Race and ethnicity in fandom, and actually, real life as well

[raven]

This is a neat wrap-up of the miscegenation wank.

I... don't know what to say about this. Because yes, it is wanky, wanky in the extreme, and offensive as all hell that white people having sex with people who aren't white is being equated with bestiality. But more and more, lately, I wonder where I exist in fandom. I'm a woman, and there are lots of fannish women and lots of women in the canonical media - yes, we can have the perennial debate about the lack of strong women as role models, but they do exist: Buffy Summers, Kara Thrace, Sam Carter, Hermione Granger, Martha Jones.

I'm queer, too. I'm less and less certain of what that means in my case, but there are also many, many queer fannish people, and lots of those are queer women, and even in the canonical media, there are (some) queer characters: Willow Rosenberg, Jack Harkness, Oliver Welles.

And, of course, there are non-white people. Martha, again, and Mickey Smith, and Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Zoe Washburne, and this time there actually are lots. But... you know. I'm not black, or "of African descent". Technically I'm a "person of colour", but that's not terminology I've ever used to identify myself. I'm Asian. I'm Indian. In all my time in fandom, I've only ever met two other fannish Indian people, and one of them I knew for many years before I ever found out she was fannish. And where are Indian people in fannish media? There, er, aren't any. I always used to think it was because I was in the wrong fandoms, or moved in the wrong circles, but now I'm beginning to think no, there just aren't any. (Actually, no, I'm wrong: Parvati and Padma Patil, of course, are probably Indian, and Hindus. But they're hardly main characters, and what, just one example?)

And why is this? I honestly don't have any idea. It's not like there aren't many Indians in the world - one in six people is Indian, which is a statistic I use a lot, but is nevertheless still true - and it's not like there aren't Indians(/Pakistanis/Bangladeshis) in Britain and America. There are millions of them. So I kind of, you know, don't get it. And that's without even starting on the huge and enormous levels of ignorance about my ethnicity, race and culture that just persist.

(Briefly: yes, I'm Indian. No, that doesn't mean I have to be a Muslim. I'm a Hindu. A Hindu is a person. Hinduism is a religion. Hindi is a language. Yes, I speak it. No, not because I'm a Hindu. No, I don't worship cows. Or even elephant-headed gods. At least, not all the time. I don't and will not eat beef. And "Om" is pronounced "Ohhhhhhhhm". Like the O in "open". Thank you for listening.)

And maybe that ignorance persists because of the lack of portrayal in the media? It's just a thought. And the other thing I worry about, quite a lot nowadays, is that I can't find anyone else like me. There are Indian women who are not like me, like my various female cousins, who are all about the Bollywood movies and hang out with other Indians and speak their own polyglot. I never did that - I never really look at people's skin colour, and maybe I should, sometimes - and I've never found another Indian person who makes friends in the haphazard, shared-geeky-interest way that I do, and it's horrible to say, but I've never met another Indian woman who's at all politically aware, nor one who's a feminist, nor who's self-consciously trying to find her cultural identity. I don't know where women like that hang out; I thought, once, that if I tried the Oxford Indian and Hindu societies I might find them, but I went there and never did. I wish I knew where they hang out, because I blindly refuse to believe they don't exist.

Sigh. All right. So much babble for this brief point I was trying to make. I should go to bed - I have to take my driving theory test again in the morning, and it's been a long day of customers thinking I'm stupid. Apparently, by looking at me, people assume I don't know the difference between an author and an editor, and neither do I understand that a hardback Bible is, um... a Bible in hard covers. And they assume I'm an "assistant" (at the moment only two people are running the shop, and yes, my work-mate technically outranks me, but... urgh. People assume.) Whether this is because my work-mate is male, or because he's white, I don't know, and sometimes you get tired of giving people the benefit of the doubt and just want to call them on their despicable, ignorant shit.

Today is one of those days where I'm tired of ticking all the "minority" boxes. Yuck.

