World politics, and racism in fandom.

[bubosquared]

So, yeah, the Israel-Palestina conflict is still in full force, and now there's riots in Northern Ireland again. Sigh.

Dear people sitting next to me on the train,

I understand you feel the need to sprout of your opinions on world politics. I understand that most people don't have the inclination, time, or willingness to make the effort, to read up on the often incredibly long historical background of these conflict. I am a history freak, and a research nut, and have been brought up to research and back up my arguments, especially in politics.

However. If you're not going to even bother to read the fucking newspaper and form an opinion that is not a blanket statement about either of the sides in these conflicts, if you're going to sit there and say that the IRA should turn in all their weapons without any guarantee of NI rejoining the Irish Republic (which, btw, is why they took up arms again in the late sixties in the first place -- the British governement had promised to work towards re-unifying them and then did zip for fourty years!), that the Palestinians should just should disarm, shut up, and move out of Israel (disregarding the fact that it was originally their fucking country, and that Sharon has been deliberately and knowingly violating just about every treaty his predecessors worked on), if you then ask me what I think about it, then I'm going to tell you. And I'm going to use lots of four-syllable words; I'm going to be careful and precise and rational in what I'm saying, and I'm going to look at both sides of the story.

And if you don't like that, you can go stuff yourself, instead of giving me that "stupid chit, what do you know about it?" look.

Sincerely,

Furious.

Also! Interesting discussion to be had here. Go. Read. Now! I'll wait.

Okay, if you're back, I'd like to just add my plea for non-white slash characters to witchqueen's. I know, I know, I'm telling you to do as I say, not as I do, here. But due to the nature of my fandoms, it's hard to even find an non-white person to slash, much as I'd want to. Because I love interracial slash. It's a kink, for the visual of contrasting skin.

(Aside: I often worry if my non-white characters come off as "token blacks/asians" in my non-fanfic stories. I don't mean for them to be. I don't sit down and think "Hm, I need a non-white character," just like I don't sit down and think "Hm, I need another female," because my characters just come to me as they are. And often, they're not white. I didn't figure out until halfway through Here and Now that Jesse's Asian, so it doesn't feel "token non-white"ish to me, but. Blah.)

Anyhat. For those of you looking for suggestions:

The Crying Game -- Jody/Fergus.

Star Wars -- Lando Calrissian/Han Solo. (Please, people, for the love of god, they vibed so hard I vibed off the sofa!) QG/Mace.

Red Dwarf -- Lister/Rimmer. (ONSCREEN KISS! How easy must it get?)

Space: Above and Beyond -- Paul Wang/Elroy EL. Because, woa. Also, Vanessa Damphousse/Shane Vansen. Sigh. My f/f slash OTP!

RPS: Justin/Nelly. Eminem/Dr Dre. (Dude, that's almost canon!). Dre/Snoop Dogg! (Would pay for this.) And someone ought to slash Coolio. (This could also fall under the S:AaB heading, since he played a guest role in that.)

Or, you know. Suggest a bunny, and I might write it. Lord knows one more won't make a difference.

Comments

[sorchar.livejournal.com]

Tony Todd also played Jake Sisko all grown up on one ep of Deep Space Nine.

Question: Would you consider a pairing where one partner is of Arabic descent to be interracial? I'm thinking of Faisal/Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and also of Dr. Bashir on DS9... I have a short series featuring him and an original character who's a white Bajoran.

There were a few Booker T./Shane McMahon stories in wrestlefic, when Shane was managing Booker T. I couldn't really see it - not because Booker's black, but I just didn't see the spark there. There was also some APA slash (Bradshaw's white, Faarooq's black) but again, I just couldn't see slashiness there - and I've been known to see slashiness in commercials. And K-Kwik (black)/Road Dogg (white), until Roadie got fired. *sighs* And I'm rambling now.

But anyway, I agree. Part of the problem is the low number of interesting characters who aren't white, though that's getting better.

Re:

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'd consider that to be interractial.:)

But anyway, I agree. Part of the problem is the low number of interesting characters who aren't white, though that's getting better.

Yeah, that's definitely one of the largest problems. There's not a lot of interracial slash pairings, but then, there's also not a lot of interracial het pairings, in fanfic or in canon.

(Randomly, I was re-reading a v.v.v. old rambling thing I wrote about E&S, one of my oldest non-fanfic stories, which has an interracial pairing in it, and about which actors I'd cast as them:

For the role of Darren 'Daz' Rye I'd cast ... I dunno. No-one actually struck me as 'being' Daz, yet. Goes to show how many black actors get a chance in Hollywood. 'Specially no young ones, and Daz was only 27 when he died.

I just thought that was weirdly approcpriate, to be re-finding that at this time. :/)