Racism Is Everywhere, Even In Fan Fiction Communities

When I come home from work every day, I have the same routine when it comes to my computer time. I check my email, then I check the forum for a writing site I publish my work on. The forum and I have a love/hate relationship most of the time; sometimes it's exhilarating to converse with other writers, and then at times I want to bash my head against the wall over some of the less-than-stellar posts and posters simultaneously. This is also a writing site for people who may not take their work as seriously as I do, so very rarely do I ever see posts that are...well... intellectually stimulating and dealing with the kind of topics that I read about and write about on here.

So imagine my surprise, and my eventual disappointment, when a thread of this nature popped up, and people were just spouting some of the most ignorant shit I've ever read in my life.

Another member of the forum made a thread with the intentions of honoring the first anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings. I had no intentions on posting in the thread, but I didn't see a problem with it as a whole. And then another member came in, and made a post that I knew was going to be thought-provoking, but unfortunately, I also knew that it was going to be taken in the wrong context.

She pointed out the hypocrisy of the majority of Americans mourning a tragedy that happened within their borders, yet completely ignoring the horrors and violence happening in other parts of the world. Unfortunately, she didn't word this in the most non confrontational way; I believe her exact words were, "I'm so sick of people only caring about rich white kids getting killed when other people are suffering."

Sometimes, I really, really hate being right.

As far as my own position goes, I agree with her. It's mind-boggling, how people in the United States have no idea what's happening in the rest of the world. Too many people have no idea what Darfur means. Too many people don't realize that racism and classism still exists, and too many people have already forgotten about the horrors of New Orleans, which is STILL happening to this day.

However, I knew that as soon as she used the label "rich white kids" that it was going to start a shit storm. Because I'll be frank here; the forum is full of white women, ranging anywhere from the age of 14 (YEAH, I KNOW) to their 40's. There are a few women of color, including the member who made the initial observation. And if there's anything I've realized in the past few weeks, it's that white people, even women, get really fucking offended when they're called out on their shit.

So cue the angry, ignorant posts. I was extremely saddened to see so many posts declaring that it is not the United States' job to "police the world." Quite frankly, it turned into a mess, with people attacking others, and most frightening of all, the observation that people only care about tragedies when it involves white people went completely, utterly ignored.

And it was as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped on my head as I suddenly realized; oh my God. I'm watching racism happen right before my very eyes.

The thing is, I AM one of those middle-class white women. Lately, I've been trying to examine my own privilege, take a better look at my own reactions to the things that women of color are trying to point out. I'm certainly not perfect, and in the past, I've felt very uncomfortable, even offended by women of color pointing out that I do indeed benefit from privilege. As a feminist, it was quite alarming for it to be brought to my attention that I do benefit from white privilege. After all, I'm very aware of the privilege that men continue to enjoy and outright abuse; how could I possibly be doing the exact same thing?

Thankfully, reading the blogs of women of color have managed to give me the courage to open my eyes, and really look at myself. All the business with brownfemipower lately has been the primary factor in opening a door to thoughts that I had never previously had before. It's made me realize that even if we do not have intentions to do so, white feminists ARE silencing women of color, trivializing their experiences, ignoring their words of wisdom, and even worse, taking those words and spinning them around. And if FEMINISTS, people who are generally committed to equality on all playing levels, are doing this, then it's happening even MORE in the rest of society.

And to see it in a place that I frequent for fun and practice with my fiction work was not just alarming; it was downright frightening.

After much contemplating and consideration, I finally made a post in the thread, defending the member's position as best as I could. I pointed out the fact that people have no fucking clue what's going on outside of the white world, how ignoring the member's position is essentially an act of racism, even if that was not the original intention of the people responding to her post. How it is our duty to step outside of ourselves, check our privilege at the door, and really LISTEN to the experiences of others that, as a white woman, I will probably never experience for myself first hand.

My post was generally well-received, and in turn, I decided to make a new thread, dedicated to posting links to news articles that a lot of these women and girls ordinarily would not hear about on TV, or read about in their local newspapers. Whether or not it flourishes remains to be seen. I hope it does, and I'll do my best to try and keep the thread alive, but considering the nature of the forum, and of the members, it's going to be a difficult task. But I'm committed to it.

Even though I know that this is only one small thing I can do to try and educate others who may not necessarily want that education, it's still something at least. It's more than what I would have done years ago, and although I don't believe that I deserve recognition, praise, or a fucking medal for doing this...it still feels good to know that at least I'm trying.

One step at a time. That's all I, and the rest of us, can really do.