+ The lovely avendya has a wonderful post about disability over at FWD/Forward:

To Whom It May Concern:

My life is not a fucking tragedy.

+ The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman.

It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on 'donating a mammogram' -- for free (pink window in the middle). This does not cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate a mammogram in exchange for advertising.

Here's the web site! Please pass it along to people you know.

+ Via deadbrowalking: Diversity educator and filmmaker Lee Mun Wah is putting together a book called "Let's Get Real: What People of Color Can't Say and Whites Won't Ask."

He's got a series of questions for both POC and white people, and is asking for responses from anyone who cares to answer some or all of them. The deadline for responses is November 15th. Participants whose responses are selected for publication get a free, autographed copy of the book.

+ ALSO, PAGE TURNER: WHO WANTS TO GO? NO, REALLY. :D

This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. ( comments)

1. The submission deadline for the 4th Asian Women Blog Carnival is coming up; NOVEMBER 1st is just around the corner! Once again, the theme for this edition is storytelling, or reclaiming our selves through our words. Women and men of color and allies are welcome to participate so long as the focus of their contributions is Asian women. The definition of Asian, within the scope of this carnival, includes people from East Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, North Asia, Southeast Asia, Far East, Middle East, Near East and people of Asian descent living in non-majority Asian countries. The definition of women, within the scope of this carnival, includes trans women and cisgendered women. More detailed submission guidelines may be found here.

2. ATTENTION YULETIDERS: dhobikikutti has begun a list of chromatic Yuletide fandoms! This post sums up the reasoning behind it quite well:

First and foremost, I am doing this for myself and others like me who don't often get the opportunity to be fannish online about our source cultures, and rarely see good examples of it being talked about. I am also doing it because I want to find more of us, and lure in other international fans who understandably might perhaps have no interest in fanfiction about English, Western sources, but have never had a chance to see fanfiction written about people like them.

This is why I am centring around non-English (or Indian-English/Chinese-English/etc) sources - where the original creators (authors, directors, actors) seem to be doing an adequate job of representing their story. Yuletide is a celebration of source as much as it is about fandom, and I want to emphasise the sources that should be celebrated, in contrast to the ones that often get talked about instead.

It's rather appalling how often a source that exoticises, flattens, or misrepresents a culture gets picked up and praised over and above more accurate work, and that choice, subconcious as it might be, furthers an agenda of cultural imperialism and colonialism (not to mention racism). For a long time, we sourcelanders and diasporians have had to make do with subverting the source - trying to critique C.S. Lewis's portrayal of the Calormenes or Joss Whedon's erasure of Asians in Firefly or Pirates of the Carribbeans' racist and Magical Negro tropes, through fanfiction that challenges and questions and rewrites.

So please, if you adore source materials and/or characters that are non-Western and non-white, do consider writing about them, and do consider how you're going to portray them. Yuletiders on my flist, you can take this as a challenge: I am going to do my level best to enable you into my obscure fandoms. How are you going to enable me into yours? ;)

This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. ( comments)

- via deepad and various others, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the dangers of a single story [transcript here]:



- for the Remus/Sirius folks: Common Woodbrown, which i encountered via woldy (thank you, sweets! &hearts). this was much more Remus-centric than it was shippy, but it is so utterly, heartbreakingly gorgeous, you guys. definitely give it a read.

- for the orig-fic lovers, Bang*Bang 21 is up! i haven't worked my way through all of the latest stories yet, but i've found that bb_shousetsu generally makes for excellent reading. give it a go, you might find something you like! :)

This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. ( comments)

Some quick notes, since I'm supposed to be haring off to do things in a bit:

- rs_small_gifts signups are open! :D Yeah, Remus/Sirius folks, I'm looking at you.

- I forgot to say that I'm doing choc_fic's 100 Days of Color! Saving Face (because this is apparently the Year of Pimpage for me), February 8th. \o/

- camelot_fleet party post is open for business!

- The deadline for submissions for the 4th Asian Women Blog Carnival is coming up! NOVEMBER 1st is... next weekend, omg. Where did October go??

