I had forgotten about the makeup bit! In the book, Lafayette’s makeup came across very much as “All gay men must wear makeup!” It sounds like he’s more interesting in the series, although I don’t know what the later books did with him. Thanks again for the conversation.

Lafayette is an interesting character because he lives up two stereotypes: tough black drug dealer and promiscuous, effeminate homosexual. I do appreciate seeing a man in makeup win fights!

The bar owner, Sam, also struck me as being really creepy and in-appropriate in the book (stalking Sookie to “protect” her, watching her undress) is toned down. I think the folks making the TV show are trying a bit harder than Charlaine Harris to be progressive, but there’s still room for improvement.

*****Spoiler space******

Every significant non-white and queer character in the book is evil or ends up dead or both. It’s been a year since I read it, but I recall: evil gay man deliberately trying to spread vampire-AIDS because of a tragic gay past (death of a lover, I think, because when gay people lose their loves they must turn evil), evil gay or bisexual vampire, evil sluttish black woman vampire (the Sapphire figure I mention above).

The submystery about the theft (I think it’s stolen money) in the vampire bar is particularly bad. There is only one non-white man in the room, a Native American (sic). Who do you think did it? (Note that accusing indigenous peoples of theft in this country also has a long, and ironic, history.) And, of course, he dies brutally for his crime.

I realize I’ve gone on at length here, but I took this book to the beach a year ago and nearly threw it into the ocean. It bothered me immensely. And I would love to see some analysis of how the same themes play out, or don’t, in the TV adaptation; I gather they changed the white best friend to a black woman named Tara, and gave Lafayette something to do?

The “fantastic racism” story uses the tropes of sf or fantasy to address prejudice in a metaphorical manner. Most often, a group of people who are “special” or “different” (i.e., vampires, or people with magical powers) face widespread prejudice from the mainstream, who are afraid of them. The X-men mutants are a classic example.

I actually really love this trope–done well it can be quite powerful, reflecting the experiences of those of us who are marginalized and inviting those of us who are dominant (and aren’t most of us both?) to examine assumptions. But it’s often done badly–and then it reaffirms prejudice.

If you make your stand-in for the marginalized genuinely dangerous to society, or deeply alien, you send a message that those others out there should be ostracized, or (worse) are not really human. (I did not see District 9, but judging from the reviews it seemed to do this.)

There’s no question that True Blood, with its Deep South setting, Vampire Rights Amendment, and jokes about “coming out of the coffin” is deliberately invoking this trope and trying to parallel its vampires with the civil, women’s, and LGBT rights movements. But vampires suck people’s blood. They actually DO pose a serious threat to human society–much like white people imagined black men did. The plot valorizes the mainstream POV, and reaffirms mainstream prejudices.

Then there’s the way TB tackles exceptionalism, which is a thorny problem for many marginalized communities. The book gives us a lot of badly-behaved scary vampires, and a couple “good” one like Bill, who are trying hard to fit in to mainstream society. In other words, it pushes a strong assimilationist message. The vampires who don’t want to accommodate the mainstream are evil and deserve to die, and usually do. (I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Bill is white, straight, and a Confederate soldier, either.)

Metaphorically, this choice promotes the exorcising of difference. Really all you people are terrible, but there are a selected few who deserve to be treated OK. You know. The Good Negroes. The immigrants who learn our language. The women who will still dress feminine. The ones who will jettison their own culture to be just like us.

A similar example is the TV show Merlin, whose protagonist has magical powers that would get him executed if the king ever got wind of them. The writing seems to deliberately parallel the persecution of magic with homophobia (e.g., “I was born like this”), and the plot revolves around Merlin having to save Arthur while keeping a central part of who he is secret.

But because the vast majority of magic-workers in the show (including all the women, and the only disabled character) are evil (or strongly implied to be headed that way, in Morgana’s case) and have to be defeated by Merlin, it undercuts the potential accept-people-with-differences theme. In essence, it says that those of you who want acceptance must not only cut ties to others like you, but fight against them. Which undercuts the struggles of marginalized communities to band together against oppression from without.

(A third way this trope goes wrong: some writers use it as an excuse to not include people of color, actually queer characters, etc. in their cast–’cuz really the aliens are already doing the job! A fourth: it often lets the audience sympathize with a palatably white or straight etc. figure who struggles with prejudice without having to include a truly different character in their sympathies. The Time Traveler’s Wife, which has some real racism & homophobia problems, is a great example of the last.)

I could say more on Harry Potter front, but I think I’ve covered it for now. Love to hear what you think when you finish the book. There’s a lot to say about Sookie as a working-class white woman and the whole female virginity thing too…

In the book so far, all the characters of color so far seem pretty minor, and the only queer characters I’ve gotten to so far have been presented as skanky villains.

What’s the “fantastic racism” trope? Is that where a group of magical beings experience racism, like in Harry Potter?

I do like your point about men calling men on consent issues, especially since there seem to have been a lot of “no! it’s not rape!” things floating around lately…