steelgrrlmai,

AFAIK, Sanders is “real” (part) Cherokee, and not one of the recent add-ons who discovered s/he had a Cherokee great grandmother’s cousin’s nephew’s best friend when Indian gambling casinos started getting popular. He’s claimed that identity for years and his fiction has at times reflected his heritage, though I’ll admit I haven’t read much of it (did read a story of his in a Native American SF anthology, Tales from the Great Turtle.).

A.,

::puts on guest mod hat:: Please scroll up, click on “The Rules”, and notice the one about no gendered slurs. Of which the p-word is one, unless you’re using it to refer to a species of willow tree. I see that there are other writers in this thread; if you’re having trouble coming up with a suitable word to describe Mr. Sanders, please put out a call for non-gendered synonyms and I’m sure they’d help you out. Here’s a few to get you started: weak. Punk-ass. Cheapshit. Pathetic. Cowardly.

Everyone, join the fun!

Jeff,

I’m a huge fan of Octavia Butler, and will probably one day write a long paean of praise to her on this site. Fledgling was probably my least favorite of her books short of Clay’s Ark, though, for a couple of reasons: a) I hate vampire stories, b) I also think the plot rambled and was weakest when they put the protagonist “on trial”, which took up way too much of the book, and c) I really didn’t like her love interest, who was creepy. I didn’t have that much of a problem with the protag’s age, mostly because Butler has done young/young-looking love before — the protag of Mind of My Mind, for example, was a late-teen girl if I recall; she ended up being one of the most ass-kickingest characters I’ve ever seen, very much the predator and not the prey. I think Butler does this deliberately to play with the concepts of strength/weakness; she seems to like reversing traditional expectations of gender (e.g., girls are weaker), youth/innocence, even body size. So it works given the way she does it.

In general, though I loved Butler’s work, and agree that she was taken from us far too soon.

I know what you are saying – it is BS to say “I can’t be racist – I am part Cherokee,” which, in of of itself, shows ignorance of Cherokee history. But I feel the need to point out -

If one’s grandmother/great grandmother married a white man, she was de facto considered to be of his “race.” And it usually meant she lived where he lived and adopted his culture – at least, publicly. It can make proof of legitimacy difficult.

Doesn’t change the reality that this man is a jerk…regardless of his possible heritage.

I get so freaking sick of people trying to identify as one of us to try and weasel out of paying what they owe for their bad behavior. It has to stop.
signed,
A Thoroughly Disgusted NDN.

Threatening legal action because someone said something that he didn’t like over the internet? My ass. He made a comment referring to an ENTIRE ethnicity of people, and now he wants to talk about his feelings and bring legalities into it?

That’s a pussy move right here.

Keep up the great work.

Megan

And not to derail here, but to Susie – as a part Cherokee/part white person, I can sadly tell you that all of my people can do racism quite well. The Cherokee and some other eastern tribes were slave-owners. The Cherokee had previosuly welcomed descendants of their freed slaves as part of the tribe but recently made moves to undo this. I am usually proud of who I am (even if many people don’t see me as what I am) but we can be embarassingly good at imitating our oppressors.

End tangent….