Hello all,
I was signing up for this forum on principle because I enjoyed the marathon this year a lot (my first!), when I noticed my LiveJournal entry about it had been linked here. As awesome as that is, I do think it somewhat unfortunate that this part of the whlle diatribe is the part that generated discussion.
Clarification: I do not actually believe ALL horror fans are racist. If that's true, then so am I. I can see how reading that part out of one post out of a journal that's been running for years by someone no one at the marathon remotely knows might catch an eye, but it's not a comment without context.
That said, it bears noting that the inherent racism and sexism of horror films traditionally is more a statement about the genre and not about the fans. Yet, like in any other public situation, you'll always have people who don't quite get it and you'll get some stuff said out loud that might not be appropriate for everyone if an opportunity presents itself. As a black horror fan, this doesn't surprise me and this kind of ignorance doesn't generally offend me. It's kind of like being mad at the one rampant Buckeye fan who shouts at the players in the middle of the Horseshoe; what did you expect?
Again, I had no expectations of what the marathon would be like, and I was smitten right away with the whole affair. As someone who organizes events locally, I greatly admire the work that clearly went into it and look forward to perhaps volunteering in the future.
I'm not kilt guy. That you guys can count the number of black people there on one hand makes you all racist.
Smitten,
Scott Woods
Writer, librarian, horror fan
