Rhi. (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rhivolution) wrote2010-06-18 09:31 pm
rhivolution) wrote2010-06-18 09:31 pm
Holy carp, something fandomy.
Okay, so I'm doing a Star Trek AOS fic for ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
dark_agenda's Racebending. At the moment, my intent is that Winona-whose-name-is-no-longer-that Kirk is of Tamil descent*, and that Sam and Jim are multiracial.
It's probably obvious that I'm grappling with appropriate representation of both a future Tamil diaspora and multiracial people. (...still looking for cultural betas, by the way, if anyone has the energy/spoons.)
But there's also a broad spectrum problem with the very nature of the piece, which is that the Federation claims to be beyond racism on internal levels--xenophobia is an issue, but among humans, racism does not exist. Star Trek prefers to make examples of racism via a lens of xenophobia.
But in writing up that post on class, I went into the entrenchment of concepts within a culture, and the scale and timeline on which ideals change. It takes centuries, and while, within the US, the 20th century shifted ideas and privilege substantially when viewed in the long-term, Rome was not built in a day. Today there's so much lip service towards equality when underlying systematic problems remain.
Now, in the Trekverse, we know that the Third World War shook things up, with First Contact coming out of the chaos thereafter. And maybe WWIII was a great equalizer in making everyone miserable. Thereafter, thanks to HOLY CRAP VULCANS, humanity picked up the pieces in a fifty-year period and by the end of it there were happy campfire songs. (I have no idea how, logically, this could have happened, 'cause the people with money and influence always, always get out ahead of the pack. But say it did. And everyone is equal.)
But we do know that the populations of the Earth can't possibly be in an equal mix on every part of the planet, because that doesn't make any sense. Colonies, perhaps. But you're not going to up and relocate people from where they've been living just to make a bloody point.
Iowa is, at this moment in time, very white--something like 95%. I don't think it's a long shot, even extrapolating for potential reconciliation work, to say that Iowa of the future would also be very white, particularly small town Iowa. Yes, there's a Starfleet drydock and base nearby, but consider interaction between people on a military base and townies today. We see some hints of this in the bar scene in AOS.
So while I'd like to say that on a Federation Earth in 2244, racism does not exist, I can't say that that is entirely true, not with sociocultural shifting. Not when you've only got two POC on the bridge of a flagship among your cadets. Violence, hate crimes, fiscal inequity...no. But difference and prejudice, when one's one of a very few POC in the area, and not quite a townie or a Fed anymore...I don't think you can wipe that out of the Midwest.
Not-Winona has no place in Riverside, is culturally difficult for locals to grasp both due to race and being from a colony world, and is heartbroken to boot...so why the hell is she in Iowa?
Very practical reasons. And that might be what leads them all through to a conclusion or tears them all apart.
------
That said, I...feel like I'm treading through a minefield here, and I'd like to know if I've fucked up, conceptually. Or if I'm just wrong. Help and ideas are much appreciated.
* South India and Sri Lanka have been a reading interest of late, and it's also a bit of a quiet hat-tip to a Smith prof of mine.
dark_agenda's Racebending. At the moment, my intent is that Winona-whose-name-is-no-longer-that Kirk is of Tamil descent*, and that Sam and Jim are multiracial.It's probably obvious that I'm grappling with appropriate representation of both a future Tamil diaspora and multiracial people. (...still looking for cultural betas, by the way, if anyone has the energy/spoons.)
But there's also a broad spectrum problem with the very nature of the piece, which is that the Federation claims to be beyond racism on internal levels--xenophobia is an issue, but among humans, racism does not exist. Star Trek prefers to make examples of racism via a lens of xenophobia.
But in writing up that post on class, I went into the entrenchment of concepts within a culture, and the scale and timeline on which ideals change. It takes centuries, and while, within the US, the 20th century shifted ideas and privilege substantially when viewed in the long-term, Rome was not built in a day. Today there's so much lip service towards equality when underlying systematic problems remain.
Now, in the Trekverse, we know that the Third World War shook things up, with First Contact coming out of the chaos thereafter. And maybe WWIII was a great equalizer in making everyone miserable. Thereafter, thanks to HOLY CRAP VULCANS, humanity picked up the pieces in a fifty-year period and by the end of it there were happy campfire songs. (I have no idea how, logically, this could have happened, 'cause the people with money and influence always, always get out ahead of the pack. But say it did. And everyone is equal.)
But we do know that the populations of the Earth can't possibly be in an equal mix on every part of the planet, because that doesn't make any sense. Colonies, perhaps. But you're not going to up and relocate people from where they've been living just to make a bloody point.
Iowa is, at this moment in time, very white--something like 95%. I don't think it's a long shot, even extrapolating for potential reconciliation work, to say that Iowa of the future would also be very white, particularly small town Iowa. Yes, there's a Starfleet drydock and base nearby, but consider interaction between people on a military base and townies today. We see some hints of this in the bar scene in AOS.
So while I'd like to say that on a Federation Earth in 2244, racism does not exist, I can't say that that is entirely true, not with sociocultural shifting. Not when you've only got two POC on the bridge of a flagship among your cadets. Violence, hate crimes, fiscal inequity...no. But difference and prejudice, when one's one of a very few POC in the area, and not quite a townie or a Fed anymore...I don't think you can wipe that out of the Midwest.
Not-Winona has no place in Riverside, is culturally difficult for locals to grasp both due to race and being from a colony world, and is heartbroken to boot...so why the hell is she in Iowa?
Very practical reasons. And that might be what leads them all through to a conclusion or tears them all apart.
------
That said, I...feel like I'm treading through a minefield here, and I'd like to know if I've fucked up, conceptually. Or if I'm just wrong. Help and ideas are much appreciated.
* South India and Sri Lanka have been a reading interest of late, and it's also a bit of a quiet hat-tip to a Smith prof of mine.