RaceFail '09

RaceFail '09 is one of the names given to a large and tangled snarl of racism, misunderstanding, culture clash, bad behavior, and hurt which consumed several interconnected corners of fandom in early 2009.
While the topics of discussion in RaceFail '09 were long in coming, the first flashpoint was on January 12, 2009: Elizabeth Bear's LiveJournal essay about archive link, page 1; [ archive link, page 2]; [ archive link, page 3]; [ archive link, page 4] .
It was reignited in May 2009 with the publication of Patricia Wrede's The Thirteenth Child which took place in an alternate history United States, one in which Native Americans did not exist. This discussion was often referred to as MammothFail, although it was understood within the context of (and as related to) RaceFail."MammothFail ’09" by Liz Henry. Feminist SF - The Blog!. Posted on May 11, 2009. Archived on February 4, 2012. Accessed on July 14, 2018.Untitled list of links on RaceFail/MammothFail. Posted on May 16, 2009. Accessed on July 14, 2018.Can We NOT Do Racefail Again, Please?, Claire Light. Posted on May 11, 2009. Accessed on July 14, 2018.
See: Lists of Fans Who Made Posts About RaceFail and .
==How it began==
There is considerable controversy as to how RaceFail began. Some fans think it originated as a discussion by fans of color about racism in fantasy and SF, which was invaded and appropriated by white fans and authors whose privileged voices were not wanted."I remember Racefail '09, and how one of the big lessons I took away from that was sometimes POC discussing racism is not about you, a white person, and that you shouldn't jump in and invade the conversations. Racefail '09 was for POC to talk about racism among themselves. It's hard to know when, as a white person, your voice is wanted to contribute to the discussion, and when you're appropriating a discussion reserved for POC." In a brief thread on this post to lj-fandomsecrets, 2011-04-24.
Others see it as responses by fans of color to statements by white fans and white writers such as Elizabeth Bear - that is, a dialectic, with white fans and authors included in the discussion.
===Roadmaps & Timelines===
Several people produced roadmaps to RaceFail '09 to try to sort out the confusion. Some maps were created while the conversations were ongoing, and some were compiled after the fact.
thumb|left|a 2009 RaceFail bingo card, created by dysprositos
An extensive collection of links addressing the imbroglio (mostly links to LiveJournal or blog posts) is documented in Rydra Wong's journal under the "gcadod 09" tag; the links represent a multiplicity of individuals and viewpointsRydra Wong later adopted a policy of not linking to any posts made by Kathryn Cramer or Will Shetterly. Rydra cited their repeated attempts to derail the discussion and the fact that they had outed a fan blogger known as coffeeandink by revealing her legal name.. These posts were updated frequently, often containing links that were sometimes only hours or even minutes old, and when considered in conjunction with the comments on each post serve as a contemporaneous documentation of the unfolding conversation. The acronym "gcadod" stands for "Great Cultural Appropriation Debate of Doom." The year is added since 2009 was not the first time massive conversations about Race and Fandom had occurred.Nalo Hopkinson, Blogosphere discussions on cultural appropriation panel at Wiscon 30, June 5, 2006. Archived on December 30, 2015.Pam Noles, On The Upset That Emerged From The Cultural Appropriation Panel At WisCon 30, June 8, 2006.
Afro-Trinidadian blogger Avalon's Willow posted a timeline of early events on January 29, 2009.
Feminist SF Wiki maintained a quotation-heavy chronology of the early posts which sparked the conversation. (The original post is now offline, as is the entire wiki, but an archived page from February 12, 2009, is available via the Wayback Machine.)
Fan blogger Tablesaw posted an overview on March 9, 2009Tablesaw. O HAI RACEFAILZ: Notes on Reading an Internet Conflict, posted on 09 March 2009 at tablesaw's journal. (Accessed 19 May 2009.) that characterizes the discussion as a hypertext, in addition to introducing key players and recommending both specific source texts and an approach to following a conversation "wherein everything refers to something or multiple things, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly."