In other, happier news, I seem to have written another Slings & Arrows fic, quite unrelated to the ficathon. Er, yay? I wanted to edit it tonight, but I'm too tired and pissed off. Bedtime.

Comments

[wishfulaces.livejournal.com]

One of my former college roommates is Indian (um, I'm not sure from which part of the country or even which language she speaks, and she's never really been very religious since I've known her). She's a little bit geeky--she reads sci-fi and such, but she's not fannish--and she's always had Indian and non-Indian friends. She's independent, she's smart, she's vegan, she's all sorts of things.

So, yes. I don't know if that helps or makes any sense or what. But I thought I'd throw it out there.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :) It helps, sort of - until I start worrying that I have to cross continents to find people. *g*

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

[via friendsfriends]

Mohinder Suresh on Heroes is Indian, and very much a main character (and frequently written about, because OMG PRETTY).

At least one person on my flist is Indian, too, as far as I know.

Also, YAY S&A fic.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Heroes started on BBC2 this week, and I missed it! I need to watch the show at some point.

Also, YAY S&A fic.

Heeee. I love this show so damn much, and I'm pretty sure I'm pissing off my flist by my unending love. *g*

[forthwritten.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'm Indian, but as I've probably mentioned before, not Indian in the way that most people think of as Indian and not Indian in the same way you're Indian. It's frustrating because India is a huge place and someone from Kolkata and someone from Chennai and someone from Goa and someone from Shillong are going to be radically different - and if you force someone to think about it by saying that London and Liverpool are both in England but incredibly different something does seem to click - but in a way I'm fed up of having to make that click for people.

I'm not expecting to be represented anywhere (apparently there are just over a million of my tribe, so it's not like we're a major ethnic group) but it's frustrating that most of the debate about ethnicity and race seems to equate "non-white" with "black" when it's simply not the case, and British-Indians exist in a very different context from black British people.

To be honest, I don't know many fannish, politically-aware, feminist, culturally aware and interested people in general...

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

You know, I don't think you have mentioned it before - or I've been inattentive, because I didn't know that. I'm mixed-up-mongrel Indian - Bengali and Delhiite with bits of UP, so I think of myself as "Indian" rather than entering whole new levels of identity crisis. Which tribe do you belong to?

The differing context is so different. It's impossible to explain this, sometimes, and I've almost given up trying.

To be honest, I don't know many fannish, politically-aware, feminist, culturally aware and interested people in general...

I do, and I'm so lucky that I do, and they're predominantly - no, they're all white. I want someone my side of the divide sometimes, you know? I guess you do!

via friendsfriends

[zvi-likes-tv.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry I didn't include you in my post better.

The fans of color and anti-racist white fans did start out in a very US-centric, black/white dynamic, since many of us were black or white Americans and most of the characters or actors in question were black Americans/Canadians/Brits. We've started working on this more, either being less specific in the terms we use to depict offense or using fewer black and white American examples in favor of more international and ethnically diverse examples.

There are also more Asian, Carribean, and Commonwealth (of color and white) fans speaking out on these issues (er, is India part of the Commonwealth?). It is likely that in the next couple of weeks, http://del.icio.us/ibarw/india will have new posts by Indian fans. There are a couple of posts there now from last year's International Blog Against Racism Week, but I don't recognize the names and can't say anything about those people.

As for Indian characters in the media, there's Kumar in Harold & Kumar, which isn't one of those things fans do a lot of fannish stuff with, but they do like it. And also Sanjay in Weeds. And I know that there are some fans who like Bollywood films and musicals, but I can't think of anyone in particular off the top of my head, and I don't know if you like those. And Bend It Like Beckham, and the woman from Bend It Like Beckham is on ER now. (Or was on ER recently, I don't keep up with ER except for commercials.)

From my experience, if you want to meet other Indian fans, you'll have to talk about being Indian in fannish online settings. I never knew there were so many black people in fandom until I started talking about race. You could start by submitting this post to metafandom.

