Amazing Panel

Below is my review of a panel I attended at one of the many geeky conventions (WhismyCon) that take place in Colorado. I wanted to go to this panel to see what kinds of topics and messages are being talked about outside of higher education. To be truthful I am hit nearly daily with narrow perceptions of inclusive excellence that does more to push people away than to bring them together and doesn’t acknowledge how layered people are. I’m including this on my culture blog because you never know where you can learn more about culture and I was really happy that they would have deep conversations like this at an entertainment convention.

The one full panel I got to see was amazing. “Why We Need Diversity in Entertainment” presented by Olivia Wylie, Ian Brazee-Cannon, and Vennessa Robertson. These people helped remind me that people who are truly aware of diversity issues do not believe in stereotyping. With my work in education I am constantly being hit with IE (Inclusive Excellence) and most of the messages I experience there is that you have to fit in a type and that everything is binary. IE as presented in education is very biased and to be truthful racist. Most people are not binary and taking this view cuts out all people that come from mixed races or backgrounds. You cannot put people into little boxes. They need to be able to establish their own boxes or say to hell with it and make their own amorphous shape that fits their needs, not yours. Wylie (who presents as white) spoke about being mixed race and growing up on an Indian reservation. Many times people would not associate her with her family because of how light skinned she was. This lead to negative experiences for her that impacted her life and views. Many people that do diversity work will not acknowledge these experiences because people like her do not fit into their nice perceived boxes. An interesting quote from her was “If you can pass, people don’t understand when things go wrong and you are not given any slack.” This goes back to the concept that if you appear white then everything in your life must be good. Robertson also made some interesting points like that you can be a part of a culture and not experience all of the key experiences of that culture and that living close to other cultures can influence your culture. One thing that all the panelist said they wanted to see was more mixed race/background characters. I think their key point though from the writing perspective was that if you are going to write about a character that is different from you that you do your research and be ready to cite your sources. This panel was a breath of fresh air and reminded me that not everyone has messed up views on what makes a person.