An opposing, and individual, narrative is presented in Will Shetterly's post "Racefail and Coffeeandink"; WebCite.
===Key Events===
====Elizabeth Bear: "They're not Those People"====
On January 12, 2009, professional sf/f author Elizabeth Bear posted some writing advice in her LiveJournal entitled "whatever you're doing, you're probably wrong" (accessed 15 May 2009). This was most likely a response to fantasy author Jay Lake's "Another shot at thinking about the Other" (accessed 09 October 2010). 
In her post, she provides her formula for "writing The Other without being a dick", a process she defines as "simple but not easy". (Writing the Other is a book by professional SF authors Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward, which later became a writing workshop.Aqueduct Press (Accessed July 14, 2018.) A summary of the book is found in Genevieve Williams' 2006 review Writing the Other: A Practical Approach by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward at Strange Horizons. Neither Bear's nor Lake's posts reference this work directly, although both use the styling of the title within the text.) Briefly, Bear's advice was:
#Don't think of "the other" as the other. Begin by seeing people as people, regardless of gender, nationality, color, etc., not shiny exotic cute ethnic people -- just people.
#When you write about people who are "other" or different from yourself, consult people you know who live what you are writing about. If you have a Catholic character in your story for instance, learn about Catholicism and talk to Catholic people.Jewish German author Franz Werfel did this for his novel The Song of Bernadette after he and his wife had sheltered from the Nazis in Lourdes. Knowing nothing about Catholicism and very little about French history, he researched the faith intensely, especially how it was practiced in France, interviewed hundreds of people and amassed a huge amount of information about Catholicism and its relationship to the complicated political atmospheres in France at the time. Although he included numerous fictionalized and folkloric details to embellish the story -- some probably sourced from his Lourdes interviewees -- he was so successful in conveying the French Catholic experience that many readers believed he had converted.
Many people on LiveJournal linked to Bear's post, often presenting it as a potentially useful bit of writing meta."I personally first saw the post via a link recommending it as good meta well before I saw a critical reference to it. I have no clear recollection of who was linking to it." - facetofcathy, 22 November 2010.
====Deepa D.: "I grew up with half a tongue"====
On 13 January 2009, Deepa D. wrote "I Didn’t Dream of Dragons" (accessed 15 May 2009) on LiveJournal (post previously hosted publicly on Dreamwidth, but requires login as of July 14, 2018). Deepa D. clarified that the essay was not a response to "Writing the Other", but rather it was based on her personal emotional reactions to Bear's words:
The gist of the essay:
# Most "epic fantasy" is set in a standard fantasy setting -- Europe or quasi-European environments.When it's not, it's often a fantasy Ancient China, Japan or Persia. See Tanith Lee's Flat Earth books, or any work by Kara Dalkey. Many familiar character types and situations have no equivalents in other cultures. Deepa ran into this problem when she tried to write such a fantasy set in ancient India, which lacked (she thought at the time) European-style roadside taverns and dragons.Ancient India's caravanserai inns are well documented. Roadside taverns (panagara) had strict laws governing their operation (Radhakumud Mookerji, Chandragupta Maurya and his times. Univ. of Madras, 1943, available for free at Internet Archive). Dragons (naga) also exist in folklore and religious stories. Deepa herself engages in a discussion about this on blog post Great Cultural Appropriation Debate of DOOM, Part II, which specifically addresses the concerns she raised in her article.
