NKJ on positive aspects of RaceFail

Thoughtful and interesting post from N. K. Jemisin on why RaceFail was good for science fiction/fantasy.

Excerpt:

The angry questions that it raised didn't emerge from a vacuum; they've been here all along, and had in many cases been expressed already. W. E. B. DuBois was one of the first black SFF writers, and his stories [...] asked these questions then. I've seen essays from Octavia Butler, Samuel Delany, Joanna Russ, and many others which directly addressed all of it, often in calm, reasoned language[....] If reasoned conversation was all it took to trigger change, the transformations of RaceFail would've happened a long time ago.

I have a few quibbles with a few details of her post (I always have quibbles!), but I find most of it pretty compelling, especially the personal parts that start with "I feel more comfortable being myself now than ever before, after more than 20 years as a fan and aspiring writer in this field." And I hope that's beginning to be true for other people of color in the sf world too.

She also links to a piece about Martin Luther King encouraging Nichelle Nichols to stay on as Uhura.

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