Clarkesworld Anthology 2012 (94 page)

Of the many popular and recurring images that support this idea, perhaps most obvious one is the Tia Dalma character from
The Pirates of the Caribbean
films. Introduced as Davy Jones’ erstwhile lover, Dalma is a flirty seductress who is more than willing to help the white characters for little or no reward. Originally the powerful goddess Calypso, she once held control over the seas and everything within it. Now she is “bound” into human form because she rejected her white lover, Davy Jones, and her power is reduced to only aiding the heroes on their journey, as she has been denied one of her own.

For this character, the message is clear. Black women are meant to support white men. If they are unwilling to do this, the punishment is swift and uncompromising. Dalma has been relegated to a mere shadow of her former self, and society is better for it. Without Dalma’s current submissive state, the journey of the white men would be in jeopardy, and all of the fictional society would be threatened by the presence of her Black superpowers. Instead, she is depicted as an overly strong, sexual woman, who is rightly regulated to a submissive role for the benefit of this wider fictionalized world.

Another popular image is the longstanding Marvel comic book character, Storm. Best known as the on-again-off-again leader of the X-Men, Storm is the queen of Wakanda (due to her marriage to the comic character Black Panther) and possesses the ability to control all elements of the weather, both on Earth and beyond. Despite all of this power, Storm, like most female comic-book characters, is portrayed in scanty attire, exposed breast and skimpy thongs, as opposed to her male counterparts whose costumes cover their entire bodies. Not surprisingly, her race is a constant presence as Storm is considered beautiful and sexy because “her features don’t fit any conventional classification. Not Negroid, Caucasian, or Oriental—yet somehow, an amalgam of the rarest elements of them all. White hair. Blue eyes.”

This is quoted directly from an issue of
Uncanny X-Men
published in 1989—not 1889! Through her white features and the quiet strength of the Strong Black Woman, Storm is accepted as a member and often leader of the X-Men. As with Tia Dalma, the endowment of supernatural powers has not changed Storm’s position in society. Rather, these powers have made her more white, relegating her Blackness or “Negroid[ness]” to second-class status. For Storm, supernatural powers not only do not upset the racial and gender hierarchy but they forge a constant battle between her race and gender, causing a binary opposition where she is forced to choose among these two identities. Needless to say, the genre has often chosen the more white identity for her, as evidenced by the light-skinned Halle Berry who played Storm in the X-Men films.

Trying to move outside of these images often proves difficult for Black women. Genre fans sometimes level anger toward Black women when they step outside of their accepted roles. An obvious example of this is with the 2012 controversy of the film adaptation of
The Hunger Games
. Although the characters of Rue and Thresh are described within the book as having “dark brown skin and eyes,” many fans leveled racist insults at the Black actors playing the roles. However, it was the actress Amandla Stenberg (Rue) who received the most flack. Fans tweeted that they were unable to connect to the character after being confronted with her Black presence in the film. The problem was not only that this Black girl did not deserve sympathy, but that she was in the wrong place; she did not belong in their fantasy futurist society. Give her a couple of years, throw her on stage as a teen seductress (àla Lisa Bonet in
Angel Heart
), and everything will be exactly as it should be.

Taking a look at the broader genre, it’s easy to see that not all Black female characters are depicted as Super Duper Sexual Spiritual Black Women. However, it’s also easy to see that way too many of them are. The problem is not that there are negative characters who also happen to be Black women (and minority people as a whole), but that there are rarely any contrasting positive images. Even the character of Rue dies after granting wisdom and medicine to the white protagonist. So while the obvious racism is held under scrutiny, the problematic issue of Rue being placed within the text simply to advance the plot for the white character has been left unexamined. Real life Black women don’t have supernatural powers, and they aren’t stronger than white women—but they are expected to be, so this effects the way people interact with them.

One of the problems for genre writers is that, while trying to be progressive by endowing these characters with supernatural powers, they have simultaneously relied on old, worn-out stereotypes—including the sexual aggression of Black women. Whether inadvertent or not, these genre conventions very well may create a space where Black women are more subjugated through the bestowment of supernatural powers, as that appearance leaves the mostly white audience unthreatened in their patriarchal and racial positions in society.

About the Author

Chesya Burke
has been writing speculative fiction for over a decade. Her work has appeared in such publications as
Dark Dreams I, II,
and
III: Horror and Suspense by Black Writers,
and her short story collection,
Lets Play White,
received high praise from Samuel Delany and Nikki Giovanni. Several of her articles appeared in the
African American National Biography
published by Harvard and Oxford University Press. She is the recent recipient of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) scholarship, and is a juror for the 2012 Shirley Jackson awards.