#In colonialized nations such as India, children are thoroughly educated in the dominant culture's language, imagery, and values.For an example, see Geethanjali Kids. Owned and operated by a company in South India, their renditions of white Anglo nursery songs and games dominate the list over traditional India folktales and songs -- which are all presented in English. Even when they are allowed to speak their own languages, their reading is all in the dominant culture's language and portrays dominant cultural values. Their thinking is so informed so early on that it becomes their identity, and they have little or no sense of their own culture.There is still a lot of British influence in India, even though it's been independent for decades. Mahatma Gandhi wrote that he knew little of India's religious or political history until white people -- students of Theosophy who had studied Buddhism and Hinduism in depth -- told him about it. Also, colonialized nations lack the resources that are available to the ruling nations. In this situation, "stop complaining and write your own" is meaningless; there may not be paper or pencils available, and only one or two publishing houses which can only afford to publish a limited number of books.A case in point is the prolific Brazilian author Carolina Maria de Jesus, a favela resident who scrounged writing materials from garbage dumps. The only reason we know about her work is that she happened to come to the attention of a journalist who was covering something else in her district.
#There is a disturbing trend in modern Western fantasy literature of appropriating African, Native American, and Asian characters and character types and re-interpreting them through a European fantasy lens. (Deepa covers this in even more detail in her essay "The pernicious hierarchy of privilege," which is hosted on Dreamwidth, but requires login to view.)
====Response to Elizabeth Bear====
Also on 13 January 2009, the Afro-Trinidadian blogger Avalon's Willow posted an Open Letter: To Elizabeth Bear (accessed 15 May 2009). The post addressed fantasy writers in denial about stereotypes of black and Native American men in their work. Avalon's Willow referred to Bear's Blood and Iron with the following:
The comments to Bear's post soon filled with a great deal of critical response, positive, negative, criticism, anger—every possible tenor and tone was represented. Some of the discussion focused on the content of Bear's post, some on the form and content of those critical of her post, and some then in turn on the form and content of this response. Many of Bear's personal friends, other authors and fans participated. As the post got more widely linked, often critically, more people joined the various threads. Bear added several ETAs that included rebuttals and refinements from the comments. She also deleted certain comments and posts, although she restored them later.
On 21 January, in another post on Bear's journal, sparkymonster calls on Bear to address the way she allowed her friends and supporters to behave in the comments on her journal, asking:
At the same time, the discussion moved off of Bear's journal into the wider realm of LiveJournal fans, writers and bloggers.
{I think there needs to be something here about Bear deleting comments and posts and then re-instating them—and how the conversation changed to the broader experience of POC in fandom. I'm just not sure how to say it.}
====Conversation Subject Diverges====
=====Pro-SF authors=====
N.K. Jemisin offered a critique of some parts of Bear's post in the commentsComment by nojojojo, January 13, 2009 (Accessed 22 November 2010.), which Bear edited into her post. (Jemisin's LiveJournal account appears to have been deleted at some point in the intervening years, and so the original comment is no longer viewable; the edit in Bear's original post does remain.)
After pro author MacAllister Stone made a post characterizing the conversation and its participants as abusiveStone, MacAllister. If you are chilly, here take my sweater... (post deleted, but screencaps are available here), posted on 17 January 2009, and here [Offline as of July 14, 2018, link not archived] and at mac_stone's Journal. (Accessed 09 October 2010.) Additional screencaps: Screencap 1, Screencap 2, Screencap3, Screencap 4. , pro editor and fan critic Patrick Nielsen Hayden became involved: "I wouldn't even split the problem into "authors" and "readers". Some people are smarter than others, to put it as baldly as possible." Discussion of PNH's quote made in mac_stone's post at copracat's Journal (including PNH showing up to defend his comments). (Accessed 09 October 2010.)
Nielsen Hayden subsequently made a post saying:
When commentary on his post became upsetting to him, Nielsen Hayden deleted his LiveJournal. His wife Teresa Nielsen Hayden became downright abusive, calling his critics trolls, "nithings"Elspethdixon. Holy mother of God *is horrified (on the meaning of the Old English word "nithings"), posted on 29 January 2009 at elspethdixon's Journal. (Accessed 09 October 2010.), and sockpuppets. She threatened to maintain a blacklist of all those involvedNielsen Hayden, Teresa. I'm taking this about as well as you'd expect. (post deleted, but here is a screencap), posted on 26 January 2009 at tnh's Journal. (Accessed 20 May 2009. Requires login to access.) Additiona archived copy here..