You might also want to check out deadbrowalking. Membership is currently closed, but you can friend the community right now, and join later when it opens back up.

Re: via friendsfriends

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

We've started working on this more, either being less specific in the terms we use to depict offense or using fewer black and white American examples in favor of more international and ethnically diverse examples.

And this I am all in favour of, but I'm still wondering why there is no movement from the other side, as it were. Fen of colour, as you put it, operate(d) with the black/white dynamic because that's basically what there was to operate with - but why are there no Asian fans operating in a dynamic of their own? I really, honestly, want to know. I get the sense that there are black Americans and black British people "out there" - but that the Asians are invisible. Thank you for that link - I liked the posts on it at the moment, and as you say, there should be more.

I like Bend It Like Beckham for its portrayal of an NRI woman, which is what I really am after. I'm not familiar with Weeds or Harold and Kumar, unfortunately. (And, you know, I kinda don't want to get into shows because they have Indian characters, you know? Because then I feel like I'm making it all about me, when surely fannish engagement is about the material itself.)

From my experience, if you want to meet other Indian fans, you'll have to talk about being Indian in fannish online settings.

Well, that's the thing, I guess. Being Indian and fannish is something I've always wanted to talk about more; as far as I know, it doesn't get talked about, and it should.

And yes, yes, meeting Indian fans would be cool, but I'm looking for Indian people not necessarily fannish, but political, feminist, culturally conscious - and I'm failing. I think fannish is sometimes a shortcut to those things, because hell, fannish people are smart, but it seems sad to me that I can't find Indian people in the environment around me who want their voices heard, too. Maybe I ask too much.

I've seen deadbrowalking about the place and was a little wary. It's just... I'm not American, either! And I begin to feel that failing to be black and failing to be American makes me fail as a "person of colour", because I just feel no connection with the term.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I had a few Indian friends in college who were fannishly inclined - I can't say if they were entirely "like you" but they exist. Though I will admit most of the Indians I've known have not appeared inclined in that direction.

And I actually have very little insightful to say but this was definitely an interesting read. I do wonder how different the Indian experience is in England vs. America...

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

None of the Indians I've known have been like me at all, and this rankles, because I'm related to lots of them. :)

I think it differs a lot according to location. My parents live in a place with almost no ethnic diversity - I think we're the only Indian family in the village - and everything would have been different if I'd grown up in a city. But at the same time, British society is probably more liberal than American society, at least if you live in a small village, so I don't know if that would have made a difference.

[likethesun2.livejournal.com]

Damn, people beat me to Heroes's Mohinder and Weeds's Sanjay. Clearly, I do not spend enough time on LJ obsessively refreshing my flist.

Only fandom could have miscegenation wank. SERIOUSLY, guys?

I found this post really interesting, because it's not something I would have guessed--this, mostly:

and I've never found another Indian person who makes friends in the haphazard, shared-geeky-interest way that I do, and it's horrible to say, but I've never met another Indian woman who's at all politically aware, nor one who's a feminist, nor who's self-consciously trying to find her cultural identity.

Because actually all of the Indian girls/women I knew growing up* were all of those things. And also at least mildly fannishly inclined. Although, given that most of the girls that I knew growing up--of any cultural background--could be described that way, I suppose it wasn't a representative sample anyway. But you're right: at least in online fandom, I have encountered very few Indian people.

*I say this in the past tense because once I left for college, I was dropped in whiter-than-white-bread rural Ohio, at a school that, like most small private liberal-arts schools, really struggles with diversity. It still kind of freaks me out, because I grew up in groups where, as someone of WASP/Irish Catholic background, I was usually in the minority. I am not okay with this sudden influx of cultural guilt!

(PS: AHHHH, more S&A fic? You are a machine.)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Miscegenation wank. I KNOW.

What worries me is that all right, I didn't know many Indian people at all when I was growing up - Liverpool isn't known for its multiculturalism, it's true - but when I went to Oxford, I was still looking. There are a half-dozen student societies for Indians and Hindus, and I went along a few times, but it was so... oh, I don't know. They were like miniature versions of their parents. Some of them were even going bald in the same places. It was all about maintaining "traditional values", all about parroting lines about old-school Bollywood and old gender roles. No one questioned anything, no one even wanted to.