Editor’s Desk: Professionally Speaking

Neil Clarke

I’m quite happy to report that since the last issue, I have not seen the inside of an emergency room. I’m still on the mend from my heart attack, but doing well enough to keep my doctors pleased.

I had hoped to spend the first weekend in September in Chicago, the site of this year’s Worldcon and the Hugo Award Ceremony. Instead, I’m spending the weekend at home. It would have been nice to meet with friends and participate on panels, but given my current situation, several people expressed concern about attending the Hugo ceremony. They are most likely correct.

I’m very grateful to be a nominee this year and would have loved to have participated. Award ceremonies can be stressful, even when you don’t expect to win. Should I win, I’ve asked Kate Baker to attend on my behalf. It’s not fair to ask someone to do that unless you are prepared to give them an acceptance speech to read. My first draft simply read, “If anyone out there is watching the ceremony in NJ, please have them send an ambulance to my house.” The final version was more appropriate, I assure you.

Speaking of awards, the World Fantasy Award nominees were announced a few weeks ago and we received some great news (that I obviously survived):

• Best Short Story Nominee: “The Anarchist Wasps and the Cartographer Bees” by E. Lily Yu,
  Clarkesworld,
  Issue #55
  
• Best Novella: “Silently and Very Fast” by Catherynne M. Valente,
  Clarkesworld,
  Issues #61-63 and WFSA Press
  
• Special Award, Non-Professional: Kate Baker, Neil Clarke, Cheryl Morgan & Sean Wallace, for
  Clarkesworld
  

This is the third time we’ve been nominated for a Special Award and, as usual, the competition is pretty tough. What makes us eligible for non-professional status? The easiest way to put it is that none of us do this for a living. After any significant life-threatening event, like a heart attack, you’ll end up spending a lot of time reevaluating your priorities in life.

I’ve always dreamed that someday
Clarkesworld
would reach the point where the staff and I would get paid a reasonable wage. That dream has evolved into something more concrete. Becoming “professional” is now a goal.

To my knowledge, there hasn’t been an independent online magazine that has successfully made the jump to paying authors and staff professional rates without dipping into the publisher’s pockets or becoming a patron of some other organization. This doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

In fact, with our current infrastructure for esubscriptions via Amazon and Weightless Books, it’s within the realm of possibility. Increasing our subscriber base, improving the stability of our advertising revenue, and restoring our annual anthology series are all important steps towards achieving our goal and I believe they can be accomplished without sacrificing what we value in this magazine.

So now you know what I’ll be doing in the background for months to come. If you’d like to help, here are a few things you could do:

• Tell friends about our subscription options on your blog, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Goodreads, etc. Let’s try to hit two thousand subscribers by the new year!
  
• Write a nice review over on our Amazon subscriptions page (more important than you might think)
  
• Recommend potential advertisers to us
  
• Subscribe or purchase our books, if you don’t already
  
• Offer to deliver promotional materials to conventions
  
• Send us your marketing ideas
  
• Comment on a story you enjoyed
  

If you’d rather just read and enjoy, that’s great too! Thanks for your continued support and I hope that we continue to earn it in the future.

About the Author

Neil Clarke
is the editor of
Clarkesworld Magazine,
owner of Wyrm Publishing and a 2012 Hugo Nominee for Best Editor (short form). He currently lives in NJ with his wife and two children.

Clarkesworld Magazine

Issue 73

Table of Contents

A Bead of Jasper, Four Small Stones

by Genevieve Valentine

England under the White Witch

by Theodora Goss

The Battle of Candle Arc

by Yoon Ha Lee

The Future, One Thing at a Time

by Matthew Johnson

A Germ of an Idea: An Interview with John Varley

by Jeremy L. C. Jones

Another Word: Practicing Dissatisfaction

by Daniel Abraham

Editor's Desk: Six and Counting

by Neil Clarke

Breaking Through

Art by Julie Dillon

© Clarkesworld Magazine, 2012
www.clarkesworldmagazine.com

A Bead of Jasper, Four Small Stones

Genevieve Valentine

There’s a cloud across Europa.

Every time Henry looks out at the flat, grey disc, he tries to think what you’re meant to think: We’re almost there, soon you can breathe, it’s nearly rain.