Dark Agenda

The underlying issue:
A lack of representation in both source and fandom of chromatic creators and characters, exemplified in the Yuletide Fic Exchange.

The challenge:

• Part one: Request and offer to write for some of the fandoms on this list.
  
• Part two: Do whatever it takes to be able to upload at least one Yuletide treat in the aforementioned fandoms during the Yuletide Madness period. A drabble, if not a fic. A character study, if not a plotty epic.

How we will help you:

• By collating lists of suitable fandoms, and pimp posts and critiques of them.
  
• By organising culture- language- and fandom- specific beta lists, and helping you track them down.
  
• By gathering links to helpful writing and researching tips.
  
• By maintaining a list of all the requests made for chromatic fandoms, as soon as they show up either on the pinch hitters list, or on the website.
  
• By offering to upload your stories for you if you are unable to do so during the specific time period open for Yuletide treats.

Our suggested hierarchy:

• First, write for a language and culture other than your own.
  
• Second, support sources that are as authentic and unproblematic as they can be, especially in relation to those made about a culture from outside it.
  
• Third, celebrate actual source cultures before reinterpretations of it, because there just isn't enough of the first; i.e. realistic representations before retellings of myths, and actual religions before fantasy send-ups of them.
  
• Fourth, if you end up writing problematic source, engage in fixing it: finding the invisible people of colour and putting them back in, writing the back story for a character without tying it into the white people's narratives, showing not telling the blind spots and bigotry and flaws in the celebrated white heroes of the narrative.

Caveats:

• We use the term 'chromatic' as an umbrella definition for 'sourcelander', 'hyphenate', 'diasporian', 'person of colour', 'non-white', while we acknowledge that it has shortcomings. Similarly, we accept that there is a certain flattening in our 'White / Western /Other' terminology.
  
• We are not the final or authoritative arbitrators of what is offensive or acceptable. There is no such thing as universal agreement.
  
• We cannot and will not police authenticity or accuracy in sources, betas, or stories. We will accept and include clarifications and corrections about any opinions or facts we might state.

Resources:

• Yuletide 2009 Fandoms with Chromatic Creators
  
• Yuletide 2009 Fandoms with Western/ White/ Other Creators
  
• Form to add information to our database of fandoms
  
• Common pitfalls while writing and how to avoid them.
  
• Personal meta about motivations and principles for this challenge.
  
• Beta-editor's list: offer your services and ask for a beta
  
• Chromatic prompts off the pinch hitters' list
  
• The RSS feed for Livejournal.

We hope you enjoy participating, and are very glad you have decided to do so!

Note: In my personal hierarchy of diversity, it is more important to support chromatic creators, and sources made by the people they represent. In addition, many White and Western sources come with deeply problematic racial and cultural depictions of their characters, and yet they end up being more popular and disseminated than more authentic representations.
That said, many of us love sources that are problematic for a variety of reasons, and as fans, one of the wonderful things we can do is produce fic that critiques, challenges and complicates the flaws in the source.
So if you do decide to write for these (and seriously, do it in addition to rather than instead of writing for the first list), please make sure you hunt for critique of the source, and write something that does not add to the problems of misrepresentation.

List of Chromatic Characters in White/Western/Other Created Yuletide 2009 Fandoms

PLEASE USE THIS FORM TO ADD INFORMATION TO THIS LIST (Made by the wonderful thuviaptarth)
Links to posts that comment on the source's racial and cultural representations are especially needed. We'll be editing this post continually to keep up with new information as we get it, so corrections, explanations, and counter-opinions to any commentary about the source is most welcome.