Pam Noles on SF diversity

Anyone who cares at all about diversity in the SF genre, who was upset about the Earthsea casting, or who didn't even understand what the issue about the Earthsea casting was really should read this essay by Pam Noles. (ETA in 2017: Sadly apparently no longer on-line.) Fantastic stuff, and the sort of thing that I was utterly oblivious to when I was growing up.

As Ursula Le Guin herself said, "I think it is possible that a good many readers never even notice what color the people in the story are. Don't notice, maybe don't care. Whites of course have the privilege of not caring, of being 'colorblind.' Nobody else does."

One of the most important things I've learned from reading alt.polyamory over the years is the concept of privilege, what it means to be privileged, and how the people who are often the most oblivious to questions of privileged are the people who have privilege since they can afford to ignore it. This essay ties into those same lessons. It is an extremely important concept, one that I think every person, and certainly every privileged person, needs to understand and internalize.

Thanks to Emerald City for the find and the link.