One more thing on David Levine — his post provides a good example of how the Whitey defense screens up and prevent white authors from listening to what anti-racism POC (and their supporters) are saying.

He wrote the following (emphasis mine, as those are the parts I’ll specifically talk about):

This statement is addressed to those on the “anti-racist” side of the debate who have vehemently accused certain white writers and editors of racism or cultural insensitivity.

I have sometimes included characters of color, and of races and cultures other than my own, in my writing. I’ve been trying to do it more. I recognize that doing so is fraught with peril and I have done my best, through critique and research and asking questions, to get it right. I also recognize that sometimes I will get it wrong, and if I do so in a published work I will take my lumps and try to do better in the future.

However. Your reactions to the written works and Internet posts of my friends who are also trying to do the same have made me question even the attempt.

[...]

But lately I’ve been so worried about getting it wrong, and being vilified in public for it, that I’m considering abandoning the story. What if it gets published and then I see it torn apart in a panel at Wiscon? Will I get a little twinge of concern and angst every time I see one of my non-white writing friends at a convention, wondering whether she’s angry at me because of that story? (Or this post?)

See, David is afraid that if he writes something and, due to his white privilege and ignorance (“her blackness…helps to determine why she does what she does within the story”), he’ll fuck it up.

And then he’ll get torn apart by the PC Heifer Horde.

But he still doesn’t understand what happens in arguments like this.

Anti-racism activists are, by and large, pretty forgiving overall of Whitey acting like Whitey — I have yet to see anyone get out the torches and pitchforks just because someone privileged-but-well-meaning wrote something racist. POC, I suspect, pretty much expect that white people, writing about non-white people, will pull some sort of absurdly presumptive or ignorant concept out of their collective white ass, and not know what they’re doing. And because they know the white person is both privileged and well-meaning, the POC typically don’t lose their shit over it, if they engage the person directly.

That’s why every single flamewar about race and cultural appropriation and oppression and science fiction/fantasy/comics/horror/games/fandom goes like this (including this most recent flamewar):

1. Whitey writes something offensive about characters of color, because Whitey has white privilege.
2. Some POC notices it, and says, “Um, hey, I like you and all, but this stuff is pretty offensive. Can you rethink what you’re doing?”
3. Whitey says something condescending and dismissive, like “Well, I am just writing fiction, and all stories are made up anyway, so while I thank you for trying to help me write better COC, I’m not going to acknowledge any white privilege on my part. (PS: Also I am part Cherokee, my Black Friend liked the story, and I love Chinese food.)”
4. POC goes “…”
5. POC recovers from being stunned and tries to explain why Whitey thinks she is listening, but really isn’t, and starts talking about privilege and race and other things that people who are harmed by white privilege know all about, but people with white privilege can’t readily conceive of.
6. Whitey gets frustrated because although she really wants to be a good, non-racist person, POC is making no sense to her, so she just spouts off yet more privileged stuff, upping the ante because she doesn’t want to back down, since that would be admitting that she was racist in the first place.
7. About this time, Whitey’s racist friends show up and freak the hell out that a POC is talking about this batshit crazy privilege stuff, and they start spouting off even more ridiculous nonsense full of race fail.
8. POC’s anti-racist friends catch wind of this and go “oh NO she DIDN’T” and head on over, and a big fight breaks out.
9. The fight gets worse as the racist friends say yet more privileged bullshit, and the anti-racist friends call people on it — which, to people with white privilege, sounds and feels like abuse. (One symptom of unchecked white privilege is that whenever white privilege attacked, you take it personally, and it feels like an attack against you.)
10. Whitey declares she’s no longer listening, even though she really wasn’t listening in the first place, and everything kind of fizzles out until it starts up somewhere else in the world.

You know David Levine missed in all that? The role of the original, problematic text, and criticism thereof. In this latest flamewar, there’s been nobody bashing on Elizabeth Bear because she wrote racist stuff in her books. There have been a few people talking about her writing, but that’s the kind of thing David expects when he writes “if I do so in a published work I will take my lumps and try to do better in the future.”

So what does get people ripped apart, if not their work as authors?

Offensive statements defending white privilege and white-privilege-fueled ignorance will get you in deep trouble. Simply writing bad stuff but then listening and learning when people criticize your work will not make you the punching bag of anti-racism activists. It’s only when you open your damn mouth and whine about how mean and unfair those POC are that you confirm yourself not as a white person who made a mistake, but as a privileged, stupid Whitey who doesn’t give a fuck if you don’t Get It.

Note that step #2 in the timeline above isn’t “vehemently accus[ing]” anyone of anything, but as noted in #9, any time Whitey is called on white privilege, they can’t back down. But the vehement reactions aren’t based on the writing in #1, but on the reactions in #3, #6, #7, …

David writes, preemptively self-piteously, “…wondering whether she’s angry at me because of that story? (Or this post?)”

His parenthetical aside is actually the truth here, but I don’t think he knows it. I maintain that anti-racism activists simply don’t get angry at their white friends for having white privilege; disappointed, sure, and sometimes hurt, but I’ve only seen actual anger when the dumbass Whitey becomes aware of the problem of cultural appropriation and the effect on POC, and then writes something like, oh, say, “…something where all the characters are white, or aliens or cartoon characters or disembodied spirits, and I don’t have to deal with issues of race and culture.”