Also...

[theotherbaldwin]

What Nick said.

ETA: Especially

"The reason it’s called RaceFail ’09 is to distinguish it from the one last year, the one in ’06, and the smaller blow-ups that have happened in-between. Something that you’ll see a lot in the earlier posts this go-round is some variation on the Cylon Clause: All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again. All of this will happen again—do please lift a hand if that doesn’t fill you with horror.

If the Fail is happening anyway—if havoc is already being wrecked in the hearts of authors and fans of color, if people who shouldn’t be driven out are already being driven out (or at least too damn close to out)—then I kind of want it to impinge on the space of as many white fans and authors as is humanly possible. Yes, it IS too high a price for mere education, but if the price is being paid regardless, let’s goddamn GET something for it. The more clueless-but-well-meaning white folk (I firmly include myself in this category) see the hurt being caused and start reading, thinking, and trying to understand the things being said by the myriad brilliant fans/authors/theorists of color (and allies!) involved here, the more likely it is that something will have changed by the time the next high-profile racial screw-up rolls ‘round. "