Coals and Pearls: On The Importance of 'Getting It'
It took me a while to write this post, mostly because my first reaction to Save the Pearls (and the blackface video promoting it) was utter shock. There are so, so many things wrong with the premise, and some excellent writers and bloggers have already done a good job of pointing out what they are. To recap: Recycled racial slurs? Yupp. Black people as beast metaphor? Check. Save the beautiful white woman from the oppression of black men? CHECK. White-privilege held up as some happy past which the main character longs for, and white extinction being a horrible nightmare dystopia? CHECK AND YIKES. Looking at Foyt's 'insights' on race in America is not recommended.
In the interests of actually adding to this discussion, I'd like to talk about the importance of 'getting it'. That is, when one wants to write message fiction-- which, in my opinion, all fiction is to some degree-- it is important to have a through understanding of the topic at hand. Foyt's problem is that she insists upon keeping a 'colour-blind' attitude, actively refusing to explore the past and contemporary intricacies of race relations, and picking up what she had vaguely absorbed from a position of privilege where she could afford to ignore them.
That said, it's not just a problem of privilege creating a bubble of oblivion. We all have a degree of myopia about our own experiences and perceptions. This means research. Not just gathering facts, but understanding what the facts mean to people's lives. For example, Ursula LeGuin's Four Ways to Forgiveness posits a planet far from Earth in which a dark-skinned equatorial people conquered the light-skinned people of the north. The stories occur after this world's civil rights movement. The situation is handled beautifully-- LeGuin explores how ingrained systems of racism eat away at character's self-image, taint every interaction, and shape the history of the world. People are racist not because they're stupid meanieheads, but because they have been taught from birth that they are superior.
Furthermore, in message fiction, complexity is your friend. You should really look into not only why a particular problem exists in our society (and your fictional society), but it's many manifestations, it's contradictions, the ways it has shaped society as well as reflecting it. Supplying easy answers isn't possible, and isn't your goal as an author. It's to open discussion, to challenge established patterns of thinking, and allow opportunities for reflection.
In the interests of actually adding to this discussion, I'd like to talk about the importance of 'getting it'. That is, when one wants to write message fiction-- which, in my opinion, all fiction is to some degree-- it is important to have a through understanding of the topic at hand. Foyt's problem is that she insists upon keeping a 'colour-blind' attitude, actively refusing to explore the past and contemporary intricacies of race relations, and picking up what she had vaguely absorbed from a position of privilege where she could afford to ignore them.
That said, it's not just a problem of privilege creating a bubble of oblivion. We all have a degree of myopia about our own experiences and perceptions. This means research. Not just gathering facts, but understanding what the facts mean to people's lives. For example, Ursula LeGuin's Four Ways to Forgiveness posits a planet far from Earth in which a dark-skinned equatorial people conquered the light-skinned people of the north. The stories occur after this world's civil rights movement. The situation is handled beautifully-- LeGuin explores how ingrained systems of racism eat away at character's self-image, taint every interaction, and shape the history of the world. People are racist not because they're stupid meanieheads, but because they have been taught from birth that they are superior.
Furthermore, in message fiction, complexity is your friend. You should really look into not only why a particular problem exists in our society (and your fictional society), but it's many manifestations, it's contradictions, the ways it has shaped society as well as reflecting it. Supplying easy answers isn't possible, and isn't your goal as an author. It's to open discussion, to challenge established patterns of thinking, and allow opportunities for reflection.
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