Depictions of racism in SFF by progressives

Racism is a topic that well meaning progressives, like myself, feel they need to address in their writing. It’s on my mind currently, because I’m reading the fourth Wayfarers book by Becky Chambers:

It’s always exciting when Becky writes a new book

Now, ths book (so far) seems to be mostly about culture clash. Different species are stuck in a closed environment together and confront the various assumptions they’d made about each other. It’s okay. Becky writes really well, so it’s more compelling than it would be from another writer but…

My problem with the book is - because we, the reader, don’t hold any of the prejudices the characters do, because we’ve never met any of these creatures, most of the exchanges go like this:

Character A: Look, it’s species X! They’re all thieves/smugglers/wierd communicators

Character B: I’m surprisingly normal.

Character A: Wow! I thought species X was like this but it turns out I was wrong! How surprising to find that I share a lot in common with Species X.

I’m being unfair and reductive, but this is the problem with Becky chosing to decide to focus her book on Sci Fi racism without laying the groundwork. The majority of the time, the reader learns about a negative stereotype concerning a species at roughly the same time the negative stereotype is undercut.

Also, having the characters be ruminating on how ‘we’re different but we’re the saaaame’ means, with few exceptions, all the prejudice exists solely in the characters’ heads… which means we’re not learning about it through action. We’re learning about it through narration. Really, these sections needed to be red ringed by an editor with ‘SNT’ written next to them. (SNT is editor-speak for show don’t tell).

It’s not bad. Again, it’s Becky, I’m not sure she’s capable of writing prose that is less than technically excelent, but I’m not sure about the actual content. It’s a text about sociological differences that’s roughly as deep as that old Aunty Donna sketch:

Becky wants the book to be about characters confronting their own unconcious biases, but it’s hard for me to connect with the subject when I don’t have any of these biases myself.

To dive into this idea a little further, Youtuber WithCindy recently put out a video about the Netflix series Shadow and Bone:

She talks about a bunch of stuff in her video, but the point that stuck with me was - it’s rare for SFF writers to write about actual racism. Most of the time they hide their commentary on racism behind specism instead. ‘Goblins are so dirty!’ ‘Alien Race X is so uninteligent!’. It’s not invalid as an approach, but… maybe if you want to discuss racism in your book you should be brave and actually discuss racism. And then just… hire every sensitivity reader on the planet.

Disclaimer: This is me thinking aloud, this doesn’t apply under all circumstances and, ultimately, I’m white and so any opinions I have on the subject of racism should be at the bottom of the list of your considerations behind those of people of colour. Watch Cindy’s videos for a start, they’re good. Start here: