Fandom, Conventions, and Race
Over the past two weekends, I’ve been a Guest of Honor at Penguicon and Mo*Con. I had a great time at both, and would like to publicly thank both cons for all of their work, and for making me feel so welcome. Penguicon gave me a pocketwatch! Mo*Con wouldn’t stop feeding me! At both conventions, I got to hang out and talk to amazing people, and I’m grateful to all of the volunteers and attendees who helped me to feel welcome.
But these two cons also drove home something I’ve been noticing. Earlier this year, I was on a panel about inclusion in fandom at a different convention. One of our panelists insisted that fandom had always been welcoming to everyone, adding that she preferred the colorblind approach, welcoming everyone as individuals.
Mary Robinette Kowal beat me to the response by 0.6 seconds. Mary stood up and asked everyone in the audience who was white to raise their hands.
The entire audience raised their hands, with the sole exception of the partner of the panel’s one black panelist–a gentleman who, I believe, had been invited specifically to attend that panel.
That’s what “colorblind” looks like.
Most of the conventions I’ve attended are like this.
Data on race and ethnicity in the U.S. is a little messy, but in 2010, our population was roughly 72% white. So why do so many conventions seem to be between 95% and 99% white? And it’s not just in the midwest that I’ve seen this, either.
Mo*Con was an exception to the rule. There were times this past weekend I wish I could have been colorblind, because in the back of my mind, I kept looking around and wondering, Why can’t more conventions be like this?, and that frustration took away from my ability to just relax and enjoy myself.
We’ve had this conversation before. I don’t believe anyone is deliberately or consciously trying to limit convention participation along racial lines. Nobody’s setting a quota of at least 97% white folks. We’ve seen some conventions beginning to talk about trying to more actively look for nonwhite guests to invite, as opposed to thoughtlessly recycling the generally white status quo.
I’m not saying nobody should ever invite white guests of honor to their conventions. But I don’t think white men should be the default, the automatic choice, when there’s such a broad range of amazing writers contributing to our field.
But that’s just a part of the picture. One of the things I noticed at Mo*Con was a sense of genuine welcomeness. I’m not sure how to describe it. It’s not that I’ve felt unwelcome at other conventions; but Mo*Con had a sense of warmth and inclusiveness and appreciation for everyone that I haven’t experienced at most cons. Some of that might have been the smaller size and the focus on people and connections, but whatever the reason, I want that at every convention.
I want everyone to have that, dammit.
And it’s not enough to just tell the concom to invite more nonwhite guests. The entire convention needs to be a part of creating that inclusiveness. I need to be a part of it, of inviting and welcoming and listening. When conventions promote, where do they focus their outreach? When we come back to the real world and talk about what a great time we had at a con, who do we talk to? Who do we try to invite along to the next one?
Lots of people will protest that they don’t discriminate, and they don’t judge based on color. They’ll argue that they welcome everyone, and they do so in a way that’s fair and non-racist and colorblind. But we’ve seen what “colorblind” tends to create. We end up recreating and reinforcing our preexisting circles, building a convention that might be welcoming to us, but isn’t necessarily welcoming to everyone.
That needs to change. Because dammit, the world is bigger than that. Our genre is bigger. We should be bigger.
—
Related Link: The Carl Brandon Society runs the Con or Bust fundraiser, actively working to help fans of color attend conventions.
fangs for the fantasy
May 7, 2013 @ 10:01 am
I actually don’t understand the surprise about the Whiteness of these conventions. Take a look at texts that are discussed: urban fantasy, steampunk, science fiction, and paranormal romance all have a problem when it comes to racial inclusion, let alone a decent portrayal. When this is the starting point for a conversation, how can one possibly hope to then see a good turnout of people of colour at a convention? The texts itself don’t value us and though we may read them because we like the genre, they certainly aren’t welcoming. It’s like any other form of media that we consume.
Nalini Haynes
May 7, 2013 @ 10:01 am
I suspect the statistics are the evidence of an even deeper problem in fandom at the moment: those attending traditional-style conventions tend to be in particular circles, reaching out to their own if they are reaching out to anyone. I keep hearing and reading about the ‘aging of fandom’ because the younger generation aren’t tending to come to traditional conventions.