Teresa Nielsen Hayden further argued that because many of the people involved in the discussion used pseudonyms, the conversation was meaningless. Many fans were dismayed by her rudeness and lack of respect for the practice of persistent pseudonymity which has been an essential part of online fan culture for yearscf. for example cereta's On pseudonyms (also in reference to later Kathryn Cramer incident), posted on 02 March 2009 at cereta's Journal. (Accessed 20 May 2009.).
=====Will Shetterly and Coffeeandink=====
Pro author Will Shetterly argued that class prejudice was more significant than racism. When the argument between Shetterly and feminist blogger coffeeandink became heated, he and pro author-critic Kathryn Cramer outed coffeeandink, linking her LiveJournal handle with her legal name.Coffeeandink. Untitled, posted on 05 March 2009 at coffeeandink's Journal. (Accessed 19 May 2009)Coffeeandink. The People Whites Don't See: An Open Letter to Kathryn Cramer, posted on 07 March 2009 at coffeeandink's Journal. (Accessed 18 May 2009) Shetterly and Kramer justified their action by pointing out that she had previously used her legal name in public posts on her LiveJournal. A huge argument ensued, threatening to eclipse the original discussion about racism.
Coffeeandink's ultimate response to the outing issue was that it was "... an outrageous derailment of the original conversation about race and racism in science fiction...". She connected the derailment to the very nature of SF fandom as, "...so insular, so white-focused, and so white-dominated that some of the people involved can ignore the literally dozens of people involved in an argument about race, the literally hundreds of posts made, out of a conviction that race is not the issue when people of color say it is ..."
In a separate post she said:
Most of Shetterly's posts, both on his LiveJournal and blog, regarding the "outing" incident have been deleted, edited, replaced and generally obfuscated. But outlines of his and Kramer's actions are still preserved in other bloggers' posts.Somerville, Ann. A themed summary of RaceFail ‘09 in large friendly letters for those who think race discussions are hard (scroll down to Derail the Fourth: It gets even uglier), posted on 11 March 2009 at Ann Somerville's Journal. (Accessed 18 May 2009.) An archived copy can be found here, archived in May 2009.Rydra Wong. Because "tl;dr" shouldn't be an excuse, posted on 05 March 2009 at rydra_wong's Journal. (Accessed 09 October 2010.)Discussions of Will Shetterly and Kathryn Cramer's outing of coffeeandink at unfunnybusiness. Accessed 09 October 2010, but subsequently deleted when journalfen went down.It was Archived on February 18, 2013.Coffeeandink. RaceFail: Once More, with Misdirection, posted 02 March 2009 at coffeeandink's Journal. (Accessed 09 October 2010.)Coffeeandink. Guess who managed to escalate the situation again!, posted on 04 March 2009 at coffeeandink's Journal. (Accessed 09 October 2010.)Coffeeandink. Untitled, posted on 05 March 2009 at coffeeandink's Journal. (Accessed 09 October 2010.)Janet. Who’s Rulin’ Who?, posted on 17 March 2009 at Dear Author. (Accessed 09 October 2010.) Shetterly says he moved his blog to help protect Coffeeandink's identity, though he still maintains that he wasn't outing her by using her legal name.
Asian fan blogger Ciderpress discussed the effect of the conversational focus shifting to coffeeandink and issues of pseudonymity, identity and outing. The two main effects they identified were the derailing of the entire conversation by turning it into an argument between a few white people:
and an active attempt to silence criticism:
John Scalzi, president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, initially jumped on the bandwagon with angry rhetoric, but then retracted his statements when he realized what was going on. ("All right, here’s the thing: I’m an arrogant schmuck, but I can also listen from time to time. After I went off earlier this week, a number of people I trust came to me and told me I was being unfair to a lot of people, and in varying ways walked me through stuff I missed or lacked context for, and asked me to engage that brain of mine and think about it."Scalzi, John. Walking myself back, posted on 11 March 2009 at Whatever. (Accessed 18 May 2009.)) He then invited Sri Lankan professional author Mary Anne Mohanraj to guest-post on his blog.Mohanraj, Mary Anne. Mary Anne Mohanraj Gets You Up to Speed, Part I, posted on 12 March 2009 at Whatever. (Accessed 19 May 2009.)
