Notes from New Sodom

... rantings, ravings and ramblings of strange fiction writer, THE.... Sodomite Hal Duncan!!

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Acquital/Indictment

This is what happens with:

"a state of segregation in which black, queer and members of other abject groups are not deemed to belong as main characters. This is the segregation of not being able to sit at the front of the bus. They may be allowed in as an exception if it “serves the plot” (c.f. your reviewer’s expectation of a reason for the character’s gayness.) This is the segregation of being stopped in a white neighborhood and challenged on your purpose in being there.  They may be allowed in as Gay Best Friends or Magic Negros in service of the straight, white protagonist. This is the segregation of travelling into a white neighbourhood to work as a cleaner in someone’s house."

This is what happens when you systemically segregate narrative, excluding the abject from protagonist roles, boxing them into bigoted clichés.

This is what happens when your cheap and easy clueless hackwork consistently erases the permutation in which the abject is central subject.

This is what happens when you can't even write a black cop w/out giving him a clichéd gang kid background---like he has to be "redeemed."

This is what happens when you blithely construct a culture of narratives in which it's second fucking nature to cast Mugger No.2 w/ black skin.

This is what happens when every single movie you produce on this (albeit slightly dated) list has a white lead.

This is what happens when systemic segregation in narrative wires the bigoted clichés so deep, it defines how real life scenarios are read.

This is what happens when you lie to yourself that segregation doesn't exist, or that you're not swayed by its constant agitprop of bigoted clichés.

This is what happens when you think you're "not racist," but you don't even fucking notice the absence of the abject on lists like that linked to above.

This is what happens when you resist pressure for social awareness in your subculture w/ denials, excuses and "PC fascism" rhetoric.

This is what happens when you blithely dismiss the import of bigoted cliché in fiction because it pleasures you like a ten dollar hustler.

This is what happens when you automatically write a black teen into the narrative you're constructing in a normative/default role: threat.

This is what happens when you just don't/can't/won't construct your narrative with the black teen male in the central role, protagonist imperiled.

What happens is murder with impunity.







Labels:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home