Rat’s Reading

Blogger S. M. Duke is asking science fiction and fantasy reviewers to help him figure out if there’s bias in science fiction and fantasy. He wants us to note some stats in our reviews:

For every book you read in the SF or F genre, take a note of which ethnic, religious, social groups are present within a work in a significant way. What this means is if the main character or a significant character is White, Black, or Asian, then write that down. The same applies to religions and significant social groups (feminists, ACLU types, etc.).

It’s an interesting idea. When I look at pictures taken of groups of speculative fiction authors at conventions, whether panels or just hanging out, a large number stand out as containing old white men in Hawaiian shirts. If I don’t die young, I will some day be an old white man wearing a Hawaiian shirt. I don’t want to put down that particular class of people. However, at least compared to the population as a whole, I think that old white men wearing Hawaiian shirts are over-represented in speculative fiction writing.

I participated in a workshop recently on institutionalized racism. While most of that is not germane to this discussion, one thing the speaker said stands out as pertinent: As a white person, one of my most taken for granted privileges is simply not noticing race. In America today, a black person faces far fewer impediments to advancement than he or she did a half century ago. But equality has not been achieved. Not even equality of opportunity has been achieved. Which means that a minority in the United States constantly thinks about race and how it affects them. As a white person, that consciousness doesn’t have to enter my mind unless I choose to consider it.

For whatever reason, a large number of S.F. authors are white men. If they don’t choose to think about race, they generally don’t have to. My guess is that same thing holds true with their writing. If a white male author doesn’t choose to add race into the narrative, it won’t appear. A black American author, on the other hand, I’m guessing consciously thinks about the race of his characters. They may leave it out of the writing, but I’m pretty sure it’s a consideration most of the time. Consequently, I’m guessing that race isn’t really a huge factor in a lot of science fiction, simply because black authors are under-represented.

Which brings me to what started this entry… I’m not sure he data Duke wants to collect will be all that helpful. My first question is, assuming such data can be collected, how do you weight it? By the sales for the book? By the number of readers? By the number of reviews? By the chances of seeing the book in the endcaps at Barnes & Noble? The top ten bestsellers obviously have a lot more impact than positions 2000 through 2050. Getting this sort of information will be helpful only in a gross sense.

The second question in my mind is whether this is the right set of information to collect. Having characters who are minoritie playing significant roles is a good thing. But ultimately the point of wanting a good balance is that we want some impact on race relations back in the real world. The ultimate goal is racial equality. You want minorities to be able to read books and not feel left out. You want good opportunities for black writers; equivalent to white writers of similar skill. Having more minority characters can probably help that. But do we want more? Do we want to have more stories where race itself is important, not just stories where the characters happen to be of one group or another? It’s pretty rare that I read science fiction stories where race or ethnicity is an integral part of the story, not just something attached to the characters. For a literature of ideas, that’s pretty sad. But I digress somewhat. The point is, beyond simply knowing what’s in the stories racially, we need to know their effect on the readers. Oh, such information isn’t bad. In fact, it could be quite a step up from where we are now.

Writer David Anthony Durham, in a series of blog entries starting here argued that readers should not be color blind. A reader should be making an effort to seek out quality writing from minorities, simply because otherwise they will like as not read way more old white male fiction than anything else if they aren’t looking for it. That’s not exactly what he wrote of course; go read for yourself. That’s my paraphrase of it. I happen to think he’s correct, though I only occasionally make that requested effort.

In that vein, I can see one possible positive use for the information. I mean positive in a way besides, Wow, that’s interesting! I never knew black people were so under-represented! I think that awareness is good, but only a start. I’m a big believer in going beyond awareness (as I argued in that workshop, when the leaders didn’t have much to follow-up after awareness). Having this information is a good way to compile a good best of or recommended list of science fiction and fantasy works that include minorities. While it doesn’t directly allow one to follow Durham’s suggestion of reading black authors, it does allow one to seek out stories that include minorities characters. Which could allow a reader to counter-act the tendency for white males like me to simply not have to think about the issue, because we don’t have to every day.

Take that data, and mine it for the best works which include the minorities. That, I think, would be useful.

Though given the manner Duke’s request was presented, I suspect little rigorous effort will come of it. It sounds to me like a great idea for a Ph.D thesis, though Ph.D theses have much impact outside academia.

Photo Racism by maHidoodi used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

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