Er, I think my point about "what can we do to change that?" would have been better expressed as--"there are already more than 2 non-white people in this fandom, doing stuff. Why don't I see more than 2 of them at cons that otherwise draw thousands of people across a ~somewhat wide class and geographical background? Why are the demographics of this con--one of the largest to represent the fandom as a whole--skewed such that the overwhelming majority of people present to answer this survey self-identified as white?"
I'm certainly not suggesting that furries need to somehow import more minorities of whatever type in to make furry conventions more diverse; that'd be tokenism. I am suggesting that people of many different kinds of minorities are *already there* in the fandom, and already active in art or fursuiting or whatever. The social forums are already actively changing themselves (see: the women in furry fandom panel at Anthrocon (which I could not attend, but which I noted was present)).
I'm just wondering why more people of color, or more lesbians, say, didn't seem to be visibly present in any noticable numbers in the physical space of the furry conventions I've been to (noting that, of course, members of any minority are not always going to visibly constitute a minority, and are no less minorities for that). What is keeping more lesbians, women, people of color, etc., away from a space devoted to the fandom that so many of them are already interested in and active in?
Past surveys had a larger sample size, but due to the way that the surveys were distributed this year (the IRB asked that they not be distributed to those under 18, and so the surveys were not put in the packets handed out at registration) the sample size was smaller in '09. I would hope there is a larger sample size this next year.
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-18 08:45 pm (UTC)I'm certainly not suggesting that furries need to somehow import more minorities of whatever type in to make furry conventions more diverse; that'd be tokenism. I am suggesting that people of many different kinds of minorities are *already there* in the fandom, and already active in art or fursuiting or whatever. The social forums are already actively changing themselves (see: the women in furry fandom panel at Anthrocon (which I could not attend, but which I noted was present)).
I'm just wondering why more people of color, or more lesbians, say, didn't seem to be visibly present in any noticable numbers in the physical space of the furry conventions I've been to (noting that, of course, members of any minority are not always going to visibly constitute a minority, and are no less minorities for that). What is keeping more lesbians, women, people of color, etc., away from a space devoted to the fandom that so many of them are already interested in and active in?
Past surveys had a larger sample size, but due to the way that the surveys were distributed this year (the IRB asked that they not be distributed to those under 18, and so the surveys were not put in the packets handed out at registration) the sample size was smaller in '09. I would hope there is a larger sample size this next year.