Lots of discussion on the private RWA forums regarding rooting out bias in judging contests and how to be inclusive in what we write and in the organization in general.
Of course Jenkins' question blandly ignores and yet skewers our country's particular history of negative racial socialization. Every country, indeed, every region, has its own, but ours in the U.S. regarding black people seems especially poisonous. And then there is the treatment of non-hetero people. With our country's go-getter history, we don't like the idea that we are unable to achieve whatever we set out to do, but here we are, long overdue to have fixed many things in our society. I don't think it's likely that entire generations raised to consider relationships with the "other" taboo are going to suddenly change what they fantasize about, but we all can write more inclusive stories.
Bottom line, "nice white ladies" have a range of reactions to being told we've been basking in white privilege. Some of us cite our personal struggles and say we're not smug and not privileged. Even so, many of us in the RWA recognize that viewing the world as it is today through the lens of our childhood is to wear blinders. We are open to trying to do the newest "right thing," even when the right thing involves getting out of whatever comfort zone we might have, researching and learning about others, remembering to use different pronouns, and not automatically creating characters who are offensive stereotypes.
But no, I'm not really down with vampires.
One of the problems in US society in general is the number of people who believe prejudice is no longer a problem. I read an article on 538 not so long ago about discrepancies between gay and straight polling data. A large majority of straight people believe that prejudice against gays is no longer significant. A large majority of gay people report having encountered prejudice, though.
When I used to teach high school, I frequently heard comments during class discussion of works like
To Kill a Mockingbird that started something like, "Now that we no longer have racism..." Of course, racism isn't as obvious as it was in TKM, but to think that it doesn't exist at all is unsettling.
Part of the root cause of these disconnects is that some of the barriers have fallen. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of gay marriage. The US elected its first black president. These are big deals. They just aren't all that's happening.
Another cause is the way the entertainment industry sometimes handles the issue, and this part can also be relevant to us as authors. Movies and TV shows have become more inclusive, and that's good. However, inclusion is a tricky thing. You don't want every inclusive show with diverse characters doesn't have to be about the problems those characters face because of their diversity. On the other hand, if none of them are, that pattern feeds the perception that prejudice is over.
Consider the case of the long-running YA horror series,
Teen Wolf. (Yes, I'm partly a teenager at heart.) The characters have some racial diversity, and every season has at least one LGBT character, sometimes more. Leaving the constant supernatural incursions aside, the show portrays a world in which prejudice has been conquered. Racism never once rears its head that I can recall. And everybody accepts same-sex relationships entirely without comment. Having taught high school, even in a relatively liberal community, I can tell you things don't run quite that smoothly, particularly when LGBT issues arise. Teenage males have an especially hard time processing some of that, although the situation has improved over the years. Still, it hasn't improved enough to quite equal universal acceptance. Of course, the show is set in a small town environment which you might expect to be less progressive. Instead, this particular small town has not one but two gay clubs, which in the few scenes in which they appear, always seem to be packed. No one watching this show would have any sense that any kind of prejudice exists. In a way, it models good behavior, and I like it for that. But it does also send the message that prejudice doesn't exist any more.
However, the show does address prejudice, but in a symbolic way. Not all creatures like werewolves are evil in this universe. In fact, the main character becomes a werewolf in the very first episode and has to learn how to control himself. He's not the only supernatural who succeeds in finding a way to coexist with ordinary people without hurting them. But people who find out the truth about him or some of his more unusual friends inevitably assume he's evil because of what he is. The last half of the final season is entirely dedicated to a villain who tries to commit what amounts to genocide against anyone who is not a "regular" human. The storyline is clearly a symbolic way of addressing prejudice, though I doubt everybody picked up on that.
That's a long-winded example, but it illustrates my basic point. Emphasizing prejudice too much risks portraying certain groups only as victims while ignoring the other aspects of their lives. Emphasizing prejudice too little (or perhaps too subtly) risks giving people the impression that it no longer exists. That's a dilemma that can face us as writers.