This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. ( comments)

- Shakira!fail on DWTS results show last night = ( this is why i'm hot; this is why you're not. )

seriously, lady, you need to NOT take a page out of Gwen Stefani's book, 'kay? i love you and your music and your GQMF dancing lots, but gimmick!Asians are not cool.

- it's Party of Mock time for this latest gem of misogynist SF bitching. how many ways can these entitled white male assholes come up with to be complete fuckmuppets (tm yuki_onna) on the internet? oh, that's right; COUNTLESS. *is utterly UNsurprised*

- and now for the happy; fellow Yuletiders who haven't already seen this, Yuletide nominations are OPEN! :D mine are as follows:

Saving Face (film)
Guy Gavriel Kay- Ysabel
Patricia McKillip- Riddlemaster Trilogy
Kuroshitsuji aka Black Butler
Shounen Onmyouji
Cain Saga aka Count Cain aka Godchild

how about you? :)

This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. ( comments)

[Note: Yes, I know this is coming rather belatedly, but it took me a while to get this down in a semi-coherent fashion. Also, GIANT MAJOR THANK-YOUS to the beta-team that got me through this monster; you know who you are, bbs. &hearts Mistakes/wording issues/lacks of clarification/whatnot are all mine.]

In response to the now-deleted Radio Times post, franticsga brings up some interesting points regarding the dynamics between fans and source-creators, and I do think that "why not?" is a valid question to ask. Stories matter- as yuki_onna says, stories, in fact, are life. It's perfectly reasonable and incredibly important to ask for more, better LGBTQ representation in the media. However, I believe that it's equally important to consider all of the ramifications of asking for specific pairings in specific contexts, and in the context of this show, I have serious issues with asking "why not [Merlin/Arthur]?"

As one might expect, many of these issues are bound up with Gwen. More specifically, though, it has to do with the fact that in the Beeb's particular shiny crack-van mixtape, she's ( OMG! A BLACK GIRL. )

This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. ( comments)

You guys may have seen this already, but for those who haven't yet encountered it, karnythia wrote a fabulous post on race, gender, and the oppressive public gaze.

It makes me think of Guy Gavriel Kay's essay* on the importance of privacy in today's society, particularly this:

Is privacy important? Something with ethical value attached to it? Enormous elements of cultural conditioning underlie this question, of course, and so we should at least pause to acknowledge the complex history of private life, the way in which the very idea of a sequestered space to be alone, unobserved, has been alien to many cultures, and is still today a dream or an illusion for many people, even in our own society.

[...] We seem to now be a culture that rushes to embrace exposure. It is as if a colossal inversion is taking place: we want to be naked on the stage in public. The attention accrues more value than protected autonomy. Nobody knows you when your blinds are down and you're not out.

How does one discuss the importance of privacy, or even speak of the unwanted gaze, in the age of the jennycam, where a college coed becomes an international celebrity simply by putting cameras in her dorm rooms so websurfers can watch her, realtime, all day and night? One might deride her as naive, since most of those who have followed Jennifer Ringley down this path of proud self-assertion have at least had the simple decency to charge for it - allowing us to see the process as mere commerce - but the onlie beggeter, Ms Ringley, offered a pure, transaction-free model of exposure and ensuing fame to contemplate.

Might we make the case, as the rabbinical code did, that when this becomes a norm, when we collectively participate in that gazing process, the injury caused by seeing is to all of us?

Good thoughts (if very much western-hemisphere-focused on Kay's part), and definitely a topic I wish more people would consider.

This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. ( comments)

- Via karnythia [here]: what. the. FUCK?

- In other news, RIP Ted Kennedy. :(

*** In other other news, the Asian Women Blog Carnival submissions post is now up at truthrages! *\o/* Details within.

I was thinking of locking this post for a while, but what the hell; John Cho deserves more pimping. So, a link for future reference: the (awesome) interview I am thinking about writing about, when I'm not so raw.

I've been reading dogdaysofsummer and wanting to write, but at the same time, that giant lump of tired from IBARW hasn't worn off, and the peace (piece?) of mind I need just isn't there yet. Soon. Soon I'll have words again. (staraflur and lizardspots are in town this week, which may accelerate the rebound. :D)

Which reminds me, it's time to do my remix repost.

