One of the things that is striking about most English-language story-telling endeavors - whether we're talking written fiction, comics, television, or movies - is how uniformly Caucasian the casts of characters are. And if people of color appear, they're in stereotyped roles: the Native American tracker, or the black housekeeper. If the setting is historical, the justification is "that's the way it was then." For IBARW, here's a little online research about the Old West of the United States, and why it's actually more historically accurate to have people of African, Native American, Hispanic, and other types of descent among a cast of cowboys, gunslingers, general store owners, and other classic Western archetypes during the late 19th and very early 20th centuries.

It's already Tuesday and I haven't posted squat about this. I fail. I have a sort-of article in process, which I hope I will be able to post tomorrow.

If you haven't run into this before: this is a week to use your LJ, blog, or other online journal to consider, talk about, and otherwise air the subject of racism in the world. Real-life experiences, literature, history, current news: it's all grist for the mill.

There is an LJ community for IBARW right here, and it says that if you want to participate, you should:

1. Announce the week in your blog.
2. If you use a blogging system that allows post icons/pictures, switch your default icon to either an official IBARW icon, or one which you feel is appropriate. To get an official IBARW icon, you may modify one of yours yourself or ask someone to do so. Here's a round up of IBARW icons.
3. Post about race and/or racism: in media, in life, in the news, personal experiences, writing characters of color, portrayals of race in fiction, review a book on the subject, etc. (Linking back [to the IBARW community] is highly appreciated!) The optional theme this year is intersectionality.

For more information, you should check out the community, which will tell you about getting your IBARW blog entry included in the IBARW del.icio.us account and on the IBARW round-up posts.

Today I'd like to introduce my favorite science fiction and fantasy artists/illustrators: Leo and Diane Dillon (who are an interracial couple) and Kinuko Y. Craft (who is Asian American).

The Scene: An uptown urban street.
The Time: 7:30 p.m. on a hot summer's evening - last night, in fact.
What Happened: A tallish, chunky middle-aged white woman (yours truly) was trudging home from the Metro when a group of half a dozen young African American men appeared across the street, being loud and boisterous. And the Racist in My Head sat up and squawked "Uh oh! Are we in trouble?"

I think one of the most common reasons why well-meaning people might not try to take action against an issue as big as racism is a simple feeling of being defeated before we start. There's a tendency to think, "The forces of prejudice are so massive and have such inertia that nothing I can do will make any sort of difference."

But I think that in this, as in so many other things, small steps should not be discounted or dismissed.

You might want to ask yourself, "To how many people do I need to make a difference before I can count it as worth while?"

Is "one" really too small a number?

Maybe not for a start.

I am talking to myself here as much as to anyone else. Once upon a time, perhaps more than 20 years ago, I made the day for one young man at a science fiction convention simply by making it clear that there were people of color among the pre-made player characters I had prepared for a roleplaying game I was running in Open Gaming. I don't know exactly what was going through his head when he grinned widely and exclaimed "He's black! This dude is black!" but it was something pleasant.

But now I think, wouldn't it be even better if a young person of color wasn't astonished to find him- or herself among the characters or a game - or a book - or a comic, because it was the norm?

I need to do more. I need to do my part so that the day I've just described will arrive.

International Blog Against Racism Week: August 6-12, 2007