Talk to me about Fantasy

This weekend I’m putting together an online roundtable of writers, readers and editors to talk about their favorite and must-read Fantasy books and stories by or about PoC from 2007 (and in general). I also want to have some discussion of the problematic issues with the genre in terms of PoC and how, going forward, [...]

Radio Daze

I’m very much enjoying the discussion about feminism in the previous post, so I’m reluctant to start a new topic (and I still haven’t finished my essays on the subject).  Instead, I will mention that I was on the News & Notes Blogger Roundtable again Monday.  I had the pleasure of meeting Farai Chideya in [...]

On Feminism, part 1

I came across this yesterday and, considering some of the things we were talking about in the Irrational Men thread, I thought many people would find this interesting.
Why I am Not a Feminist, or “My Anti-Feminist Manifesto”
1. Being a woman, and being a woman of color, and being a Muslim, I choose to not be [...]

Lott Resigns; America Says, “Wait, he was still in the Senate??”

The big political news today (that doesn’t have to do with the election) is that Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, is resigning by the end of the year.
“Trish and I have decided that it’s time to do something else,” Lott said, referring to his wife.
“Let me be clear: There are no problems,” Lott said.
[...]
Lott said [...]

Save Heroes

I know many of you are fans of the show Heroes.  I also know that many of you are just as frustrated as I am about some of the show’s less desirable elements, such as the way they treat many of the characters of color. To that end, I created Save Heroes. To wit:
…if [...]

Irrational Men

Recently a friend of mine, writer Jay Lake, pointed to this article:
Saudi Rape Victim Gets 200 Lashes
A Saudi court sentenced a woman who had been gang raped to six months in jail and 200 lashes – more than doubling her initial penalty for being in the car of a man who was not a relative…
In [...]

Getting Attention is Nice

Just tooting my own horn a bit here.  And mostly because I’m kind of flabbergasted at some of the things I’m finding lately.
Firstly, back in September Electronic Village named me as one of the Top 10 Black Bloggers on the internet (ranked via Technorati authority).  I came in #5, which really surprised me as I [...]

Interview with two black fantasy writers

I promise that I won’t mention what’s going on at Fantasy magazine every week.  But a lot of what I’m doing over there has a lot to do with some of the things I talk about over here.  Thus, every once and a while I’ll link.
This week it was an interview with authors Alaya Dawn [...]

No, we’re not gonna take it

In the October 15th issue of Newsweek I read a little sidebar piece on Race & Gender titled “We’re Not Gonna Take It”.
At no small personal cost, Anucha Browne-Sanders stood up and demanded an end to the kind of abuse African-American women regularly tolerate from some black men. We are not “bitches” or “ho’s” [...]

On News & Notes today

Later this afternoon I’m heading down to my local NPR studio to take part in News & Notes Black Blogger’s Roundtable. If you’re not familiar with News & Notes, the roundtables are segments where bloggers or reporters, etc., discuss a few news items and give take on them or the media response or something [...]