And then I got pinned in a corner by a bespectacled Indian CompSci who then spent ten minutes telling me my litany of Western sins - my clothes, my hair, my language - and then I gave up. It doesn't make sense to me.

(I LOSE AT LIFE. *g*)

[vikingwriter.livejournal.com]

Uh, I'm pretty sure this is just why I read the fic and avoid the meta. (Though, I've been about quite a few, uh, kinkish type comms, and NEVER seen miscegination as a kink. And I'll forego asking why they chose to use that word to describe bestiality instead of, you know, bestiality.)

As for your quest for persons like you of similar ethnicity online or in general, I've got nothing. Every South Asian (Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan and even Nepali) woman/teenager/girl I've met has been very traditional, academically dedicated (mostly in science, as many of them were in high school, where there was a large Indian population of doctors [don't know where exactly they were from, and yes, *all* the parents were doctors] and their kids went to my Catholic school and were the stereotypical math and science-focused students), and not really a rock-the-boat kind of personality. None of which strikes me as true about you.

I can speak to finding people who 'get' you, though, without regards to ethnicity or gender. They've been rare in my life, but I've managed to keep up with them, thankfully, and they tend to come along when and where I least expect them. But none of this really helps you in the specific sense and I don't really think I'm making sense anymore? Must be sleepytime...

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

None of which strikes me as true about you.

*grins* Well, sort of, sort of not. I rock the boat. I do. Sometimes consciously, sometimes not. But, well. My parents are doctors, my academic background was all science until I was eighteen, and I am... well, I don't know, I perhaps wouldn't call it "academically dedicated" any more, but I certainly was at school, and doing well in my degree is very important to me. In some ways I fit the mould exactly, which makes it harder - if I were completely divorced from my home culture, I wouldn't be trying to reclaim it, I think.

[skipthedemon.livejournal.com]

Suresh and his family, in Heroes, seem to be practicing Hindus, and there is a funeral scene, at some point, which I thought was good. But, my cultural background is mostly white, and Christian, so it might have gotten stuff wrong without my noticing?

I say mostly white, because I'm part Native American, and my grandmother suffered a lot because of racial prejudice, and my grandfather too, for marrying her. I was raised in white American suburbia land, and my dad tried to kindle interest about that part of our heritage, too. It is frustrating to hear issue racial prejudice discussed, as if only "black" and "white" mattered. When in fact, there are lots of cultures and ethnicities that fall into neither category at all, and it is easy to feel invisible when you identify as one of them.

Don't forget Maya, and her family in Life on Mars! :thinks some more: Um, Dr. Bashir, from Star Trek: DS9?

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Um, Dr. Bashir, from Star Trek: DS9?

The actor has an English mother and a Sudanese father, and Bashir sounds like an Arabic name to me, so I think not. Alas.

[msilverstar]

I know several independent and geeky South Asian women in the SF Bay Area, including one who's a tech company marketing maven (and married one of my old friends, he has excellent taste in everything :-) So it can be done, but it's probably easier here because there are so many South Asian men in the tech industry.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

My favourite uncle is a software geek in the SF Bay Area, and he, oddly enough, is one of the few members of my family I have a real connection with.

[amchau.livejournal.com]

To the best of my knowledge, you're the only Indian woman on my lj flist-- polter_cow is a guy (and a nice, fannish, good guy, but nevertheless not female).

Of course, everyone beat me to saying 'watch Heroes!', and they are all right, you should watch Heroes. Though, the main Indian chracaters in the first episode are still men.

I'm trying to think of other good non-white female characters in fandom, and the best I have is Zoe from Firefly, whom I love with a passion which is only equaled by my love for Martha Jones. And there are Asian characters there, though they're Chinese. And M*A*S*H had occassional Korean characters-- I've never seen discussion of how well they were handled in terms of race. And things I would expect to be good, like The West Wing and Star Wars, turn out to be horribly bad on examination.