Title: Tesserae (the Missing Pieces Remix)
Author: glass_icarus
Summary: Post-PoA. Sirius is picking up the pieces, but putting them back together requires help.
Rating: PG
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Remus Lupin/Sirius Black
Original story: When Love Took a Train Headed South by gryffindor_j
Notes: To my beta/babble/think-tank crew- reddwarfer, avendya, ineffabili_tea- thank you so much. &hearts you all!

( There are still twenty minutes before Remus is due to arrive, and someone’s abandoned the crossword section of today’s paper. )

This is not the post I was planning to make. Well, okay, it isn't any of several posts I was planning to make- my anxieties about Guy Gavriel Kay's forthcoming novel (see the entry dated July 27th) are more than a little nebulous, not to mention hard to articulate about a man whose works I adore and respect, and that body image post I've yet to make? So much more emotionally-loaded than I expected it to be. I don't have the reserves (of energy, of strength, of words) to deal yet, so I'll say the following instead.

Note: This post is not meant to be directed at anyone in particular; it is the result of the massive buttload of tired I'm feeling right now. Just to put the "fine print" in boldface, right up front.

Lots of my fellow chromatic folks have already brought up this point- multiple times, even!- but it bears repeating: All this talk about race and racism? It's draining for POCs. I say this with a lot of love for the white allies who are speaking up, but please, please, keep it in mind.

- If I walk away from a discussion, it is not necessarily a marker that I have nothing constructive/of value/of validity/of relevance/at all to say. It may well be, and this depends of course on the discussion at hand, a sign that I have nothing left to say to you.

- If I do not comment on a discussion, it is not an automatic sign of agreement or approval.

- If I do not comment on a discussion, it does not necessarily mean that I have not read it. Do not assume that I don't know about it because I haven't said anything- or, if I have said something, because I haven't cited it.

-- I was going to continue, but like I said, I am tired, and I think these three points cover a decent amount of territory.

Sometimes we speak. Sometimes our silences speak for us. I wish more people would pay attention to what we are and aren't saying. I wish more people would consider our reasons for both.

--

Previously, on IBARW:
- people living in glass houses shouldn't throw stones (Beijing Olympics commentary)
- petition against Lou Dobbs

I had other plans for today's post, but considering the contents of my inbox this afternoon, I figure that forwarding this petition is as good a plan as any.

From ColorOfChange.org:

CNN's Lou Dobbs has been using his show to give life to conspiracy theories claiming President Obama wasn't born in the U.S. The question was put to rest long ago, but Dobbs is pretending that this extremist nonsense is a legitimate national conversation.

Dobbs, intentionally or not, is stoking the fires of racial fear and paranoia in the same way that the McCain/Palin campaign did when they cast Obama as "not one of us." Even after being called on it, he refuses to stop.

[...]

For more than a year, folks on the far right have been claiming that Obama is not a U.S. citizen, that he was born in Kenya, and that as a result he can't be president. The theory has been repeatedly debunked. Not only has the state of Hawaii produced a birth certificate several times, there were also birth announcements in two separate Hawaii papers when Obama was born, placing his birth in Hawaii--for most reasonable people, that would remove any doubt.

Members of Dobbs' own staff have said they're uncomfortable with his insistence on pursuing this story, but Dobbs insists on claiming there must be something to it because "Obama refuses to produce the long-form of his birth certificate." Other news outlets have refused to give the idea any credence. The head of MSNBC, Phil Griffin, had this to say about the claim: "It's racist. It's racist. Just call it for what it is."

Lou Dobbs has a history of attacking immigrants by spouting hateful rhetoric and lies. He once claimed that "the invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans" through "deadly imports" of diseases like leprosy and malaria. This kind of rhetoric feeds anti-immigrant hate, which has led to horrors like the beating death of Luis Ramirez in Pennsylvania and the shooting death of 9-year old Brisenia Flores in Arizona earlier this year. Dobb's role in creating this environment has led organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to call on CNN to reign in Dobbs in the past.

Now Dobbs is going after Obama by giving voice to the same kind of xenophobic rhetoric, stoking the deep-seated fears of angry right-wing extremists who, as CNN analyst Roland Martin has said, can't accept the fact that their president is Black.