My very first SF convention was quite lonely because I attended on my own and only a handful of people spoke to me outside of the panel for which I volunteered. For my second SF convention my husband came too and wanted to hang out in the bar so he could socialise (having enough of brain-stuff from his work week) but we spent most of our time in the bar looking at other people’s backs. I was bored senseless and just wanted to be in panels. A few lovely people spoke to us, once even welcoming us into an impromptu circle that finished with a kind man telling me how I do everything wrong for my fanzine and that he knows how to do it better.
This week I’ve met and invited some fresh faces to the next convention. I’m not sure they’ll come to the convention but some of the group is keen to review for my website. We met at an event to which I was invited as a media person. I don’t think any of that invited group were part of local SFF ‘Fandom’ apart from my husband and I (not even including the rest of my party). I posit that Fandom as a community is not reaching out to others of any colour or creed particularly well.
I’m also doing a professional writing and editing course at a local university where none of the other students appear to have heard of the local or national SFF awards or the SFF conventions.
Nalini Haynes
May 7, 2013 @ 10:13 am
I’ll add a ditto to this post too. I’m an albino. I’m still furious about the ‘Silence of Medair’ getting commended for the Aurealis Awards with special mention of its ‘playful’ dealing with tropes. Seriously? The evil ablino trope has been done to death for decades, so much so it has its own Wikipedia page. Furthermore, as people of colour are (hopefully) no longer stereotyped as villians, lazy writers have turned to albinos and albino-types as a substitute instead of going down the more complicated road of characterization that has diversity including shades of grey within a person as well as across people groups. Villainy should completely disregard colour, sexual orientation, creed etc. In the real world WHAT you are does not dictate your behaviour. Shit, I’m at uni being denied large print by a guy in a wheelchair who is the manager of the Disability Liaison Unit. So even being disabled is no guarantee of not discriminating against other disabled people. I loved Robin Hobb’s recent Dragon books so much because she captured that beautifully: the disabled dragons hated one another because of the mirror being held up.
Writing this reminds me of stories of World War II where privileged people helped potential victims escape gas chambers because it was the right thing to do.
Kudos to all the writers out there making a difference and supporting diversity.
fractal
May 7, 2013 @ 10:22 am
I used to believe the colorblind approach worked, too, but it turns out it’s a bit like Communism. It’s a great idea until you put actual people into the theory.
Roxanne
May 7, 2013 @ 12:07 pm
People who attend conventions tend to start going because their friends are going. Then they invite their other friends. Some hang around, others don’t. Because people tend to have friends from the same ethnic background as themselves, it stays white. There has to be cross-over friendships outside of fandom to pull in any sort of minority. When I started attending cons (dawn of time) it was probably 80% male. I’d say it’s about equal between men and women these days, so there’s hope for change on an ethnic level, too.
If you have any friends of any sort of minority stripe, you need to bring them to cons, and we need to encourage everyone to do the same.
Having said that, twenty years ago we’d have separated out Hispanics and Asians as non-white. They’ve disappeared into the crowd; we only notice the lack of black attendees. So, there is hope for the future.
We need to concentrate on the shared interest in speculative fiction and assume we’re all aliens on some level. 🙂
Jim C. Hines
May 7, 2013 @ 12:14 pm
I won’t speak for anyone else, but I wasn’t lumping Hispanics and Asians into the crowd as “white” as I was thinking about and writing this blog post.
But I do agree with you about the hope, and about the need for friendships and individual-level outreach/awareness.
Susan
May 7, 2013 @ 12:27 pm
Jim, where do you put Hispanic people on your color wheel? Do we count as part of “diversity” or part of “white”?
That game of putting hands up would have made me feel stressed and confused and irritated; am I supposed to go on skin tone or ethnicity? Hand up or not? Hand halfway up?
Sally
May 7, 2013 @ 12:31 pm
I live in the SF (heh) area, so, yeah, along with Roxanne, I was thinking “It’s true we don’t have that many black people, but we’re good on the Asians and not bad on Hispanics.” So it does follow, a bit, your local population. Although, we’re wildly unrepresentative of South Asians, which is odd since all the Indians are in tech.
Sabrina Vourvoulias
May 7, 2013 @ 12:32 pm
I have only been to two SFF cons — Readercon and Arisia — both in the Boston metro area. Both are cons that consciously work for diversity in programming and in representation on panels.
