The #DiversityInSFF hashtag gave a solid signal boost to the longstanding, often-ignored, ever-trolled, much-needed convos about race and gender, privilege and science fiction/fantasy that have been going on since the dawn of time. For a few weeks twitter was all aflame with debates, links and related shenanigans. We have these convos, increasingly in depth, at cons and across the blogosphere. Backlash against those who speak out has come in the form of death and rape threats, hate mail, doubling down on sexist/racist/homophobic/ableist material, and mind-numbingly nonsensical counterarguments. And, of course, comments sections. Still, we move forward, take breaks to recuperate and then move forward some more towards a vision of SF/F that isn’t just another white male savior fantasies, a diversity that’s more than fake smiling multicolored dress up dolls.

This month Rose Fox and I have been wrapping up the selection process for Long Hidden, an anthology of speculative fiction from the margins of history. It’s busied me up and kept me from banging my head against the keyboard trying to piece together a coherent response to some never-ending fuckery and maybe that’s a good thing. My words are coming, but sometimes the best counterattack is to simply reroute the conversation to creativity, to create something new, a new space for voices that don’t get play in mainstream venues.

Read on to find some links to recent conversations about race and SF/F:

Rudy Ch. Garcia affirms that Chicanos do indeed write about dragons (also a great roundup of race and SF/F concepts and some amazing links).

NK Jemisin breaks it all down in her guest of honor speech at Continuum.

Roxane Gay brings her wisdom to the #DiversityinSFF convo over at The Nation, including a review of my short story collection Salsa Nocturna and Saladin Ahmed’s Throne of The Crescent Moon.

I put together a round table of writers and editors to imagine an anti-oppressive SFF community at Strange Horizons.

Finally, the epic anthology, Mothership: Tales From Afrofuturism and Beyond, dropped last week and is now available on Amazon.

Related articles

• N.O.C. Notices: Stuff Around the Web (thenerdsofcolor.org)
• UNAPOLOGETICALLY BLACK: Lack of #DiversityInSFF is NOT a Victimless Crime! (thesealofoblivion.wordpress.com)
• Diversity in SFF (tor.com)