=4580087#t4580087

Several replies to julesnoctambule are practically oozing in concentrated failure.

'not getting involved in this' is not saying that 'racism is okay', 'bigotry is okay' or that people 'deserve bigotry because they acted some way'.

I'm as outraged as most people about these 'authors' using scare tactics to silence discussions about racism(because that is all the authors are doing - it's not an argument, they just are trying to scare their opponents into silence), but that in no way justifies attacking people who are not 'supportive enough'.

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funwithrage
2009-03-09 09:45 pm UTC (link)

That said...if you're not getting involved in something, but you nonetheless feel compelled to state publicly, on a post devoted to that thing, that you're not getting involved? You're kind of asking for it.

I mean, if she hadn't said anything, I don't think anyone involved would have made snippy posts about how people in general or julesnoctambule in specific aren't speaking up and how horrible and unsupportive they are because of that. I can't speak for anyone involved, but I don't think they'd have cared. I've been all kinds of Over There during this, mostly because I can't think of a damn thing to say that people haven't said better already, and I haven't gotten any feeling that people expected me to state my thoughts or lack thereof.

And while "So racism is okay, then?" struck me as a little over the top, "I'm totally staying out of this in all ways whatsoever" struck me as *wicked* passive-aggressive.

/thoughts on yaoi

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	veleda_k 2009-03-10 05:32 am UTC (link)
	That said...if you're not getting involved in something, but you nonetheless feel compelled to state publicly, on a post devoted to that thing, that you're not getting involved? You're kind of asking for it. Yes, exactly. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ariadne484 2009-03-10 04:21 pm UTC (link)
	Yes, this. To not be involved just... don't be involved. Making a Statement about why a project isn't worth being involved with is not a neutral act. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	eleutheria 2009-03-09 10:17 pm UTC (link)
	And while "So racism is okay, then?" struck me as a little over the top, "I'm totally staying out of this in all ways whatsoever" struck me as wicked* passive-aggressive.* What funwithrage said. The whole yawning, I can't be arsed to give a fuck kind of attitude is obnoxious in its own right, IMO. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	kittikattie 2009-03-10 12:30 am UTC (link)
	It must be nice to not give a fuck. After this whole mess, I don't think I'm going to be touching 90% of fantasy for a long fucking time. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	damisi 2009-03-10 03:06 pm UTC (link)
	Yes! If you don't care, then why'd you comment? (Reply to this)(Parent)

	sandglass 2009-03-10 09:13 am UTC (link)
	Maybe it was just me, but it really sounded like tachikoma01 was talking about coffeeandink and her supporters, not one person on JF who backed off rather quickly. And anybody who is saying coffeeandink is failing in this is, frankly, failing. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

tachikoma01
2009-03-10 04:58 pm UTC (link)

Nope, that wasn't my intent at all.

My points:
1. I can't blame people for not wanting to follow this thing, because it's so huge and over-arching. That doesn't make them racist.

2. I think that the whole thing with coffeeandink has taken the discussion from "racism in fandom" to "OMG COFFEANDINK WAS OUTED", so people aren't *talking* about racism anymore, just the outing. And that's the problem with talking about racism- people who just want to pretend it isn't there will take any opportunity they can get to change the subject.

3. I've agreed multiple times in other replies that the outing was bastardly, and said I'd do whatever I reasonably *could* to help reverse it. I don't want to just sit around randomly seething in rage though, going "darn those bastards" and shaking my fist at the sky if there's something reasonable I could actually be doing to *help*.

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