Dobbs may not like Obama. But it's a real problem for him to use his powerful position as a moderator of discussion about the news to validate a dangerous falsehood that's rooted in racism.

Several watchdog groups have demanded action on the part of CNN. The head of the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote CNN last week asking that they fire Dobbs based on his recent actions9. Media Matters and others have launched efforts to hold CNN accountable as well.

( Further information: )

If you want to join in the efforts to take Lou Dobbs off the air, please add your name to this petition!

--

Previously, on IBARW: people living in glass houses shouldn't throw stones (Beijing Olympics commentary).

It's International Blog Against Racism Week, which I forgot to mention yesterday! *facepalm*

The sad thing for me about IBARW is that, rather than feeling that I have nothing to talk about, I have entirely too many relevant things to say. Avatar: The Last Airbender; Lori Phanachone; Texas Representative Betty Brown (Republican); Justice (it is Justice now, isn't it?) Sonia Sotomayor; Professor Henry Louis Gates; the whitewashed cover of Justine Larbalestier's Liar- all of these topics spring to mind so that I sit here choking on all the words that clamor to be spoken. And then, of course, there are the things I have already said, so that I wonder if I should make the effort to write a whole new post instead of simply linking to older ones. Given my lack of energy, I might even have stayed silent today, if I hadn't had some of the following already written.

Back in April, for Asian American Awareness Month, I had a post planned out about body image and the toll that multiple standards and conflicting expectations exact from Asian-American women. Today is still not the day for me to go into that discussion in detail, but a lot of it relates to ( the rant I've been (mostly) suppressing about the western media slant on the Beijing Olympics. )

because i have finally got home from camping, and showered and fed and post-(half an episode of) Merlin-giggly as i am, my head is still exploding with tiredness. so! things!

- my remix is here, and for the first time it is not a Remus/Sirius story! i was SO EXCITED, you have no idea. the way back to grace (moving on, moving up), His Dark Materials, Will and Lyra and Pan and Kirjava, just the way i love to see them! i know that Remix is not actually an exchange-type fest, but i love it because it makes me see more (in my stories, in everyone else's stories) than i would ever have imagined otherwise, so. thank you, Remixer. your story was lovely. &hearts &hearts &hearts

- a discussion of ignorance and racism over at Seeking Avalon includes Avatar!fail, history!fail, and all sorts of other excellent points. i am depressed, and yet- and yet. i am more informed tonight than i was yesterday; i have followed one more logical thought-train than i did yesterday; and if i have done these things, then maybe there is hope that someone else will as well?

- still have TEN (10) DW invites, btw! i will be happy to donate them to whoever wants!

... i had other words, i think, but i forgot them thanks to the brain-goo that seems to be leaking from my ears. /o\ still, it was an excellent weekend, if tiring, and you should all feel free to hurl links my way if you feel i've missed something! &hearts

Folks in the US, I'm sure you've all heard about that pool incident by now, but here's a petition from ColorofChange:

Two weeks ago outside Philadelphia, sixty-five children from a summer camp tried to go swimming at a club their camp had a contract to use. Evidently, the club didn't know the kids were largely Black.

When the campers entered the pool, White parents took their kids out of the water, and the swimming club's staff asked the campers to leave. The next day, the club told the summer camp that their membership would be canceled and that they would refund their money. When asked why, the club's leader said the "kids would change the complexion ... and the atmosphere of the club."

A "Whites only" pool in 2009 should not be tolerated. The club's actions appear to be a violation of section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act. Whether or not any laws were violated, a "Whites only" pool should be something every American condemns.

If you're as tired of this shit as I am, please add your name here!

&hearts the second edition of the Asian Women Blog Carnival is now posted! *\o/* go forth and read, but treat the entries with respect!

&hearts i am going to see Yo-Yo Ma tonight, for free, in Lincoln Center. on the program: the Silk Road Project. i have no words for how much i love my city, at times like these. will edit with pictures, if i can manage it!

