I don't now if any of you have noticed, but there's been a great deal of discussion over the last few months about the diversity in SFF writers. (I.e. the number of published women writers and writers of different races.)

To be short and sweet, I used to be an anthropologist and I spent a significant portion of time working on racial factors (and all that entails) and gender issues. Usually, I would have wanted to avoid these discussions because, despite the fact that both are real actual issues, so often I have seen people, particularly academics, get hung up on these issues and lose a significant amount of logic and reason. These are hot, emotional, loaded topics, and rarely have I seen productive conclusions arise from such discussions. And mostly that just pisses me off. And that's useful, let me tell you.

So I wrote a long post on race and diversity in the SFF community. And then I didn't post it. Partially it turned into an academic flavored discussion, and I didn't think it was useful.

So I got down to the nitty gritty and just said that if people had an issue with the diversity in the field then they should do something about it. I made a couple of suggestions.

I should have said nothing, but I have often felt that if one is standing by and watching something said and they have something to say, particularly if they disagree (and I don't necessarily disagree with the issue at hand, just some of the resulting dialogue), and stays silent, then one is essentially agreeing.

I expect I may get flamed, if the right people ever read it. But that's okay. It wouldn't be anything new. I know something who is a sociologist and she is firmly entrenched in the idea that the WASP man is keeping her, and every other woman, down. She'll start discussions with me, and try to argue with me, and when I don't agree with her on something, then she says it's because I'm a SAHM, Caucasian, and I have bought into the WASP philosophy and am letting the patriarchal men keep me down. Because, you know, any intelligent woman wouldn't have made the choices I've made.

I get this sort of thing a lot: You wouldn't understand -- you're white. You've never seen real racism. You've never met a (enter race here) person. You're from Idaho. You've never been anywhere. You've never seen real life.

People make a lot of assumptions.

Anyway, Avadore's bus is due to arrive. Time to be a housewife.