Technical Difficulties

The fabulous Mary Anne Mohanraj has two excellent posts on John Scalzi's blog. She also links to Ampersand's post on How Not To Be Insane When Accused of Racism (which is, please note, from 2005).

rydra_wong is compiling authoritative link lists of posts about this debate on racism and cultural appropriation.

I put my foot in my mouth way back at the beginning of this discussion, and after I apologized for that, I have not felt--and continue not to feel--that I can make any useful contribution.

But I do have something to say. Viz, and to wit:

I personally do not want science fiction/fantasy/horror to be a white-only domain.

I personally do not want people of color to feel unwelcome, excluded, alienated, or silenced, and I am sorry as all hell that they are being made to feel that way. I know that my comments have been construed as attempts to silence people of color; all I can say is, no. That is never what I want.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968

Martin Luther King was a better human being than I will ever be. Today seems like a good day both to admit and accept that, and to say that making the effort, trying to be a person like him--even if I'll never succeed--is worthy.

It is worth doing. And it is worth failing at, because that's how any truly necessary human endeavor goes.

You try. You fail. You try again. You fail better.

And you keep dancing.