The thing with "ghettoization" is that it happens in the ghetto.
They weren't stuck in the basement that you can only get to by risking rickety stairs at 10 p.m. I'm sure they were treated with all due respect that an author at a literature-oriented con deserves.
I think people who read malice into random events do more damage than help in the long run. Sure, there are lots of insidious examples of racism in literature (the horrible trilogy I read not long ago by Russell Kirkpatrick comes immediately to mind) and in the wider culture. I think it's better to focus on those instances than nitpick about two black authors doing a signing together.
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Date: 2009-07-28 12:51 am (UTC)They weren't stuck in the basement that you can only get to by risking rickety stairs at 10 p.m. I'm sure they were treated with all due respect that an author at a literature-oriented con deserves.
I think people who read malice into random events do more damage than help in the long run. Sure, there are lots of insidious examples of racism in literature (the horrible trilogy I read not long ago by Russell Kirkpatrick comes immediately to mind) and in the wider culture. I think it's better to focus on those instances than nitpick about two black authors doing a signing together.