At Readercon I was struck by the fact the only Spanish I heard during the entire weekend was from hotel employees and (spoiled as I am by working in a fully bilingual, majority Latin@ workplace) I felt pretty isolated. I’m sure there were more than the two other Latin@s I knew in attendance, but hunt around as I might, I couldn’t find them. I was also a first-time con attendee, and I think that was part of why I felt so terribly isolated — it is hard to get to know people at a con if you aren’t already part of a clique or if you aren’t a presenter. The people I did get to meet, I met because we were all smokers and chatted with each other as we indulged our vice (vice as equalizer, hmmm, I sense a story in this).
Attendees were far more diverse at Arisia, a product of two things, I suspect: 1) it is a MUCH larger con, and 2) a substantial part of its programming is related to SFF gaming, pop culture, manga/anime/cosplay and music (which may be a bit more diversity-friendly than SFF publishing — more on that later). Plus, there were a great number of panels focused on diversity, representation, etc. (Even one on Latin@ SFF characters in books & movies, yay!). I felt much less isolated and more welcome at Arisia — but I can’t discount that it was because I was at my second con, and was a presenter at panels (which creates a sense of belonging no matter how introverted you happen to be).
When I compare these cons to the Latinos in Social Media (LATISM) conference I attend annually — which felt warm and welcoming to me from the first time I attended — the most salient difference is the number of food- & conviviality-centered events that are open to everyone each day of the conference. César Chavez had it right: If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house and eat with them… the people who give you their food give you their heart. Yes, it adds a lot to con expenses to feed people all together once or twice during the con, but it’ll pay off big time when registration opens up for next year.
The lack of diversity, in particular Latin@s, in SFF cons is representative of the lack of outreach from the SFF community in general to the Latin@ community. I send the info about cons and programs (and about Con or Bust) to Latino social media, blogging and communications networks because I know a lot of people in those networks, but also because the information about SFF anything (cons, publications, submission calls) is NEVER sent to these places. As if Latin@s outside of the SFF bubble (which doesn’t know all that many Latin@s writers anyway) couldn’t possibly be interested. I’ve noted, as the editor of a Latino newspaper, that most SFF cons don’t send me press releases (not even Philcon, which takes place close by). Moreover, most SFF imprints don’t send me review requests or even press releases — again, as if the Latino reader couldn’t possibly be interested in SFF (or, perhaps, in reading. I don’t know how pervasive that bias is in the SFF publishing world, but I’m willing to guess pretty damn far.)
Not too long ago I engaged in a little back and forth with people in a SFF group which included a number of small press publishers and editors, and found an unapologetic sense of entitlement: we shouldn’t have to seek diverse writers out to encourage submission, they should seek us out. There was no way to get through to them that if you seek out diverse writers, you might actually get them. And with them, their usually quite diverse platform.
Same with cons.
Jim C. Hines
May 7, 2013 @ 12:34 pm
Susan,
That’s a great question. At my day job with the state, we collect education-related data for Michigan, including race/ethnicity, and that’s one of the most potentially confusing fields we’ve got. Federal guidelines distinguish Hispanic/Non-Hispanic ethnicity from separate racial categories.
I don’t know the right answer to this one, but when thinking about diversity and inclusiveness, I don’t equate Hispanic to white.
While the hand-raising thing wasn’t in any way a game, I do see how that could cause discomfort and stress and frustration. I know from talking afterward that Mary was doing her best to make the point she wanted to make without putting people in that position, but I also see where it’s far from a perfect way to make the point.
If you’re comfortable sharing, how would you answer your own questions about your color wheel, to use your phrase?
fangs for the fantasy
May 7, 2013 @ 12:35 pm
If you have any friends of any sort of minority stripe, you need to bring them to cons, and we need to encourage everyone to do the same.
Wow tokenism much? Just bring a buddy of colour and all will be okay. Until the originating texts change nothing is going to change. No person of colour wants to be your token con buddy. We get enough of tokenism on a daily basis thank you.
Sabrina Vourvoulias
May 7, 2013 @ 12:36 pm
And, sorry about the typos in my previous comment. Rushing during lunch does that.
Laurie Tom
May 7, 2013 @ 12:55 pm
I went to a World Fantasy a few years ago and remembered playing the “count the Asians” game (since that’s my relevant ethnic bucket). I only needed one hand. Granted, there were probably some I just didn’t see, but that still would not have been a lot.
