To our dear H/D Erised community,
We had planned to announce our 2020 fest today, but find that our thoughts are elsewhere: with George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, and the millions of other Black people who have been and are being terrorized and killed by white supremacy.
Black lives matter. We stand in solidarity with the BLM movement, and in unequivocal opposition to the state-sanctioned violence, neglect, discrimination, and inequity that diminish Black people’s safety and well-being.
We know that many fans, including BIPOC fans, look to spaces like this one as a respite from the real world; H/D Erised will run this year as usual, with our announcement to come next week.
We also know that fannish spaces can and do harbor and replicate white supremacy. Before we proceed with this year’s fest, we ask you to join us in taking time to learn and think about how white supremacy manifests in fannish spaces. As a starting point, we recommend adding some of these works to your queue:
Zina Hutton's posts at Stitch's Media Mix, especially "Whose Job Is It To Fix Fandom?", "What It's Like Being Fandom Critical While Black," the "What Fandom Racism Looks Like" series, and her new series "Fandom Racism 101."
TaLynn Kel's "America's Whiteness Problem is Part of Your Fandom," published as part of her collection Still Breaking Normal: A Fat, Black, Femme, Geek Navigating an Anti-Black World
DJ Wilson's "What 'Harry Potter' Doesn't Teach Us About Allyship & Activism" at Black Girls Create
Rukmini Pande's Squee from the Margins: Fandom and Race (consider buying from one of these independent Black-owned bookstores)
Ebony Elizabeth Thomas’ The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games (those bookstores again)
@transformativeworks's Transformative Works and Cultures issue "Fans of Color, Fandoms of Color"
@fansplaining's episodes on Race and Fandom: Part 1 and Part 2
As we read, listen, and talk, we’re thinking about what we can do – individually and as community members, in fandom and outside of it – to do the work of anti-racism. We hope you’ll join us in asking: Where does racism appear in fandom? What can we do when we see it? BIPOC fans have written about what they need to be safer and more comfortable in fannish spaces; how can anti-racist allies work to make that happen?
Yours in grief and solidarity,
@dictacontrion, @firethesound, & @gracerene09