A disgustingly low number of women are real feminists, and that's true of white women as well as Asian/black/other colours. I have been looking for things about race/feminism in fandom since this sort of wank last occurred, and so far the best I've found is the blog Angry Black Women (http://theangryblackwoman.wordpress.com/). Perhaps they need an Indian guest blogger? It would be a way to start a discussion of the issue.

[amchau.livejournal.com]

(apologies, the guy I know as Polter Cow uses spectralbovine on lj.)

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Very good post. I'm not sure that I have anything of substantive value to say about it, except that I sympathise and that I think the questions you've raised are very interesting ones. Are you planning to submit this to metafandom? Because it would be good to see how the wider fannish community integrated it into the discussion that's been going on.

(I have riffled through my brain trying to think whether I've met any fannish Asians other than you, and I think the answer, sadly, is one. Big Trekkie, interested in politics. (Conservative). Lives in Oxford. Still a man, though.)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

I've never submitted anything to metafandom! How do you do it? And, I don't know, do I really want the entirety of fandom to descend... argh. I want more input, but I'm kind of afraid of fandom at large!

[nerves-patterns.livejournal.com]

Thank you for linking to that. Part of me can't believe we still need to have these conversations... and then I remember the world we live in now. :/

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

It ain't pretty. And this kind of internalised racism is the worst kind.

[pinkishmew.livejournal.com]

I was just about to be really dumb - because my darling geeky and queer scarlett_savage is Pakistani - but! Tori from BSG, is - no, I think Rekha Sharma's Pakistani too.

... I tried. [huggles]

Just the experience of being English in rural Dutchland is really bizarre (people STARE) so I can't imagine the problems of being Engllish in Englland, but not, but allso something else but - and so on. I am queer and feminist and geeky and slashy and intellectual nand have only evver found similar people tthrough LJ. Ever. [hugs LJ flist to self]

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I've heard you talk about her! Of course it's all the same country really, but... sigh. The principle of the thing. And I'm tired of being non-English in England and non-Indian in India. I console myself with the thought that in twenty years everyone will be like me. :)

[anotherusedpage.livejournal.com]

I think it might be something to do with the prevelance of American sci-fi and fantasy and other geek sources, actually. Because while Indian Hindus are quite a visible ethnic minority in most parts of the UK. I think there isn't to the same extent an (Asian) Indian American identity, in the same way there's a British Indian identity, perhaps because Britain and India have a shared past, in a way that America and India don't? And I do notice a lack of Indian-Asian faces in my sci-fi, and I have to admit I often see it as American-centricness, because they don't even have to be tokenistic about other nations ethnic minorities... Mebbe that's just me putting my white face back in the centre of the picture again, though *g*

And you do get a not unreasonable number of jewish dyke-geeks in your sci-fi (Willow from Buffy, Ivanova from BS9 and that's just off the top of my head), but I've always seen that as fairly American-centric as well - Jews are a big part of the American Experience in a way we're not so much here in England. They're not east-end Jewish-geek-dykes, and that's a completely different set of cultural experiences.....

And just about my oldest geek-friends were Indian Hindu, for what it's worth. I'm just sorry I'm not in touch with any of them anymore.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I had wondered about that American-centrism, too, actually. And then Doctor Who failed me. The quintessential modern British show, and it hasn't even had a bit-part Indian, I think.

Do you mind me asking: do you find being Jewish is part of your religious identity or your ethnic identity, or both? None of the Jewish people I've ever met have been particularly religious, but have still clearly self-defined as Jewish, and I wondered about the thinking behind that.

[rosariotijeras.livejournal.com]

I am possibly the least qualified person ever to comment on this, so I won't, other than to say that since you've posted this I've practiced saying "Om" and I still can't say it without sounding terribly American. It's the braces, probably.

