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2021 books announced

It's amazing how many people are still asking questions that have already been answered multiple times in this thread, as if they posted before reading all the replies. We're totally going in circles at this point, and I've said all I need to say, several times over. Maybe we should just cut off the hair discussion (heh-heh) and get back to generally discussing 2021 books.
 
It's amazing how many people are still asking questions that have already been answered multiple times in this thread, as if they posted before reading all the replies.

We're not here to receive instruction from you. You posted about a trivial point that you bring up repeatedly as if it matters, and when challenged on its importance you dig in and try to justify yourself at length rather than acknowledging at any point that there may be something here other than your point of view. This is as good a way to prolong an online debate about nonsense as exists, really.
 
Ahh, okay. Now that's a useful insight, and the most informative response I've gotten here. I hadn't known that, and I appreciate the context.

We're not here to receive instruction from you. You posted about a trivial point that you bring up repeatedly as if it matters, and when challenged on its importance you dig in and try to justify yourself at length rather than acknowledging at any point that there may be something here other than your point of view. This is as good a way to prolong an online debate about nonsense as exists, really.

He literally acknowledged exactly that. But it does look like you posted before reading all the replies!
 
The real question is who is her stylist. That salon could make a better series than DS9.
You are on to something. There would be so many possibilities! Maybe it could be an anthology type series where the customers come in and have stories to tell while they get their hair styled.
 
I propose we focus on what's really important :-), namely: why has the logo been changed? Our book collections will look inconsistent now...

Then again, yes, the other series have gone quite a few logo changes, so maybe I'm wrong. Still, I liked the old logo very much.

(Sidenote: my copy of DV is a few mms higher than LBH, it's infuriating! ;-))

The logo for the series changed in season 3. The book uses the new logo to match.

Learn all about the logos here: https://lessaccurategrandmother.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-title-fonts-and-logos-of-star-trek.html

This makes Disco the first Trek show to change logos, though I suppose Picard will follow suit for season 2.

I didn't notice the height difference until someone on reddit pointed it out. I wish they hadn't!
 
He's saying that it's a mythologized and culturally sensitive subject and it's very easy to teeter into it being unintentionally racist.

And there's nothing unintentionally racist about just putting a big DO NOT DISCUSS sign up with regards to it? "I don't see color... or black women's hair, because sometimes they get upset when people talk about it and I can't understand and/or explain why, so let's all just pretend it doesn't exist at all."

A few months ago, the Pod Directive featured a roundtable discussion with Tawny Newsome, Michelle Hurd, Angelica Jade Bastién and Kendra Jame‪s‬. The entire discussion is really interesting and often quite funny, but there's a sobering tangent about the racism they've encountered in the form of white people policing their hair and how they choose to style and wear it. It's a widespread problem in general, but it's especially pernicious in Hollywood and the entertainment industry, where union hairstylists have little to no experience working with certain hair types and textures and so much focus is put on making white audiences as comfortable as possible (for women of color, this often entails being pressured to conform to "conventional" beauty standards, like straightened hair). It's a form of systemic racism that often gets overlooked.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/n...-problem-set-we-ve-all-cried-trailers-1274876

I'm sure Christopher didn't mean any harm with his posts, but given that the scrutinization of black hair and the hairstyle choices of black women in particular can be a form of indirect discrimination and many black women have been vocal about how frustrating and dehumanizing it feels, I don't think it's unreasonable for people to point out that fixating on Burnham's hair change, which is inconsequential and doesn't really require an explanation, can come across as racist regardless of intent.


On the subject of 2021 Trek books...I'm most excited for the upcoming DS9 novel from Alex. R. White. I'm not familiar with their other work, but I'm looking forward to a Jadzia-centric novel written by a non-binary writer.
 
I'm pretty excited for Wonderland, mostly because it's by McCormack, the untitled Picard novel, simply because I think the first two were very good, and Revenant, for the reasons you already mentioned. Plus of course the potential LitVerse finale trilogy, if that's what it'll turn out to be.
 
I'm sure Christopher didn't mean any harm with his posts, but given that the scrutinization of black hair and the hairstyle choices of black women in particular can be a form of indirect discrimination and many black women have been vocal about how frustrating and dehumanizing it feels, I don't think it's unreasonable for people to point out that fixating on Burnham's hair change, which is inconsequential and doesn't really require an explanation, can come across as racist regardless of intent.