vito_excalibur read through the first 275 comments to Mary Anne Mohanraj's post, linking and summarizing and concluded that the discussion was a good example of Racism Bingo: "If you've ever wondered what people mean by playing bingo? This is it. You can just check off these squares as you see them, predictably, over and over".vito_excalibur. Bingo, Mr. Scalzi. BING-O., posted on 13 March 2009 at vito_excalibur's Journal. (Accessed 19 May 2009. Requires login to access.)
==Apologies==
By March of 2009, Elizabeth Bear was suggesting a cease fire (accessed 15 May 2009). She explained that:
Indo-Trini-CanadianAs per email from Avalon Willow to Gardener's mailing list on May 4, 2016. Please contact the Gardener's if this is incorrect. blogger Bossymarmalade responded with sees fire (accessed 15 May 2009):
Some of the fans and "pro" SF/F authors involved posted public apologies over the course of 2009:
*Sarah Monette: "For what it's worth, I recognize that I failed, and why, and next time I am determined to fail better."Monette, Sarah. the whole ugly mess(https://archive.is/plXp archived link), posted on 19 January 2009 at truepenny's Journal. (Accessed 20 May 2009.)
*Leah Clarke: "The post that pointed out how egocentric and essentially stupid my post was may well be the most important thing I’ll ever read. I really did think I had a grip on the subject, but I made it about me, and put my foot in my mouth on a massive scale. If I’ve upset or offended anyone, I’m sorry."Addendum to the Racefail post and an apology. Posted by Leah Clarke on March 15, 2009. Accessed on July 14, 2018.
*Emma Bull: "I apologize to Avalon's Willow, Deepad, and everyone I hurt with my remarks in the recent discussion of racism and the reading of text and subtext. My reaction was much too harsh, and harshly worded. I didn't mean to dismiss their responses to what they read, or to suggest that what they felt wasn't appropriate to their experience."An apology. Posted by Emma Bull on January 29, 2009. Accessed on July 14, 2018.
*aquaeri: "I would like to apologise to sparkymonster and anyone else who was upset or offended or otherwise less than happy about my An Abstract of an Essay. As sparkymonster kindly pointed out to me, the post is not about race or RaceFail, but the way I wrote it makes it look like it ought to be about RaceFail. In fact, it's a post by a white woman from a white perspective, that only addresses a white audience."An apology. Posted by aquaeri on June 8, 2009. Accessed on July 14, 2018.
==Meta-conversations==
Discussions amongst fans, even very serious and difficult ones, are often as much about how we discuss an issue as they are about the issue itself. Eventually, RaceFail evolved into meta-conversation about conversational style, content, form, and language. This was seen by many as a form of derailment.
===Derailing and the tone argument===
Many posts appeared about white fans' perennial "derailing" - intentional or not - of discussions centered around race. These conversational tactics or choices derail the conversation by moving the focus away from the original topic to focus on a sidetrack. The widespread argument about "outing" coffeeandink was such a derailment.
Instead of the experiences of fans of color, and how (or even if) white fans should speak out against racism in fandom (or rather be quiet and let fans of color speak for themselves), the derailing shifted the subject to issues which may be completely unrelated to race. Derailing is also often a tactic used to devolve a fruitful, productive conversation into endless philosophical discussion on "tone," which further centers the white experience and leaves white people the only ones talking.