... wow, so Memorial Day Weekend swallowed me whole before I knew it. 0.o Plans and plans and plans; summer is truly here! \o/ Anyway, I shall attempt to play catch-up on internet things, but if there's anything over the last couple of days that you'd like to bring to my attention, go ahead and poke me! &hearts

One quick announcement for magnetic_pole before I tackle my to-read list:

api_recs is a community for reccing books, movies, tv shows, radio shows, and other media that deal with the experience of Asians living outside Asia. Know of any good movies, books, etc. about the experiences of East Asians, Southeast Asians, South Asians, and Pacific Islanders living in US, Canada, Britain, Australia, Latin American or elsewhere? Rec them here!

There's a code you learn if you live outside the system, outside the limitations of words and numbers. It's a code not hackable by anyone who lives inside the boundaries, written in flesh and blood, skin and bones. Tradition, diaspora, culture, race; the stories and histories of generations of people whose voices have gone unheard: we who live in the margins own all of these things, are all of these things, whether or not we are consciously aware of them, and it is an ownership that can never be taken away.

Outside of the system, you learn that people won't listen to you if you aren't always polite; if you raise your voice; if you say or do things that don't belong in their perceptions of reality; if you bring up the system at all, much less question it. Outside of the system, you learn that people won't see you if you dress in certain ways; that they'll only look at your clothes if you dress in other ways; that sometimes even if you were to stand in front of them naked, the only thing that would register would be the color of your skin, and that only when it suits them to notice.

Other people have written about this better than I can, this position of being on the outside, looking in. Other people have spoken in answer to the people who think that fiction is unimportant, that a story is- can ever be- "just a story." Other people have even addressed what it's like to be someone like me. As for me- well, I don't much feel like repeating myself.

Today I will not address the people who profess to be "blind to race," even with the best of intentions. Today I am not speaking to the people who look at me with blank stares and ask why this matters, because today is not for the people for whom I am not in the room when I don't have my model minority mask on: diligent, polite, holding my tongue.

Today is for my sisters and brothers, the people who share the space outside the lines, if not the precise color of my skin. Today I want to sit down next to those who are listening. I want to hear you tell whatever stories you choose to share; I want to hear your voices raised in laughter and celebration, or in tears of catharsis. Today I want to give my voice to this collective shout, so loud that it reverberates around the world, and know that I- that we- are not alone.

Outside these walls, the world is full of glorious color, of beautiful faces and rich, powerful voices. Hold the door for me; let's walk together into the sunshine. &hearts

Heads up, everyone! In response to recent 'fail, neo_prodigy has come up with FOC_U, a way for fen of color and allies to show their solidarity. Check out this post for further details! Shout it loud and proud, people: we are here, we are speaking, and we are not. going. away.

I thought I was done with the flames of fury here, or at least on hiatus, but this post by keeva just made Wrede's thought train-wreck even more clear.

However, in the face of the mammoth fail, people are already being awesome! rushthatspeaks points out the effects of a US history written by the white majority; kaigou has an excellent post about the hazards of sleeping with the status quo; spiralsheep addresses the reasons why shutting up about social justice is never helpful; delux_vivens's roll call for PoC SF/F fans over at deadbrowalking is being answered by a wild unicorn legion (if you identify as PoC/non-white and you are an SF/F fan, stand up and be counted!); and naraht is doing an amazing job at archiving this particular revolution. All of these people and more are saying the things that I want to say, that need to be said and heard, and I am once again humbled by and grateful for this show of solidarity. There are some truly beautiful minds out there.

And now for some tangentially-related Obama cheer, because the awesome of my president, I cannot even. &hearts!

ETA for ciderpress, because she brings a little love back to PoC fans.

Discovered just now [re: Thirteenth Child], exactly where my limits are:

The *plan* is for it to be a "settling the frontier" book, only without Indians (because I really hate both the older Indians-as-savages viewpoint that was common in that sort of book, *and* the modern Indians-as-gentle-ecologists viewpoint that seems to be so popular lately, and this seems the best way of eliminating the problem, plus it'll let me play with all sorts of cool megafauna). I'm not looking for wildly divergent history, because if it goes too far afield I won't get the right feel.

So. Goodbye, Patricia C. Wrede. Your stories were wonderful, but now you have tainted them for me forever. I'm not strong enough or fierce enough for this, so I'm ending our conversation today.