Steampunk POC: Phil Powell (Mixed race: German, African, Cherokee)

It's the first Friday of the month again! That means, time for another Steampunk POC interview! This time, we hike over to DC metro, to talk to steampunk dandy Phil Powell, a man who colours up the sepia of steampunk, with more than just his skintone.

Phil Powell. Portrait by Denis Largeron

 How do you do steampunk? Or how do you steampunk or how do you participate in steampunk? Or what steampunk media do you do (lit, fashion, events)? Ay-Leen tells me you're a local organizer, but feel free to talk about anything else: costuming, roleplaying, etc.

I turn Steampunk on its ear.  I don't go for the generic guns/goggles/gadgets that permeate Steampunk; I feel that if we are going to recreate (and perfect) the Victorian culture, all of it must be represented, including the Dandy.  I am a Dandy, a proud one.  I wear very fancy outfits, feathers, accessories, pins, brooches.  THOSE are my gadgets.  Ay-Leen knows me well; I do events, small social outings for those of us wishing to encounter each other in a non-club setting to enjoy our mutual interests and to further my goal of global domination, ridding the world of mundaneness and general boredom.

How did you come to steampunk? What were your first impressions of it?

I am originally a Goth.  Dressing up fancy and having interest in all things Victorian comes naturally to me, so when I learned about Steampunk back in 2008 I was immediately drawn to it and wanting to explore further, thus, I did.  My immediate impressions were that of a very diverse group of people, mostly from the Ren Faire circuit, that were immersed in roleplaying and general nerddom, things that weren't necessarily my strongest suits, thus, I was in some ways coming into the Steampunk genre a bit, well, green.

Link of Great Interest: What Is Cultural Appropriation?

A year or two ago, ardhra added her two-cents to a conversation I was having on Tumblr about cultural appropriation, which I've never forgotten, "cultural appropriation involves power." Since then, I've fumbled around trying to explain and extrapolate on this. 

Now she's gone and explained, quite concisely, I think, the general way cultural appropriation works, in what is very straightforward language that if you can't figure out what a word means, you can Google it. 

Some quotes:

The problem isn’t that cultures intermingle, it’s the terms on which they do so and the part that plays in the power relations between cultures. The problem isn’t “taking” or “borrowing”, the problem is racism, imperialism, white supremacy, and colonialism. The problem is how elements of culture get taken up in disempowering, unequal ways that deny oppressed people autonomy and dignity. Cultural appropriation only occurs in the context of the domination of one society over another, otherwise known as imperialism. Cultural appropriation is an act of domination, which is distinct from ‘borrowing’, syncretism, hybrid cultures, the cultures of assimilated/integrated populations, and the reappropriation of dominant cultures by oppressed peoples.

...
What’s being appropriated in *cultural appropriation* isn’t the things themselves — the images, stories, artefacts, themes, etc. — it’s the capacity of people of oppressed groups to determine the meaning, scope, usage, and future of those things. Cultural appropriation involves taking over peoples’ control over representations of themselves. Cultural appropriation is an attack on cultural autonomy and self-determination, backed up by historically constructed domination.
....
Anything that depoliticises the definition of cultural appropriation as being about cultural “borrowing” erases the reality of how cultural appropriation has come into being and operated. It’s the “colourblind,” i.e. race-aversive and power-aversive, version, that sanitises the history of cultural appropriation. 

What white people always erase is that cultural appropriation has historically been accompanied, and enabled, by violence. From weavers’ fingers to genocidal rape, the violence built into cultural appropriation is undeniable.

This is going into the 101 page, but I wanted to make sure ya'll who have me on your feeds got a chance to read this excellent essay, rather than sneak it by you.  Seriously, go read the whole thing. Twice.

Racist Things Steampunks Are Not Immune To: Microaggressions

Oh, good, you're still here. Now that I sic'd Aversive Racism on you, have another racist thing that steampunks do. Like aversive racism, this is not unique to steampunk, so much as it is baggage that steampunks will carry in from the larger culture.

So, have your second Racism 101 item: Microaggressions.