boost: Open Letter to Cons From the Indians No Longer in the Background of a John Wayne Movie

[jesse_the_k]

Just a few words from a GREAT article by Stephen Graham Jones, a writer in horror, fantasy and the really wobbly genre that is non fiction. He speaks from participating in one too many panels where the focus is on speakers' identity instead of their art.

Open Letter to Cons From the Indians No Longer in the Background of a John Wayne Movie

by Stephen Graham Jones

We’re Here to Talk Books and Writers, not representation and diversity. So, if you can resist that urge to put us all on the same panel to talk about “The West” (we’re not all from the West…) or “The American Myth” (myth being what the big religion calls the little religion), that doesn’t mean that the big change sorter has to deposit us on the representation and diversity panels. And, anyway? Listen to the Q&A of most of those panels. The subtext is always a request to validate parking, to give some sort of tacit permission for people to cosplay as us for a story or two. Never mind that none of us are authorized to give that particular permission. What to pay more attention to is that that’s asking us to cut out construction-paper feathers for people to wear home from school, because being Indian is fun, harmless dress-up—it’s a way of honoring us, really. Or, you know: “honoring” us.

https://www.tor.com/2021/05/19/open-letter-to-cons-from-the-indians-no-longer-in-the-background-of-a-john-wayne-movie

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

I can see this happening in a lot of ways alright.

[jesse_the_k]

Yep. SGJ captures the particular annoyances at the intersection of US white folks who think their culture is "neutral" and Indians. AND he's describing a waste of time and effort common to a variety of people outside the white default.

karnythia came up with a great reframe at WisCon with "Not Another Fucking Race Panel" where topics are chosen from a spinning wheel of questions and the more laughter the better. (A couple years later I served on a similarly skewed "A Very Special Disability Panel," memorably moderated by sparkymonster.)

[yourlibrarian]

What a great idea that is!

[muccamukk]

This is depressingly similar to a letter Octavia Butler wrote like 30 years ago.

[alias_sqbr]

Thanks for this!