"Tone" can refer to the feeling or attitude that comes across in writing or speech. Some people claim that text cannot have tone, except for what readers infer from it. However, word choice and placement can convey a tone. Members of a dominant culture (i.e., people occupying positions of structural privilege) often police the tone of those who are marginalized along an axis of systemic privilege or power (e.g., white people critiquing the way people of color identify issues or racism, or men describing women as hysterical for identifying misogyny). As noted by many people who have experienced it, this "tone argument" sets up a double standard in which they're required to be courteous while the person in a position of privilege can be rude.Tone argument at Geek Feminism.No, We Won't "Calm Down." Comic by Robot Hugs. Published at Everyday Feminism on December 7, 2015. Accessed on July 14, 2018.Respectability politics Wikipedia page. Accessed on July 14, 2018.
Asian blogger Ciderpress noted:
In Bossymarmalade's words,
===Language===
Criticisms of the usage of the term "people of color" (and the abbreviation PoC), as well as discussion of what language should be used in its stead, were raised throughout Racefail, and reflect an ongoing conversation in the broader cultural context.Why We Have So Many Terms For 'People Of Color' by Gene Demby for NPR's Code Switch. Published on November 7, 2014. Accessed on July 14, 2018.The Journey From 'Colored' To 'Minorities' To 'People Of Color' by Kee Malesky for NPR's Code Switch. Published on March 30, 2014. Accessed on July 14, 2018.I am no ‘person of colour’, I am a black African woman by Adebola Lamuye for the Independent. Published on July 31, 2017. Accessed on July 14, 2018.The End of Non-Whites by Natalie S. Burke. Published on January 12, 2018. Accessed on July 14, 2018.
spiralsheep explained the political and personal meanings behind the choice to identify as non-white saying, "Choosing to self-define as non-white can be a linguistic resistance to both whiteness and the concept of whiteness."Comment in Rydra Wong's journal on March 16, 2009 (Accessed 25 November 2010.) Offline as of July 14, 2018, link not archived. Temporary archive copy located here.
===Internet-specific forms of communication===
Delving more deeply into the idea of hypertext and the form of conversations on the Internet, many people began discussing how the Racefail conversation was shaped by the medium that carried it and by the ways the people involved tended to use the Internet. 
thingswithwings discusses how "POC and anti-racists and white allies are always, always called upon to bear the burden of proof. " and goes on to describe the difference between posts that link and quote extensively and posts that paraphrase generally.thingswithwings, on privilege and the burden of proof, posted March 6, 2009 (Accessed 25 November 2010.)
zvi expands on the idea, drawing on sources other than just the Racefail discussions to contrast literary style of referencing other works with the hypertext model of Internet communication, concluding, "the idea that a piece of writing is isolated by the boundaries of its page or its volume is completely untrue on the web. And writing a connected, unbounded document requires a different way of organizing your thoughts, an assumption that people aren't going to read what you write in isolation, or straight through, or only while holding a vague idea in their head of what happened that other time you're kinda sorta dancing around."zvi, This is a paradigm shift, posted March 22, 2010 (Accessed 25 November 2010.)
===Book and author lists===
Many fans began assembling lists to share with others. At first, these were mostly recs for books written by or about people of color/non-whites. One list of authors a fan was choosing not to read sparked further controversy. {refs to come}
Though the comm pre-dates RaceFail '09, many fans recommended 50books_poc as a resource for finding books written by people of color, at least until it was shut down following the depredations of pro SF author/Race and Fandom agitator/troll Benjanun Sriduangkaew.
==Another Appropriation: Subject of a Series of Flyers==
In 2009, Laura Hale summarized the issue and created a series of flyers that was distributed at MediaWest*Con for the purpose of sending fan traffic to Fan History Wiki.
File:Fhflyersmw-9.jpg|page 1
File:Fhflyersmw-10.jpg|page 2
File:Fhflyersmw-11.jpg|page 3
File:Fhflyersmw-12.jpg|page 4
==The Legacy of Racefail==
===Positive change===
Some fans have argued that RaceFail and other pan-fandom discussions of race are "worth it" if consciousness-raising happens as a result. Others argue that this is offensive to fans of color whose suffering thereby becomes a learning tool for white fans. (Need links!)
