Oh No Greg Egan No!

As you may have encountered if you’re following online science fiction fandom, for months now there has been an increasingly poisonous but important discussion about race, cultural apropriation and science fction going on in various sf blogs, mostly on Livejournal. Science fiction/fandom prides itself on being open and inclusive, but in reality has huge blindspots when it comes to matters of race, culture and gender. Which in itself is not a new conclusion of course, but which Racefail 2009 –as this increasingly acrimonious discussion has been dubbed by cynics — makes clear is still a sore spot for the genre. Even well intentioned writers have been shown to be –how to say– less than tactful in their handling of these matters.

Greg Egan’s throwaway remark that the use of words like “geek” or “nerd” is as bad as certain racial slurs could therefore not come at a worse time:

These days there’s often some ranting about “nerds” and “geeks” — words that belong in the same rubbish pile as “niggers” and “gooks” — though I have to admit there’s something gloriously awful, in a Love And Death on Long Island kind of way, when would-be sophisticates who spend half their time discussing Joyce or Sophocles switch to a vocabulary whose current usage was largely forged in the supremely inane universe of American high school cliques. It’s also quite handy to have a word or two around whose use swiftly identifies a proud scientific illiterate just as effectively as the words that mark a proud racist. Of course, there are a handful of scientifically literate people who have decided to self-identify with the same vocabulary, but when it comes to using n-words the example of Fifty Cent is a great deal less appealing to me than that of Barack Obama.

But you have to admit that there is no better proof than this that yes, science fiction is clueless about race. Nerds and geeks may be bullied in high school sometimes, but it’s all a far cry from being forced to use separate water coolers and such, now is it, or being stopped “randomly” for wearing pocket protectors… Especially considering the context in which Egan makes these remarks, his attempted putdown of a negative Adam Roberts review of Egan’s latest novel, this show an astounding level of entitlement and cluelessness.

If you want to read more about Racefail 2009, Torque Control has a good overview post up. I myself have been reading, but not writing about the discussion as I have little to add and there are enough half assed opinions being slung around in it already…

4 Comments

  • Journey into Links « Torque Control

    March 9, 2009 at 9:28 am

    […] I Want From The Loc…Journey into Links … on Reasons to care about Rac…Wis[s]e Words … on Reasons to care about Rac…Nick Hubble on Reasons to care […]

  • Jason M. Robertson

    March 9, 2009 at 10:49 am

    It was awkward indeed, but he clearly seems to have grasped that when called on it, and the present version of the essay corrected. I kind of wish he’d changelogged that edit, but I guess we can’t have everything.

  • Mario

    March 10, 2009 at 2:30 pm

    As a “nerd”, or “geek”, who required psychotherapy and drugs after years of bulling, go fuck yourself sidewise.

  • mwisse

    March 10, 2009 at 3:50 pm

    Sorry to hear that happened to you, Mario. I know very well this happens and never said nerds/geeks aren’t often bullied, but a lot of us aren’t either. To compare nerdbashing or geek bullying, no matter how horrifying this is for individual people, which again I’m not denying can be very bad with racism however is just wrong. Keeping this in an US perspective, there hasn’t been widespread slavery of geeks, nerds denied the vote, nor was a massive civil rights campaign needed to give geeks the same rights as other people.

    Bullying is a real problem, but it does nobody any favours to exagerrate the way Greg Egan did originally.