Yo, is this racist?

[sabotabby]

When I was in high school, we had to read this anvillicious fantasy about a Chinese dude who gets stranded on some Island of the Ladies, where they bind his feet and completely oppress him. I'm guessing that it was well-intentioned, and written by a well-intentioned dude who probably considered himself a male feminist, but it angered my 17-year-old wannabe PoMo self so much that I argued about Foucault until I got myself kicked out of class.

I get the same vibes, times approximately a million because I don't think the author is all that well-intentioned, when I looked at Save the Pearls. It's one of those post-apocalyptic YA fantasies that is all the rage with Kids These Days. The central conceit is astoundingly original: What if, instead of racism against black people, there was racism against pretty white teenage girls?

Yes. Really.

There's also a cute little video where a white teenager dons blackface because we're making an Important Social Statement here.

It's the kind of concept that a reasonably bright high school kid would come up with ("What if straight people were discriminated against just like gay people are? How would you feel?") and that would be fine, except this is presumably the work of an adult, and loaded with far more problematic imagery—dehumanizing language (coals vs. pearls, mating), the threat of a young white woman forced to have sex with a black man, and the aforementioned blackface. You can't just flip racism upside-down and have it be a serious critique. Obviously, because it's not a problem of simple prejudice where any group can be a stand-in for any other group. I'm preaching to the converted here.

I gather that I'm not the first (or second, or tenth) person to find the whole thing objectionable, because there's a hilarious post by "Eden" (the name of the book's main character) on the site blog:

First, consider that the basis of all prejudice is judging a book by its cover. To condemn any book on the basis of its cover is hardly different than condemning a total stranger because of the color of his/her skin. How can you critique or damn a book if you haven’t read it? This kind of blind attack is exactly what creates racism or condemned many progressives as communists in the Fifties.

If you critique this book, you are just like HUAC! I guess that's better than pulling a Godwin, but not by much.

The author seems to be unaware that no one is trying to censor her here. Pointing out that the imagery in a novel is problematic as all get out is not the same as suppressing an author's ability to write said problematic imagery. It's probably even going to help her, given that this is a little vanity press and any publicity is good publicity.

Also, judging a book by its cover is awesome. I moonlight as a book designer. If we didn't want people to judge our covers and buy or not buy the book accordingly, all books would have plain covers with just the title and author.*

And there is reason to support my belief when you consider that the novel has won five literary awards, including the Eric Hoffer Best Young Adult Novel 2012 (Eric Hoffer was a great humanitarian), or that Marianne Williamson called it on her Facebook page, “A fascinating story…for lovers of all ages!” or that dozens of reviewers from the San Francisco Book Review to Fresh Fiction to many book bloggers have embraced it with glowing reviews.

And if you ask if all these reviewers are white then consider that you have a racist point of view.

The Lurkers Support Me In E-mail! Also, pointing out racism is just like racism.

Basically, this imagery isn't neutral. You can't read it outside of its cultural context, outside of this or this or this. It's particularly difficult for a white author to try something like this, and a good example of why we can't have nice things.

Here's a bit of unsolicited advice: If people are already calling you out, author, it is best to listen to them rather than to post defensive things on your blog. They may in fact have a very good point.

ETA: Ah, I see it's already made sf-drama. Carry on, then.

(Hat tip: audrawilliams)

* See Ursula K. LeGuin's The Dispossessed for a nice example of this.

Comments

[springheel-jack.livejournal.com]

Her line about 'bee stung lips' and how sad she is that someone black didn't think she was cute when she was little is going right into the Don Schmierer Hall of Fame.

http://racebending.tumblr.com/post/28133063475/victoria-foyt-describes-the-praise-and-possible

We're way beyond blindness here into some weird territory of racial psychopathy.

[springheel-jack.livejournal.com]

I mean, the narcissism. The fucking narcissism. It's just


....and my cat is throwing up. Gotta go. Frankly it's a relief.

[sabotabby]

Excerpts exist. I just read some. Your cat just vomited better prose.

[springheel-jack.livejournal.com]

It's just astonishing. It's 'the Turner diaries', basically. One of those horrible race-war books from the sick imaginations of the white nationalist movement - with different blurbs. Bestial blacks in power, oppressing refined whites. It's exactly the same story. To a racist it's a cautionary tale on why blacks ought never to be allowed the vote; to this clueless pseudo-liberal, it's somehow a just-so story to usher in the post-racial age. Madness. Madness.

[sabotabby]

At least it's self-published. No one besides the author thought it was a good idea.

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

I just went to Bookscan and was pleased to see no uptick in sales at all based on the publicity/controversy. Good discipline from the crowd.