No one has ever been mean to me at a convention, but the first time I ever went to one it was very isolating because I didn’t know anyone and most of the attendees were twice my age (on the bright side I didn’t feel isolated specifically because the convention was 95% white).
I think Roxanne has a point about people going with friends. Friends make cons so much better. But for people coming out of curiosity, who may be arriving without friends, some sort of welcoming committee or newbie program would probably help, regardless of color.
Susan
May 7, 2013 @ 1:38 pm
I don’t mind sharing, but it’s complicated.
when thinking about diversity and inclusiveness, I don’t equate Hispanic to white
Mmmhmm. And that’s a problem because the two are not mutually exclusive. You’ve met me (Chicon, Hugo Ceremony Director), and despite my Hispanic surname, I’ll bet you read me as white. Is diversity only useful if it’s visible? That’s a serious question. I don’t add any visual diversity to a con environment.
My father is a Cuban immigrant, a naturalized American citizen. My mother’s family is long-term American and basically white (though it’s complicated). I don’t look like people’s idea of Hispanic. Aside from my fair-and-freckly maternal ancestry, my father’s ancestry is half Basque. The women on my father’s side (the Basque comes through my paternal grandmother) tend to be blonde or red-haired and have very fair skin. And thus I am light-skinned, though my skin tone is noticeably different from my mother’s family. So despite my surname, people have a real mind-block about classifying me as Hispanic.
If I have the option, I check off both white and Hispanic on surveys. If the options are the apples-and-oranges “white/black/Asian/Hispanic”, and I cannot refuse to answer, I have to go through this unpleasant game of trying to figure out what they’re trying to find out and whether the question is a proxy for race, ethnicity, class, income, privilege, or what. That’s the situation your hand-raising exercise puts me in. I don’t know what I would have done being put publicly on the spot like that, other than resent the question and possibly challenge the panelists.
If you have any impulse to trot out the phrase “I would never have guessed you were Hispanic!”, which I hear fairly regularly, you need to check your internalized prejudices.
Jim C. Hines
May 7, 2013 @ 1:54 pm
Thanks, Susan! And you’re right. My blog post here definitely takes a simplified approach. I do think that an audience that appears to be 99% white probably has some work to do. But at the same time, you’re right that trying to estimate “diversity” just by appearance has some serious pitfalls and problems, and that’s something I should have addressed while writing this.
Diversity (in my opinion) is most definitely not only useful when it’s visible.
Thank you for taking the time to talk about this.
Susan
May 7, 2013 @ 2:03 pm
Here’s one to think about:
What strikes me as strange when I go to conventions outside my home area (the Northeast) is how few people are Jewish. Around here it’s a significant percentage, and a significant part of that percentage is very observant and thus more visible. I find it weird when conventions don’t routinely offer a Shabbat block in their accommodations, or at least address the issue.
I’m not Jewish myself, but I often have Jewish roommates, so I notice these things.
Ben Reeder
May 7, 2013 @ 3:50 pm
One thing I have to wonder about here is whether this issue is not only about inclusion on an ethnic basis, but also inclusion on a cultural basis. Sabrina pointed out that much of the appeal of the convention has a lot to do with what the con includes in its format.
SFF has tended to be dominated by a publishing industry that for many years was predominately white and male. Look at how many current female writers still use their first initials in their pen names. Likewise, that created a culture that appealed to a specific cultural cross section. That industry is changing, thanks largely to authors like Jim who take notice of things like this, as the field begins to become more and more self-aware and less color blind. I say less because we NEED to see more, where in the past, people tended to ignore anything that was “other.”
What I hope to see is the moment when we no longer celebrate an author of a specific ethnicity as a “black voice” or a “Latin voice” in favor of simply seeing them as a voice in SFF or any genre. Because seriously, if a white guy writes, it’s just SFF. He’s not a white voice, or an Irish voice or a German voice. He’s a voice. If a black woman writes, her voice should carry the same respect and impact as a Latin or Asian voice, which should all carry equal weight with the aforementioned white guy. Talent and a good story aren’t limited by ethnicity.
