Racist Things Steampunks Are Not Immune To: Looking For Other People’s Hurt To Be Offended By

February 5th, 2013 by Guest Contributor

Well then, go fuck up on your own time and in your own goddamn space! Not where I can see you and not where other people can be collateral damage!

We ask nicely and get told “well, whatever.” We ask again and get told we are looking for offense where there is none. We ask again and get told that we always have a problem and never a solution. And we ask again and get told, “I just wanna do what I want.” We ask and ask and ask.

Since you want to make it about you, how about I make it about me?

I want to do what I want, too. I want to have fun in steampunk and have great discussions about how it can teach us real history and help us have conversations about the past. I want to talk about how the genre has been skewered and misread by historians and overlooked as a site of culture and knowledge. I want to have wonderful dialogue with wonderful people coming up with strategies to help ameliorate current suffering that came about because of the history we want to re-imagine. (Mark this: Solutions can never come about through one person alone. Solutions only arise through cooperation, willingness to listen, and honesty about the problem. If you expect an individual who notices a problem to come up with a solution alone, you fall back on the individualist hero thinking that got us to where we are in our selfish society).

And you know…despite all that, I still do this–even with assholes railing against our work illuminating racism because they’re more keen on digging in their heels and defending their freedom from knowing about other people’s hurt and anger and even with ubiquitous louts who aren’t willing to admit that there is a problem or, if there is one, it’s really not that bad. I will still do this, even though I know, at every event, I’m going to come across at least one of these irredeemables looking for offense.

My love [for steampunk] is stronger than your ignorance. It is fed by the knowledge of past wrongs never uncovered because we are too afraid to reckon with them. And it is fed by the rage of knowing those past wrongs still surface today. And it is fed by the pain I feel that every thing I consume, every move I make, every cent I spend, is part of a machine built by greedy people and run by their fearful, perhaps innocent, minions and oiled by cowards.

Yes, my love manifests with fury and vengeance. If you cannot fathom how this can even be, yet allow that injustices will happen and you don’t have to hew your mind to fully comprehending your place in it…you’re not as open-minded or as inclusive or as welcoming as you like to think you are. Because you cannot accept that there are variegated ways of being and doing that are beyond your measly comprehension.

So yeah, go ahead, go do what you want to do. Just don’t limit the reactions you receive as a result. That’s not welcoming. Don’t try to tell people how they should react to you. (Frankly, I  doubt anybody is going to engage with you about your offensive-ass steampunk costume, anyway. If you have the brainlessness to wear it out in public, you probably don’t have the peace of mind to handle criticism of it without doing some crazy mental acrobatics justifying that shit.)

Do what you want to do. Just do it far away from me. Fandom is big enough, right? I’m certainly not looking for fuck-ups anymore. I don’t even have to; people keep pointing them out to me. I got better shit to do. Cut me a break and go fuck up somewhere else. But never mistake that I am offended by anything anymore. No, I’ve come to expect racist shit. I’m done having high expectations.

And you people allegedly cowed by the idea of giving offense? You sure do take a lot of offense when being told you’ve being offensive.

I’m now going to go read about slave ships. I’ll see you all later.

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Posted in Literature, fandom, race, race & publishing, race & representations | 10 comments

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  • SuperHyugaYoshichan

    I’m certainly not looking for fuck-ups anymore. I don’t even have to; people keep pointing them out to me. I got better shit to do. Cut me a break and go fuck up somewhere else. But never mistake that I am offended by anything anymore. No, I’ve come to expect racist shit. I’m done having high expectations.

    Fucking this! I’m only 17, and I’ve become jaded enough in order to expect and deal microagressions yet I deal with them all the same. Especially at school. It’s just something I keep on slaving away at, but the best part is when people say that all the stress and energy you go through means nothing and isn’t “real”. Fuck ‘em, is what I gotta say! Be as blunt as possible, and don’t even bother holding them to a standard.

    If they want a fucking standard, they’re gonna haf’ta earn one!

  • http://following-not-dreaming.blogspot.com/ Blake

    I can’t say I’ve ever really followed steampunk, though I’ve been intrigued by the aesthetic. However, I think I’ll steer clear. It would be helpful for the uninitated to see a basic primer on what steampunk is and is not doing to be sensitive to other cultures and ethnicities. Thanks.

  • http://twitter.com/cupcakecore cupcakecore

    Ugh sometimes steampunk is the worst. I think it suffers from what sci-fi/fantasy suffers from which is that anything is possible except diversity, but steampunk suffers from it more, possibly because it’s built on the notion that you can re-write history. I don’t read a lot of the genre, but I really really love the Leviathan series, which is predominantly white people but it’s more respectfully diverse than it had to be. And Cherie Priest’s Clockwork Century series is also pretty good.

  • http://twitter.com/dorkphoenyx lizzieb***

    I definitely think there is a lack of awareness and diversity in the steampunk community. As far as I can see (from a position of being involved with it for a long time, but not at an incredibly deep level), there’s not really anything being done. All I can say in its favor is that at least in the groups I frequent, no one does racialized cosplay – no “Oriental princesses” or “Native Warriors”. Unfortunately, I think this is due less to an awareness of the problematic aspects of steampunk than it is to these players having come from the RenFaire crowd (so – corsets. and more corsets.)

    Now, I *really* wish I was going to Wicked Faire! I would have loved to have a discussion/panel on this – although finding individuals to lead it might be difficult, as it is still a predominantly white group (at least among the leadership; the hoi polloi is beginning to diversify).

  • http://twitter.com/jhameia Jaymee Goh

    No “Native warriors”? I’ve seen some pretty shit Orientalism in the last couple of years, and steamfashion is full of racist shit.

  • http://twitter.com/jhameia Jaymee Goh

    I have a series of interviews with steampunks of color at my blog. I try to feature one every month.
    I’ve of course given up on featuring white people being sensitive to other cultures; it’s not worth my time anymore and it just makes the white liberals feel better when they have no reason to congratulate themselves.

  • http://twitter.com/jhameia Jaymee Goh
  • Diana Pho

    Jha and I have been working on anti-racism & multiculturalism in steampunk for several years now, so by reading her here, you’ve just met one of the people fighting to bring larger awareness to the steampunk community. And yes, it can be a frustrating process because of all of the crap we get from privileged folk who can’t understand what it means to be a PoC in any geeky subculture, not just steampunk.

    I’m actually based out of NYC, and have gone to Wicked Faire before! Won’t be going this year because it falls on Lunar New Year, but I can certainly consider presenting if Jeff Mach makes the offer XD

    Btw, feel free to check out my blog beyondvictoriana.com for some PoC-supported steampunk goodness.

  • http://following-not-dreaming.blogspot.com/ Blake

    Very enlightening. Thanks for sharing. Also, your “Read these before engaging” list is one of the best I’ve seen.

  • zdrav

    Steampunk is a loving memorialization of a time when Western Europe was undoubtedly the most dominant power in the world. It’s difficult to simultaneously romanticize that period AND gloss over the imperialism/racism of that era.

    I’m willing to bet that most steampunk writers aren’t good enough to tread that line with skill. They probably overestimate their abilities because they self-servingly see themselves as forlorn and imaginative romantics just because they like cheesy gaslight romances.