But that won't keep me from inappropriately squeeing about the S&A fic! And Luke Wilson!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'll do a voice-post just for "Om". Or would that be geeky? :P

More S&A fic. I must be mad. :)

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

I tried write a thinky comment before that LJ then ate.

I need to start writing again, and then I could maybe come up with a pre-novel ficlet where Taj interacts with fannish folks.

And thanks for the link and your thoughts. I'm busy boggling at the mods in that comm.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

No worries - I wanted people to see this particular wank. If you feel thinky again, I'd be very interested. :)

[anotherusedpage.livejournal.com]

See me, see me be eurocentric *g* ... think I'm going by the nazi definition. Which specifically excluded as well as black people Slavs, Kurds, Albanians, Jews and other Semites, Travellers/Gypsies/Romanies, Armenians and a handful of other slightly-dark-skinned people.

[anotherusedpage.livejournal.com]

posted in wrong place. lj being slow. can't be bothered to fix it.

Anyway, thankyou for the evening's entertainment, speak soon love
xx

[spykeraven.livejournal.com]

I've never found another Indian person who makes friends in the haphazard, shared-geeky-interest way that I do,

Well, I'm Indian and I do. So is judemustard and she does too. come to think of it, deepad fits the bill too.

:) Okay, so you've never MET us.

We also speak the Bollywood polyglot and occasionally consider slashing Shah Rukh Khan's characters.

and it's horrible to say, but I've never met another Indian woman who's at all politically aware, nor one who's a feminist, nor who's self-consciously trying to find her cultural identity.

I'm sorry to hear that. My family is full of strong women, many of whom are working or volunteering in community service-related fields to give women a voice, better health, education or just make sure that damn architects put in enough female toilets when designing buildings.

As for cultural identity, I've never had much of a problem being Indian and yet This is probably because I've never felt like a minority. I had a really wonderful childhood in India before moving to Singapore, which, for all its other sins, makes a very powerful and conscious effort to be multiracial in every aspect. E.g. advertisements show a blend of races and customs, as do government-related hoardings. Everyone knows what Deepavali and Eid mean, and also respect Chinese New Year.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Hi, nice to meet you! *g* Obviously I've known you for years, but I didn't know this. And I actually would be a lot more interested in Bollywood if I had people to point out the blatant homoeroticism at.

Where in India did you grow up, if you don't mind my asking?

[thedivinegoat.livejournal.com]

Has anyone mentioned Amita from Numb3rs yet? She's an American raised, Chennai born mathematician, who starts season one as the lead's good friend and grad student, and by the end of series three is a junior professor (terminology?) and girlfriend of the lead. (Sadly this last fact means she comes in for a lot of hate from fans, which makes me sad as I love her as a character).

I'd totally recommend Numb3rs even if it weren't for Amita, for all it's not sci-fi or fantasy it hits a lot of my family, team and academia vs rl (non-sexual) kinks, and it's got some really kickarse women. (Megan who joins in series two, is totally my fictional girlfriend).

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec! What's the show actually about?

here via metafandom

[solvent90.livejournal.com]

Hey! I'm Indian! And fannish! And feminist, I hope. And entirely make friends in the shared-interest-haphazard geeky way and can only cope with Sholay because of the slashiness of it all. Also:

I've never met another Indian woman who's at all politically aware, nor one who's a feminist, nor who's self-consciously trying to find her cultural identity. I don't know where women like that hang out; I thought, once, that if I tried the Oxford Indian and Hindu societies I might find them, but I went there and never did. I wish I knew where they hang out, because I blindly refuse to believe they don't exist.

*sigh* Yes. This resonates with me quite strongly - I also spent some time hanging forlornly about the Oxford Indian and Hindu Societies for about the same reason. (They were lovely, and one of my good friends was very, very involved with the Hindu society, but not feminists and not geeks). Though the women in my family are pretty feminist and politically aware.