Likewise, something Susan pointed out about not seeing many Jewish people. As a Wiccan, I see much more representation at the few cons I go to, mostly because I think most folks of any pagan stripe tend to have this common bond that is built in day-to-day life, where we face constant exposure to both overt and passive hostility. That just doesn’t fly very well at cons in my experience. Thus, when we see someone who is openly wearing a pagan symbol, we immediately feel safe in identifying ourselves to them. So while on one level, we’re not seeing as much diversity as we would hope for yet at cons, I think we ARE seeing it on another level.
What gives me a good feeling and hope for humanity in general is that we’re having THIS conversation, and the way it’s happening. We, as a community, are saying “Hey, we’re not as diverse as we should be. There are voices out there that we need to hear, and we are not hearing them. How do we change things so that it is no longer “they” and is then “we”? And all sides of this that are represented here are speaking up and more importantly, BEING HEARD. Imagine for a moment if this was some random person’s status on Facebook, and the level of trolling and ignorance that might be encountered. If you just cringed or had to suppress the urge to throw up a little, you have an idea of just how far we really have to go on this issue.
N. K. Jemisin
May 7, 2013 @ 4:07 pm
One con that I think has made a successful effort at this is Wiscon. A few years ago, during — Racefail? The Great Cultural Appropriation Debates of Dooooooom? One of those — the con made a concerted effort to not only talk about this on panels and such, but to extend the invitation directly to fans of color, and to coordinate with fans of color who were already attending on what would help them get their friends to the con. The results of that included some things that I suspect most cons (leadership or membership) would consider controversial — hell, parts of Wiscon’s leadership & membership found these things controversial, as I recall at the time. (I was on the concom back then.) Still, the efforts seem to be working. Among other things they now have a “People of Color Safe Space”, away from the main traffic of the con; I’ve found it useful after a panel in which somebody said something highly problematic, to go somewhere and either cool down by myself or rant at other people who understood what I was feeling. They also have a PoC dinner on one night at the con, so that newbies can meet longtime comers, etc., and see just how many of us there are in one place. And some other stuff.
These things have not been without problems. There has been Drama. And for awhile the PoC safe space was distinctly unsafe, as it was located in a place where white attendees basically strolled by and peered in, rather like observing an interesting exhibit. But there have been good problems too — the PoC dinner has outgrown con space for the most part, because every year they’ve got more and more attendees. Word of mouth is now helping to bring PoC to the con, because Wiscon has more or less proven itself willing to put money where mouth is.
So my point is, yeah, what Jim said on how the entire convention needs to commit to this. When it’s done right, by people who really understand how their existing systems reinforce the status quo, change can happen.
Laura Resnick
May 7, 2013 @ 4:11 pm
Well, although I hate it when writers do this (“it’s all about ME!”)… with regard to “all” urban fantasy having a problem with racial inclusion, I write an urban fantasy series (book #6 due out this year from DAW) that portrays the racially diverse world of contemporary New York, where the heroine, a (yes, white) Jewish actress lives and works. Esther Diamond’s boyfriend is Hispanic, her ex-boyfriend and now-friend is black, and while the books don’t contain a racially diverse cast where it wouldn’t make sense (ex. Doppelgangster is set entirely among Italian-Americans), most of the characters are of a different race than Esther where it does make sense (ex. Unsympathetic Magic, set in Harlem; The Misfortune Cookie, set in Chinatown) or are racially diverse (ex. Disappearing Nightly) where a story/setting in the series has no specific ethnic background. Esther’s mentor/guide in the supernatural aspect of her world is an old (yes) white European, but the only colleague of his we’ve met so far is Asian.
The series doesn’t represent my conscious effort to be inclusive, colorblind, or racially sensitive. It represents the world of a young woman living and working in the contemporary New York City, where it would be colorblind indeed (as in: blind to how heterogenous modern urban life is) to portray everyone as one race and/or one ethnicity.
My heroine is white and female probably because I’m white and female; this was the viewpoint from which I first began thinking of this series. She’s also Jewish (by way of disclosure, I come from a mixed Jewish-Catholic marriage and was baptized Catholic), and I gather from some comments I’ve seen on the series that there aren’t many Jewish characters in urban fantasy (or at least not many heroines), but I was not attempting to “create a Jewish protagonist;” I just saw the character this way as I worked on developing her.
But you might look at the covers of the series and dismiss it as “all white” because a white woman (the protagonist) is portrayed alone on every cover. (And while we’re on the subject of diversity, it’s only a recent development in sf/f that a lot of books have a woman on the cover as the protagonist, rather than not-at-all or as a male character’s accessory/companion.)