Regardless, some good things have arisen partially thanks to RaceFail '09; including the founding of Verb NoireBradford, K. Tempest. 2009. Interview with Verb Noire. Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 3. http://dx.doi.org/10.3983/twc.2009.0160., Con or Bust (an assistance fund aimed at helping fans of color afford Wiscon(Wis)con or Bust: Fans of Color Assistance Project. (Accessed 19 May 2009.)), the Anti-Oppression Linkspam Community, and foc_u at LiveJournal, "a place to serve as a central hub to combat the destructive effects of RaceFail."Neo_Prodigy. first order of business, posted on 2009 May 15 at foc_u. (Accessed 18 May 2009.)
At Escapade 2009, Aral and Sinead co-led a panel called "Becoming Better Allies: Consciousness-Raising for White Fans."Aral. Escapade Panel Report - "Becoming Better Allies: Consciousness-Raising for White Fans.", posted on 9 April 2009. (Accessed 21 May 2009.) The panel overflowed its original timeslot and a second session was scheduled for later in the con. A number of conventions began to dedicate panels and programming tracks to discussing race, and trying to be more inclusive of fans and creators of color.Why I Think RaceFail Was The Bestest Thing Evar for SFF by N.K. Jemisin, 2010. The International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA) was one such con - devoting their 31st conference in 2010 to Race and the Fantastic.Racefail:Race and the Fantastic, Flourish Klink, 2010.
Also notable is the creation of the LiveJournal community Fight Derailing:
Deepa D.'s essay I Didn't Dream of Dragons was shortlisted for the 2009 BSFA Awards for Non-Fiction.2009 BSFA Awards Shortlists (Accessed 22 November 2010).
N.K. Jemisin posted Describing characters of color in writing inspired in part by some of the conversations around RaceFail. In order to offer constructive writing advice, she drew on her own writing for examples and other writers offered examples in the comments. The post was popular enough to warrant a second part a few months later.Describing characters of color in writing posted in N.K. Jemisin's blog on April 11, 2009 (Accessed 23 November 2010.) One year after, on January 18, 2010, she posted, Why I Think RaceFail Was The Bestest Thing Evar for SFF (accessed November 23, 2010). The title is only partly ironic, and she makes the case for personal and systemic changes for the better in SF/F Fandom.
===Negative Effects===
Many fans, and especially fans of color expressed a feeling of burnout and hopelessness. The willingness to engage on issues of race and appropriation publicly dropped dramatically for many people. Many fans expressed feeling physical and mental effects from engaging in RaceFail conversations that they were not willing to continue suffering.
At least one fan reported being unable to participate in the discussions because when she tried, she was told to "shut up" -- that as a white person, she had "no voice. The fan in question was not white, but had never made an issue of her actual racial identity. Thus she was perceived as white even though she was not.
Some communities, such as Deadbrowalking, saw a drop in posting and commenting.
====WisCon====
=====2006=====
*Nalo Hopkinson, Blogosphere discussions on cultural appropriation panel at Wiscon 30, June 5, 2006. Archived on December 30, 2015.
*Pam Noles, On The Upset That Emerged From The Cultural Appropriation Panel At WisCon 30, June 8, 2006.
