Rage Coalescence: "Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open." -- Natalie Goldberg
Does ignorance droppeth like the gentle rain upon all of your heads?
Just what, precisely, is that entity you choose to call a 'real' Black person? It clearly has nothing to do with skin tone, parentage, genetics, or any of that sort of thing, so let's lay that aside.
It must have something to do with society and culture. Am I getting close? You've been spending your free time watching the music videos on BET, perhaps? Taking notes on current urban slang and fashions, maybe? That would make a little more sense... well, 'sense' in terms of the hash your argument is based on. You've, perhaps, tried to picture Pete Ross in a Jay-Z video and found yourself quite flummoxed.
"Why," you said to yourself, "he doesn't fit in at *all*!"
The Missy Elliott video was no help, either. Nor were the ones from Snoop Dogg, Nelly, or Ludakris.
"A-ha!" you said to yourself, "there's only one possible explanation for this. Pete Ross, unlike the individuals on my television, is not a Black person!"
And so you came online, full of your revelations, and felt the need to share them. And now you find yourself confused -- so very, very confused -- as to why people are looking at you like a Kryptomutant after a not-quite-Superman-yet beating.
Fear not, my mindless little friend. I'm here to explain the problem to you.
You see, you made a very simple mistake in your reasoning. Black people? Well, amazingly enough, there are all *kinds* of us out there. Some of us bear a striking resemblance to the people you see in the videos, in the UPN-special situation comedies, and on Def Comedy Jam. Some of us? Do not. Some of us are, in fact, a lot like Pete -- having grown up in suburban or rural areas that were either heavily multicultural or at least mostly non-Black.
Some of us take huge. Fucking. Exception. To the idea that 'Blackness' is something that can be judged based on how we dress, speak, and/or who we choose to befriend.
Some of us are really rather *pissed* that you, you worthless, ignorant, little *pissant*, have appointed yourself High Arbiter of All That Is Negro.
Because, frankly? You're so far out of your depth here the lifeguard can't even *see* your ass, much less save it.
So Pete Ross isn't being written like Stereotypical Young Negro Male #4. So *what*?
It's about fucking time the media recognizes something closer to the full range of Black -- no, strike that, *human* -- experience. And I'm *ashamed* that a bunch of people who are supposed to be media savvy apparently can't actually deal with that.
Added twenty-one new recs in the following fandoms: Angel, Buffy, Harry Potter, Firefly, Good Omens, The Shield, Sandman, Crossovers, Smallville, and The Invisibles. I am fanwhore. Also updated the graphics with two new Smallville wallpapers, a Firefly wallpaper, a Buffy wallpaper, a Smallville twosie, three random Smallville photomanips, and a random Buffy photomanip.
Why? Because I can't even count the number of times I've said this before. Sarah T. talks about the whole 'no one is welcoming newbies' issue in this entry. I remember her early BtVS work. Hell, I was just correcting some links on my rec pages and I found the first story of hers that I recced -- Minst'ring Angel Thou. I wanted to see more from her. Sometimes, wishes are granted in nearly painless ways. *grin*
I'm reasonably sure that, at that point, most people's reaction to her name was "Sarah who?"
She didn't write popular pairings. She didn't write happy, rompy, shallow porn for her *unpopular* pairings. What she *did* write was consistently great fic. And gradually, people other than *me* started to know who she was. And to go looking for her stories, even though she still wasn't writing the things everyone else did. Believe it or not? That's the way the world works.
If you write good fiction, people will rec it. If you write good fiction and need a beta-reader? People will jump at the chance. If you write good fiction and you don't have a homepage? People will offer to *make* you one. If you write good fiction and no one knows about it? People will pimp you to all of their friends. Why? Not because fandom is full of altruists and saints. No. If you're looking for that? You need a reality check the size of a small European country's GDP.
No. It's because there has never been, nor will there ever *be*, enough good fiction. There are very, very few people out there in internet fandom-land who aren't readers as well as everything else, and we're *always* looking for good stories. Always. And most of us? Will bend over backwards to get more of it. That, friends and neighbors, is the way it goes.
So think about this the next time you're tempted to whine about your fiction being ignored. Think about all the voracious readers out there -- and the fact that they vastly outnumber the admittedly vocal ones among us who delete all sorts of things on sight.
Think about it, and take a good, hard look at your magnum opus...
Because maybe it's not nearly as good as you think it is.
Why is it that the same people who'll sling accusations of racism at other fans will turn around and write Black characters as two-dimensional gangstarriffic stereotypes?
Why is it that the same people who'll rail and weep and moan about the jackbooted thugs who run the major mailing lists will then run to those same thugs and demand that they lay the smack down on people whose tone they don't approve of?
Why is it that the same people who'll snark and bitch about the characters/shows/fandoms they dislike will simultaneously whine piteously when their favorite characters/shows/fandoms are ignored?
Why is it that the same people who cheer and dance in the very streets at every subtextual sign of approval for their pairing will promptly rage and whine when other people do the same?
There are several cardinal rules of internet life. Here are a few:
1. Your connection will never be fast enough.
2. Your show will never be slashy enough.
3. Your pairing of choice will never have enough good stories.
Most of us, by the time we've been around the block a few times, have learned to, if not be precisely *thrilled* about these things, at least accept them.
Some of us have not.
A little bird told me that there are rumblings about in Smallville fandom about the One True Pairingness of it all, about how very *hard* it is to get feedback for stories that don't feature Clark/Lex, or, alternately, Chloe/Clark. About how the fans seem to have a sense of entitlement about the subtext for these pairings, and so get downright tetchy when canon doesn't back them up sufficiently, and how some writers have gotten lazy and write stories where the characters' 'togetherness' is just assumed, rather than carefully spelled out.
Well, you know, I hate the entitlement thing, too, and lazy writing sucks hairy balls no matter where you stand, pairing-wise. But as for the rest?
Get the fuck over it.
Frankly, you people don't know One True Pairing angst unless you spent any time whatsoever in Due South fandom, or X-Files fandom for that matter. Until somebody starts a flame war over the fact that people are writing something other than their pairing of choice, you've got nothing to bitch about. Until somebody bitches you out publicly for 'wasting their time' with fiction about someone other than their Beloved Sex Objects? You've got nothing to bitch about.
Think about it. You're in a fandom with several large, thriving lists that actively welcome and *encourage* slash, het, and general fiction about *all* of the characters. You're in a fandom with specialty archives devoted to everything from incest to the special bond between best buddies. You're in a fandom that *wants* you.
Which brings me to the issue of feedback. Okay, I'm not some kind of ego-less saint. Hell, the reason I'm still awake is that I'm hoping to get some feedback for my latest story before I go to bed. I, like many of you, analyze the amount of feedback I get. I, like many of you, know *exactly* which stories of mine were the most popular, and have all sorts of theories as to why that may be so.
But you know what? If you've been in fandom for *any* amount of time, if you've been a fan fiction writer for any amount of time, you should've damned well learned to accept that some stories just aren't going to get read by as wide an audience as others. This is called maturity, people. Look it up. Because I *refuse* to believe that every last one of you who are bitching now honestly reads every single story that comes down the pike.
Jesus Christ, I read more stories than most to keep my recommendations pages up and flourishing, and there are *still* stories that I'm just not interested in.
And you know what? That's *okay*.
*That's* called being human.
Just like you.
Just like the amorphous mass of readers you rail against for their refusal to give your latest Principal Kwan/Pete fic the time of day. I, despite my best efforts to the contrary, have yet to be able to say more than that I do not actively loathe black beans and most het fic. You... well, you seem to be having some issues with Clark/Lex.