![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
So I haven't posted anything for "Blog Against Racism" week, because I couldn't think of anything to post. Racism's bad and I'm against it, and I know I don't always recognise it, and beyond that I don't like to say anything, because there's always the risk that I'm being racist[1].
But as an example of how far we have to go, here's something I just read in Ansible:
JUSTINE LARBALESTIER got a traditional whitewash treatment from
Bloomsbury, with the short-haired black protagonist of her novel _Liar_
shown on the cover as long-tressed and white. Er um, said Bloomsbury, the
character's a compulsive liar, might be lying about her appearance, and
(presumably) even deceived the author....
[1] Marcus Brigstocke had a bit on The Now Show last year, which I would quote properly if I could remember it, but which was essentially that there were many different grades of racism: first there were the people who view everyone unjudgementally and have no prejudices, also known as toddlers. Then (I think) there were people who Have A Black Friend. Then there are people who try not to be racist, but get nervous when confronted by groups of people different from them (ISTR Brigstocke himself was in this group). Next come people like the late Jade Goody, Jim Davidson and Prince Philip "They don't have hatred in their hearts, they're just badly educated. Apart from Philip who was quite appallingly educated". And finally there was the actual racists, the BNP and so on.
Even as I write that, I notice Brigstocke is assuming that "people" are white...
But as an example of how far we have to go, here's something I just read in Ansible:
JUSTINE LARBALESTIER got a traditional whitewash treatment from
Bloomsbury, with the short-haired black protagonist of her novel _Liar_
shown on the cover as long-tressed and white. Er um, said Bloomsbury, the
character's a compulsive liar, might be lying about her appearance, and
(presumably) even deceived the author....
[1] Marcus Brigstocke had a bit on The Now Show last year, which I would quote properly if I could remember it, but which was essentially that there were many different grades of racism: first there were the people who view everyone unjudgementally and have no prejudices, also known as toddlers. Then (I think) there were people who Have A Black Friend. Then there are people who try not to be racist, but get nervous when confronted by groups of people different from them (ISTR Brigstocke himself was in this group). Next come people like the late Jade Goody, Jim Davidson and Prince Philip "They don't have hatred in their hearts, they're just badly educated. Apart from Philip who was quite appallingly educated". And finally there was the actual racists, the BNP and so on.
Even as I write that, I notice Brigstocke is assuming that "people" are white...
no subject
no subject
Nobody can keep up with everything. That way lies head-asplodeyness :-)
(I'm still struggling to get my head around the fact that there's going to be a fourth series of Torchwood after all.)