Well, half of this is in how you define "historically oppressed or disadvantaged". I know I don't count to an American because of skin colour -- actually I didn't know that before this debate. "Historical oppression and disadvantage" in Britain would count my grandmother being beaten in school in Wales for speaking Welsh when she couldn't speak any other language, and certainly all Jewish people who left Europe in the thirties would be assumed to have been historically oppressed and disadvantaged. Not that this is the point.
If the issue is "how it sucks to have a different colour skin in the US" then obviously my personal experience is irrelevant. If it's "cultural appropriation in SF and fantasy" then I don't see that issue as limited in that way.
Of course, part of the problem in the wider meta-conversation may be that some people think the conversation is about racism in the US and others think it's about cultural appropriation in SF and fantasy. This is clearly a problem especially for those of us outside the US.
I was thinking how different this was from when roadnotes said that someone spat on her in the bank because she was black. Then the reaction was essentially "OMG! The bastard! You poor thing!" with a side of "I didn't realise things were still so bad!" -- "Oh yes they are!". Because there the conversation was one person reporting a personal experience, and I don't think anyone had the slightest urge to say "That's just like the time my bank clerk didn't give me the right change" or whatever, because it obviously wasn't.
But this conversation started in a different place. That's certainly why I felt I had something to contribute.
Well, it has certainly enhanced my understanding of US culture.
(Samuel Delany said in an interview on Slate that he expected in the future people would think the problem of gender and race were as silly as we think the problem of demonic possession.)
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Date: 2006-06-05 12:45 pm (UTC)If the issue is "how it sucks to have a different colour skin in the US" then obviously my personal experience is irrelevant. If it's "cultural appropriation in SF and fantasy" then I don't see that issue as limited in that way.
Of course, part of the problem in the wider meta-conversation may be that some people think the conversation is about racism in the US and others think it's about cultural appropriation in SF and fantasy. This is clearly a problem especially for those of us outside the US.
I was thinking how different this was from when
But this conversation started in a different place. That's certainly why I felt I had something to contribute.
Well, it has certainly enhanced my understanding of US culture.
(Samuel Delany said in an interview on Slate that he expected in the future people would think the problem of gender and race were as silly as we think the problem of demonic possession.)