=====2009=====
* , kathryncramer (May 12, 2009)
* , Laura (May 24, 2009)
* , takumashii (May 24, 2009)
* GenderFail at WisCon panel, hps-sterling (May 25, 2009) (login required)
* Opening thoughts on WisCon 2009., antarcticlust (May 25, 2009) (login required)
* Wiscon Squee and Fail or Why I Still Don't Love Cons, karnythia (May 26, 2009) (login required)
* , thewayoftheid (May 26, 2009)
* First WisCon post, commodorified (May 26, 2009) (login required)
* , Phillip Weiss (May 29, 2009)
* , Phillip Weiss (May 29, 2009)
* ; archive link page two, oliviacirce (May 31, 2009)
* , Sigrid Ellis (June 1, 2009)
* Wiscon Day 3: Intent, Internet, Imperialism and Indian Food; https://archive.is/maG3N archive link], bcholmes (June 2, 2009)
* , fiction-theory (June 2, 2009)
* , LaShawn M. Wanak, cross-posted at (June 4, 2009) 
* , rsadelle (June 10, 2009)
*I’m about to be a jerk on the Internet or RaceFail Goes To WorldCon, karnythia (August 8, 2009)
===Fanworks Created in Response===
hapex-legomena, an Afro-American woman, created a four-part vid, Enter the Wu-Tang that utilized footage from The Lord of the Rings. The vid uses the problematic source representation of Orcs and other non-humans, disproportionately played by non-whites, to comment on the comparisons of non-white fans during RaceFail to non-humans and monsters.[
Talitha78 created the vid, "White" and Nerdy. Originally inspired by the IDIC challenge at Vividcon, the vid became, "a way of working through my issues with regard to RaceFail 2009."New Psych Vid: "White" & Nerdy (Gus) (Accessed 22 November 2010.) The vid uses footage from Psych and the Weird Al Yankovic song, White and Nerdy, to comment on the way society frequently codes nerdiness as white. Recent studies done by Google bear this out; in television and film, the stereotypical computer expert is still a white man with glasses. Their "Computer Science Education in Media" program pressures media executives to show women characters in STEM-related roles. 
One of the threads of RaceFail and the partly concurrent MammothFail was a sense of surprise from many white people that fans of colour even existed. This was not a new phenomenon, unfortunately. 
In response to comments by fans and professionals like Lois McMaster Bujold, implying that fans of color did not exist in fandom, or were a new phenomenon, Deadbrowalking posted a call for a wild unicorn herd check in. The resulting 1000+ posts became a joyous roll-call of racially diverse Science Fiction and Fantasy fans.
==Further Reading==
===Lists of Fans Who Made Posts About RaceFail===
For a very, very long list of posted comments and resulting discussion, see:
* RaceFail '09/List of Discussion Posts, Sorted by Author. 
This same list has also been sorted by date; see:
* RaceFail '09/List of Discussion Posts, Sorted by Date.
===Academic Commentary on RaceFail '09===
*Gatson, Sarah N., and Robin Anne Reid. 2012. "Race and Ethnicity in Fandom." In "Race and Ethnicity in Fandom," edited by Robin Anne Reid and Sarah Gatson, special issue, Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 8. http://dx.doi.org/10.3983/twc.2011.0392.
*TWC Editor. 2009. Pattern recognition: A dialogue on racism in fan communities. Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 3. http://dx.doi.org/10.3983/twc.2009.0172.
*Rambukanna, Nathan. 2015. "From #RaceFail to #Ferguson: The Digital Intimacies of Race-Activist Hashtag Publics." The Fibreculture Journal, Issue 26. http://twentysix.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-194-from-racefail-to-ferguson-the-digital-intimacies-of-race-activist-hashtag-publics/.
===Writing on Race, Racism, and SF/F===
* Ursula K. LeGuin: Whitewashed Earthsea Links to essays by LeGuin and others, discussing why she described the hero and other Archipelagan characters as brown- or black-skinned and why casting white actors in the film version ruins the story.
===Commentary on RaceFail '09: 2010 - present===
* (emphasis on the bingo card) (February 2010)
* Fansplaining: The Dark Fantastic, a 2015 interview with Ebony Elizabeth Thomas which discusses RaceFail
* I feel the need to clarify something about pre-Racefail ‘09 fandom...(shinelikethunder replied to freedom-of-fanfic, July 2017)
*Tumblr post by queerhawkeye. Posted on May 2, 2016. Archived on May 13, 2016. Accessed on July 14, 2018.
==See Also==
*Race and Fandom
* Puppygate
*Your Vagina is a Bigot; My Vagina is a Saint
==Notes== 
==References==
Category:Science Fiction Fandom Category:Race & Fandom
Category:Fandom WarsCategory:2009 Events
Category:Social Media Feature
Category:Science Fiction Fandom Occurrences