[sabotabby]

Fortunately, I am told a PDF copy exists for those who want to gawk at car wrecks but don't want to give the author any sales.

I read the first chapter. Too awful to spork.

[xturtle.livejournal.com]

I fear TBI from headdesking before this shitstorm blows over. I can't even form whole sentences about how... I just can't understand... How do you not get that...

Really, WTF?

[sabotabby]

Someone called her the N-word when she was little and she was horrified that she'd be mistaken for black.

[nichtsda.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's a highly specialized medal in the Oppression Olympics -- another Olympics I don't care about!

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

White Man's Burden did a pretty god job of flipping the racism complete with all the white people scaring the black cops and Harry Belefonte remarking on how white kids don't behave because they don't have fathers.

But it was trying to be pretty complete in describing all the gradations of racism including internalized racism and polite racism instead of just going "ok, let's pretend white people are the oppressed ones."

[sabotabby]

Yeah—I'm guessing there are ways this could be done well. But this exceeds your lowest expectations.

[fengi.livejournal.com]

"Judging A Book By Its Cover Gives Birth To Racism"

I was amazed at how a subject line I'd expect on a blog post poking fun at the entitled racist arrogance of the author is used sincerely to express the author's entitled racist arrogance.

Yet this holds nothing to the jaw-dropping double down insistence that her premise could totally happen:

If global warming results in a meltdown of the ozone layer many things would change, including the inability of those with little melanin in their skin to survive the blistering effects of increased deadly solar radiation. In humans, melanin is the primary determinant of skin color. People with dark skin have more melanin and, although they also get skin cancer, they do not contract it at the high rates of those with fair skin.

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

So all my friends who said that I did a poor job of designing the cover of Teddy Bear Cannibal Massacre are racists. I'll have to tell them that.

[sabotabby]

Black people are immune to radiation, don't you know?

They can also walk on ceilings. Trufax.

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

But only if they are dancing.

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

Heres the rule: if its a white person saying something about a non white person, its racist.

If its the reverse, its not.

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

Another rule - if in a debate about the actions of a person of another race, if the white person brings up racism without being prompted, there's a 90% chance that the opinion comes from racism.

Told that to me cousin in a debate over Obama. She is no longer talking to me.

[sabotabby]

Doesn't make it untrue!

[audrawilliams.livejournal.com]

You will LOVE her amazing essay about how happy she is that no one minded the interracial romance in her book.

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

So theres no more racism anymore, except for old people! Awesome!

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

Yes, i love that-there was only one racist comment, and it was because he was OLD. The current generation of teenagers are totally beyond that shit! ( eye roll)

[sabotabby]

Yes, the most controversial bit of it is that there's an interracial relationship.

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

"Pearl" isnt really insulting. They should call the white people "dandruff", or "pigeon shit."

Those are the only bad things i can think of that are colored white.

[sabotabby]

Fishbelly
Smegma
Maggot
Grub
Dough
Marshmallow
Cheese
Tighty-whiteys

Or, you know, "ghosts," which is an actual term that people use.

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

Ghosts isnt really insulting. But those other things are.

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

marshmallows are nice.

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

I know very little about racism and I don't know words like HUAC, but The Dispossessed, now, that was my favourite book when I was 12. I used to carry it with me everywhere for a while. But my copy had some sci-fi-ish cover. I think a man-shape emerging from a sort of orangey background.

[sabotabby]

HUAC. Nasty bastards.

It's sad that the cover of The Dispossessed isn't plain green with a Circle of Life stamped on it. Instead, it always looks silly on the cover.

[the_axel]

Or a background of a red triangle over a black triangle.

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, of course I have heard of HUAC then!
I think as you lot are nearer the U.S. these things must come up a lot more. I wish we were as far politically from the U.S. as we are geographically, here. Or rather further!

I haven't reread the Dispossessed since I was 12 or 13. It was the first book that made me go WOW and think there must be something magic in literature. I was so excited. I might be disappointed if I reread it nw.

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

Eugh - just watched a few seconds and felt nauseated.

[mimicucumber.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this excellent write-up, and a totally unfair no thanks for making me aware of more clueless crap in the world.

[sabotabby]

If I have to know, everyone has to know. I'm evil that way.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I am pretty sure the SF Book Review is often pay to play. It is not like, say, the New York Review of Books:

Sponsored Review Program

If you have published a book and want to have a professional review of your book, you can participate in our Sponsored Review program to receive a guaranteed review. We will email your review to you for approval prior to publishing it. A Sponsored Review is not a guaranteed glowing review of your book. We’re not in the business of providing vanity reviews. If you should find our review unfavorable or not to your liking, you can choose to trade the review for an ad (see below).

[sabotabby]

I think all of her positive reviews were paid for or sockpuppets.