I didn't realize that, and I'm sorry for stepping on a minefield. I just saw it as a production issue pertaining to hair growth rates. I mean, I think Martin-Green looks fantastic with that hairstyle; I just didn't understand how it was supposed to represent only one year's growth, because hair extensions are not something I'm very familiar with. Now it's all been explained and I understand better.

But I wasn't "fixating" on it. It's just a detail I noticed, a minor technicality that I never expected to become such a hot topic. I'm happy to let it go, as I've said.
 
It's a form of systemic racism that often gets overlooked.

And what I'm saying is that people going out of their way to not talk about it (since they know there's a problem with white people policing black people's appearances in ways that force them to contort themselves to seem whiter and that's a fraught subject) because they're afraid anything they say would just make it worse is, in fact, making it worse. The solution to Hollywood hairstylists not knowing how to work with non-white hair types and styles, or midwestern science fiction authors not having an awareness of braids and hair extensions, is not to enforce a white taboo against speaking about black people's hair, especially how it is different in texture or style or cultural aspects from white hair, under any and all circumstances. That just preserves and grows the very ignorance that puts the "systemic" in "systemic racism." "I'm not making it worse" isn't good enough.
 
And what I'm saying is that people going out of their way to not talk about it (since they know there's a problem with white people policing black people's appearances in ways that force them to contort themselves to seem whiter and that's a fraught subject) because they're afraid anything they say would just make it worse is, in fact, making it worse.

Yes. We learn by talking and listening. I've learned things from this conversation that I didn't know before.

We can't be afraid to be wrong. Everyone's wrong sometimes. And we need to be able to listen when people tell us we're wrong, because that's how we get better. I've spent my whole life systematically unlearning the white/male/hetero/binary-centric preconceptions and prejudices I was unconsciously conditioned with by my upbringing. I've gotten better by learning where I was in the wrong and striving to do better. This conversation has been one more step in that process. Heck, I thought it was just a continuity issue, like when Janeway's hair got shorter for one week in "Parturition" and was magically back to ponytail length the following week. I didn't even realize there was a racial element here, so I made a mistake in my ignorance. And I was called on it, and I listened, and I learned. I wouldn't have learned if we didn't talk about it.
 
I didn't notice the height difference until someone on reddit pointed it out. I wish they hadn't!
The plot thickens, as it has been reported in the Facebook ST Book Discussion group that some lucky individuals received copies of DV of exactly the same height as their copies of LBH...
 
And what I'm saying is that people going out of their way to not talk about it (since they know there's a problem with white people policing black people's appearances in ways that force them to contort themselves to seem whiter and that's a fraught subject) because they're afraid anything they say would just make it worse is, in fact, making it worse. The solution to Hollywood hairstylists not knowing how to work with non-white hair types and styles, or midwestern science fiction authors not having an awareness of braids and hair extensions, is not to enforce a white taboo against speaking about black people's hair, especially how it is different in texture or style or cultural aspects from white hair, under any and all circumstances. That just preserves and grows the very ignorance that puts the "systemic" in "systemic racism." "I'm not making it worse" isn't good enough.

And this is not so much aimed at you but the danger in walking through cultural minefields.

The "black is beautiful" movement was in response to generations of white standards being applied to black people, from skin lightening to hair straightening to conforming with the white culture in terms of language and behavior. The entire subject of norms re the black community is the aforementioned minefield.

Even with the best of intentions to have a "dialog" there is a likelihood of coming across as paternalistic and condescending, and, at worst, insulting.

The best way to address it? Not to talk about "the problem" but to just acknowledge that it exists and revel in the IDICness of people. Speaking positively about matters which are often used in a racist manner, or standing up and saying, "that's not cool" is a more effective tool than posturing and "discussing" it. The simplest example is just to acknowledge that those things are cool and neat and normal. One "I love your/her/his hair," and leaving it at that is probably the best thing we could say to chip away at such perceptions.
 
My copies of the two are the same height. I remember thinking how nice they look next to each other on the shelf.

Yeah, mine are the same as well. Maybe there's a difference in the copies Amazon's shipping out as opposed to the stock brick-and-mortar stores are receiving? I have no idea why that would be, though.
 
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