Re: here via metafandom

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Heeeeey! Nice to meet you! My youngest cousin went through a loooooong Sholay phase and in among the susycide and Basanti, I was going "OMG GAY GAY GAY" but really quietly, natch. :)

*sigh* Yes. This resonates with me quite strongly - I also spent some time hanging forlornly about the Oxford Indian and Hindu Societies for about the same reason.

I always thought that the only people who really went were people who hadn't grown up in the West, which doesn't give you much of a cross-section, of course.

[the-acrobat.livejournal.com]

How disconnected am I from LJ at the moment that I came to this entry via metafandom? That it just wrong. *snuggles you*

I've never met another Indian woman who's at all politically aware, nor one who's a feminist, nor who's self-consciously trying to find her cultural identity

I know quite a few, one of whom is my cousin (by marriage) & one of the coolest people I know. Two are in my program at school (tiny program, so we all know each other). Several in the English department - professors and students, both (whom I've been in classes with, or taken classes from). Two who were students of mine (I had to mark their writing, some of which was on very political/feminist/sexual politics-y topics)... This probably doesn't help at all, but I don't really have the life experience to think of anything I could say that would. Perhaps, if you feel like it, in Berlin in September, you might tell me about it. I want to know & to understand as much as I can.

I'm one of the ignoramuses who didn't know what "miscegenation" was before this wank came up. However, I have this thing about not using words I don't understand. And when I read about it, my reaction was something along the lines of "Oh. My. God." and lots of incoherent, appalled groaning.

Please don't hate me for my ignorance. :( :( :(

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I think I'd like to talk about it, when we meet again. And I hear you on the incoherent groaning - that was pretty much my response, too.

I don't hate you! Like, ever. *loves* I sort of like that people don't know what "miscegenation" means, you know? It's not a word you should need to know. And most of the people who didn't know went and promptly looked it up, in direct contrast to the daily_deviant mods. You looked it up! You WIN!

[jetamors.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure pogrebin is Indian; she'd slid out of fandom, but has been making some posts since DH came out. And firebird5, who was my first beta, though I don't think she's active any more. They are/were both HP fandom. Wish I could help you out more :/ I've heard anecdotally that there's a lot of SFF written in various Indian languages, but I wouldn't know how to ferret it out, and of course there's no guarantee that it would appeal to you.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*grins* I don't think I could read SFF in Indian languages! Maybe some day. Thanks for your comment. :)

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Hello, came by mediafandom. I am not sure if this is helpful, but I'm commenting in case it may be, ignore me if it isn't :)

I don't know of (any other) fandom with Indian characters, but I do know of a SF book set in India which (to my white and French eyes) was a great read. It's "River of Gods" by Ian McDonald. It's basically a post-cyberpunk thriller with loads of characters and stories crossing. For bonus, there's a bit of a genderqueering theme in the mix, too.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec! :)

[tielan]

100% Chinese blood, 100% Australian (Western) bred.

I don't know if it's me or the characters I love, but I was recently exclaiming (in an IM) at the number of Indians on my f-list.

1 British, 1 Australian, 2 in America - and three of with whom I have regular conversations about the character(s) we love.

So there are fans of Indian extract, I promise you!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*grins* Thank you. Are there of fans of Chinese extraction, too? I figure I ought to educate myself about other groups in fandom, too - otherwise I can't criticise other people for their ignorance. :)

[witchwillow.livejournal.com]

I'm not East Indian purely. I'm Trinidadian and thus mixed (like whoa) but just in case I count in the 'People who do not believe all you do is eat curry and worship cows' camp...

Hello.

PS:
When I first came to the states I used to write in Vulcan for race, cause it pissed me off that I couldn't describe the genetic contributions of everyone in my family. Nowadays I just tick Black, Latino, Chinese and make 'em wonder.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Hi! It's good to meet you.

When I first came to the states I used to write in Vulcan for race

It's also good to know you're awesome! *laughs* That's a great idea. I went to school with a girl who, when applying to university, had to tick a box marked "non-white other". I think she thought about putting "Jedi" instead.