Athena
May 7, 2013 @ 6:17 pm
Twenty years ago when I discovered the existence of SFF cons (that alone speaks to some of the diversity issues, but I’ll get to that), I was struck by the efforts made for inclusion insofar as people with disabilities go (at the time I was a student employee at the uni department for dev. dis. compliance, so it was sort of in my wheelhouse, such that it was). There was much more attentiveness to mobility, dietary, and sensory ability diversity than I’d ever seen anywhere else. So there’s historical precedent in the SFF community towards being sensitive to diversity. Yet at the same time, the opposite is true–there was definitely a certain…hierarchy of value, I guess…to what type of fan you were that seemed to far supersede more broad classifications as to skin color or ethnicity.
Part of that was probably due to what I think of as “marketing demographic” exposure–many cons seem to be attached to colleges or universities in some way (either historically or in terms of sheer volunteer manpower to get things done), so their ethnic makeup will reflect that of the college (which also identifies a socio-economic element, as well).
As far as the SFF content goes–I have works in progress that feature ethnically diverse characters, but I didn’t make them so specifically for that purpose–that’s just who they are. But…I’m also a white woman, so I get to walk that fine line keeping my characters from going from inclusion to exploitation or cultural appropriation. I can’t, as an individual, fix what is an institutional problem, all I can do is recognize my white privilege so it becomes a conscious thing, and go from there. As I’m seeing in the gaming community where institutional misogyny and rape culture seem to be entrenched, the biggest step is making it conscious so the discussion can begin.
Nalini Haynes
May 7, 2013 @ 7:17 pm
What you’re saying is nice in theory but in practice I’ve found SFF can be quite hostile. For example, fanzine editors made personal attacks in their zines for months. That got a little attention then I decided to actively avoid their zines, so then they trolled me on facebook. One went so far as to carry on about feeling discriminated against as an albino: he reckoned having good eyesight and adequate pigmentation for a white person but one blue eye and one green eye equated to albinism. It was about that time I left that facebook group and unfriended those people.
Sadly this hasn’t been my only negative experience nor my only experience where an SFF person treated me markedly differently from, say, a white male.
I have a strong sense of SFF being about cliques. The only people I tend to invite or even consider inviting to conventions are those who are active in the genre and in writing.
Jim C. Hines
May 7, 2013 @ 7:27 pm
I really, really need to get back to Wiscon…
Jim C. Hines
May 7, 2013 @ 7:28 pm
No worries. Comments are graded on content and style, not spelling 😉
Laura Resnick
May 7, 2013 @ 9:14 pm
With regard to feeling isolated, alone, or left out at cons, my own consistent experience as a white person (and a woman, and a longtime sf/f pro) that this is par for the course. I think some of it is the natural isolation anyone feels in a big crowd where you don’t know anyone and they all seem to be with there with their friends. I’m usually only slightly acquainted with a tiny number of busy people at a con, and I’m occasionally at a con where I know no one at all, so I’m very familiar with the experience.
Also, at the risk of stereotyping, sf/f fans are also not always the most socially adept people who’ve ever walked the corridors of a hotel. I was sharply reminded of this during an incident at a con this past year when a young man was clearly TRYING to be friendly to me… but it went badly. The friend I was visiting with went off to find a restroom, and so I was sitting alone in the lobby for a few minutes. A young man cam up and spoke to me–and courteously asked if it would make me uncomfortable if he talked to me for a while. I said no, but I was just waiting for a friend who’d be back in a minute, so I was fine, thanks. The young man didn’t go away and leave me alone… and he also didn’t really seem to have to faintest idea how to converse with me. (No attempt to say, “Are you enjoying the con? What brings you here? What events have you enjoyed?” etc.) He just sort of… HUNG there.
I truly don’t think this was a come-on or a pick-up, since I estimate I’m at least 20 years older than he was and I assume this was evident to him. I think it was a genuine attempt to be friendly to someone who looked alone or lonesome at the con… But it was so absent social skills that the result was awkward rather than friendly–and if I’d been closer to his age, I might well have felt uncomfortable rather than just bemused.
And that was, after all, someone who was at least trying.
