Racism

From Fancyclopedia 2 Supplement, ca. 1960

Fandom has been fairly free of this sort of kookabooism, though Caucasian superiority was once defended by Jack Speer (!!)) in FAPA with such energy that his feud-opponents the Futurians tried to use it as grounds to eject him from the organization. Others, such as Paul Cox and Edwin Sigler in the early '50s and George Wetzel in the late '50s, have defended the idea of biological superiority of whites; a slightly larger number of fans have pointed out the social debilities of the negro as seen in practice. Generally the former argument, that whites are somehow better by nature, is met with slight respect if not with lively salvos of counterinvective from other fans -- certainly it rouses a good deal more aversion that advocating offbeat political, religious, or moral doctrines. Not many fans, however, go to the length George Young went when drafting the M3FS Constitution; disturbed by rumors of race prejudice in fandom, he began the document with the declaration: "Membership is open to all humans BEMs, and intelligent entities..."

Racism in FAPA

In 1944, FAPA held a special election that was intended, among other things, to quash expressions of racism, in particular Jack Speer’s outspoken opinions. The membership voted it down by one vote (19–18). Partly, this can be attributed to ongoing feuding among FAPAns on unrelated issues and partly to concerns about censorship in general, but we aren’t going to deny that there were likely members who didn’t want FAPA put “on record, officially, on the sub­ject of racism, for FAPA to have an official attitude, taking a stand against it.”

Related FAPAzines:

• Black & White.
• The two “open letters” in FAPA 29.
• These Amazing Amendments!
• Doctor Ashley and Mr Lowndes

Today

Although their numbers have grown, the percentage of People of Color in sf's professional and fan communities is thought to be lower than in the macrocosm. Opinions differ on why this is the case, and no one has done any definitive research on demographics. Prominent Black professional authors include Samuel Delany, Octavia Butler and Steven Barnes. Fans Elliot Shorter and Vijay Bowen won the Trans Atlantic Fan Fund (TAFF).

The biggest minority ethnic group in fandom has traditionally been Jews.

See also RaceFail.

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