It’s International Blog Against Racism Week. Links are being collected at .

I wrote a longer piece on this that’s currently under submission, so I’ll just paraphrase here–based on my experiences with discussions of race, I think white Americans have a severe underdog complex. Our society glorifies the underdog fighting against impossible odds to get to the top, to "make it", to jump from nobody to superstar in the land of opportunity. Everyone wants to be the underdog; no one wants to be the Man, the Establishment, the Authorities, whatever. Discussions of race tend to bring white people face to face with their privilege, so avoidance tactics emerge almost reflexively.

In the realm of speculative fiction, that’s usually "I am universal" claims, where a white person declares that skin color doesn’t matter, that all people are the same, unless we choose to think they’re different. (That’s a near quote from a comment on Tobias Buckell’s post on characters of color.) That’s a hot discussion in the specfic community, and I am unequivocally on the "side" that says even white writers have an obligation (as anti-racist allies) to include characters of color in their stories. I would particularly recommend reading Pam Noles’s Shame, which is really quite heartbreaking.

In other venues, those avoidance tactics are usually the reverse-racism stories. You know. "It’s not all about race. As a woman… What about GLBT prejudice… I don’t think you can separate it from class…"

And when someone refocuses, says that here and now, we’re talking about race?

"When I was in Hawaii… When I was in Japan… I was surrounded…I was the minority…"

No. I’m sorry. You may have been the minority in a sheer numerical sense, but the privilege of your white skin meant you were never oppressed. White people are not, and never have been, the underdogs. Not even in Hawaii, not even in Japan. And until we get over that complex, we’ll never be able to have honest discussions about race.