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The Guardian reports on a new study which has found that
The world of speculative fiction publishing is plagued by "structural, institutional, personal, universal" racism, according to a new report that found less than 2% of more than 2,000 SF stories published last year were by black writers.
The report, published by the magazine Fireside Fiction, states that just 38 of the 2,039 stories published in 63 magazines in 2015 were by black writers. With the bulk of the industry based in the US, more than half of all speculative fiction publications the report considered did not publish a single original story by a black author. "The probability that it is random chance that only 1.96% of published writers are black in a country where 13.2% of the population is black is 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000321%," says the report.
The editor of Fireside Fiction goes on to say...
"Fiction, we have a problem. We all know this. We do. We don't need numbers to see that, like everywhere in our society, marginalisation of black people is still a huge problem in publishing ... The entire system is built to benefit whiteness – and to ignore that is to bury your head in the flaming garbage heap of history."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 13 2016, @02:40AM
You know what hurts black people more than anything? You. You told them they could never get ahead in life. And for every single person who believes you, it is absolutely true. And it is absolutely your fault.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 13 2016, @03:35AM
Nah, I'm pretty sure what hurts black people more than anything is the massive overwhelming poverty.
Stuff like red lining and Jim Crow, you know the stuff you would have learned about in history class if you had paid attention.
When the median black household wealth is less than 8% of the median white household [pewresearch.org] and all of that is tied up in a depreciating asset (family car) that's a barrier that takes herculean strength to lift your own bootstraps over.
But you keep right on telling yourself that the real problem isn't racism, its the people who talk about racism. After all, he who smelt it dealt it!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 13 2016, @08:58AM
I just hate it that the Mighty Buzz is a racist and will never amount to anything. I mean, it is such a waste! The boy can code, they say, but such issues with people talking him down. He might as well just join the military and suck off the Federal government teat for the rest of his natural days. Not his fault. It is all those anti-racists that have put him in this situation. If only the South had won the Civil War, and liberated Oklahoma from the Five Nations!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 13 2016, @10:28AM
Oh, you mean things that don't exist any more? Yeah, those totally have an effect on everyday life.
No, it does not. It takes a lot of missed sleep, a lot of ramen noodles, and a moderate amount of learning. That's tedious but not herculean. Absolutely anyone with a fully functional body and an IQ over 80 can do it.
I'll grant you it does help if you have at least a tiny bit of wisdom though. Like for example how every last car in front of the local low income housing is much nicer than mine and over half have huge ass aftermarket rims with ultra low profile tires. That's not hyperbole or even slight exaggeration. That, my cowardly friend, is what a toxic culture will do for you, teach you to put what should be savings into trivial bullshit because image maters more than getting to eat this month.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.