So while I don’t discount the barrier of race in the mostly-white convention world, I do think it’s always isolating to attend a con where you don’t know anyone–or even where you don’t know LOTS of people. At least in my experience, anyhow.
Shoshana
May 8, 2013 @ 1:08 am
~nods~ My experience of con diversity is Arisia, Pi-Con, and Boskone (all Boston-area-ish cons). Arisia seems to me to be diverse, in terms of attendees and opinions and panel topics discussing diversity (and how to increase it in publications).
Pi-Con was much smaller than Arisia, and struck me as being less diverse in attendees, but still diverse in topic and opinion, and not *lacking* in diversity.
Boskone, on the other hand, was almost entirely old and white, with a heavy emphasis on male. So much so, that there were MANY conversations had afterward complaining about it.
I can’t remember the makeup of GenCon or Origins; I know the people I hung out with were mostly white, but I can’t speak to my impressions of the crowd. I went to those before I really started paying attention to such things.
Diversity, and the lack thereof, and how people of different backgrounds/ethnicity/races/genders/abilities/etc. are treated and/or encouraged at cons is a thing that is being talked about more, and encouraged more, and NOTICED more.
Welsh Andy
May 8, 2013 @ 9:37 am
I do wonder, with things like this, about the intersection of race and class. What is the main social class of people who attend conventions and participate in ‘geek’ culture? Are most attendees middle class? If so then this would surely skew the racial demographics of attendees with non-white* people being under represented in the middle and upper classes through to the almost complete lack of social mobility in Western societies.
If conventions want to attract a wider racial/ethnic demographic then we need to attract more working class people into participating in the ‘scene’. Buggered if I know how to do that though.
*meaning non WASP really.
Jim
May 8, 2013 @ 4:53 pm
Can I re-direct the discussion momentarily to focus on just how cool Mo*Con is? (I suspect that if we try to extract its DNA in order to clone more inclusive conventions, we might find some of what makes Mo*Con so accepting can be traced to the affable personality of its founder Maurice Broaddus.) A few years back, I had the privilege to attend Mo*Con twice and one was my very first experience with a genre convention.
Mo*Con was intentionally intimate. I think attendance topped out at roughly 100. Perhaps a sense of anonymity at larger cons fosters irresponsiblity and mob-thuggish-asshole-ery?
The tone of Mo*con reminded me of a down-home, community pot-luck and the food probably had a lot to do with that. Attendees ate all meals together, as I recall which allowed for all manner of non-stressed-out interactions. The panel discussions were good and staged one set of conversations but the casual chats I had while waiting in line for grub were what I treasure. Could food distribution structures support more welcome-ness? I mean, is there anything that jelly doughnuts can’t do?
As I recall the focus at Mo*CON at least one of those years was spirituality, which cuts the pie of diversity into very different slices than do discussions of race, methinks. There were mind-blowingly honest (and “charged”) discussions among folks self-identifying as pagan, christian, jewish, atheist and none-of-the-above. I left feeling rather hopeful that genre writers might be able to mediate the sectarian BS of culture in general.
Alas, my subsequent convention experiences have been… somewhat different.
Nalini Haynes
May 8, 2013 @ 6:29 pm
Nail. Head. Hit. With the cost of conventions, how can it be otherwise?
Jim C. Hines
May 8, 2013 @ 6:53 pm
Absolutely! I was thinking about this a bit this morning, actually. Wondering how much of Mo*Con’s awesomeness came from Maurice himself and from the way the convention evolved from a very small party-type event and never lost that focus.
Larger numbers probably do increase the chance of assholery, but I still think we can create more of that sense of open welcoming in larger cons. I’d love to see more cons trying the group meal thing. Instead of sending everyone to restaurants, find the biggest space at the con and host a scheduled Saturday lunch or something.
I could spend a lot of time analyzing everything Mo*Con does right and trying to figure out how to steal them all 🙂
Elizabeth A. Mancz
May 9, 2013 @ 9:32 am
May I use this blog in my Human Diversity class? I teach at a university which is largely white, and many of my students give me the color-blind argument. Your comments on what color-blind defaults to would be excellent for them to read. If you would prefer I link to it, that’s fine. Just let me know.
Jim C. Hines
May 9, 2013 @ 6:00 pm
Elizabeth – I just emailed you.
Sunday Linkspam: Special Edition! — Radish Reviews
May 12, 2013 @ 10:31 am
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