From the Wired article: Dude that claims qualifying for "tribal membership" is some badge of diversity. I am, like, 1/16 Muscogee Indian(Creek) because my grandfather was half. I know very little about the culture at all(Grandpa had some *heavy* identity issues) but because the tribe has kind of a "one drop" rule, my blond, blue-eyed brother has a tribal card.He mostly uses it to get campaign literature and vote in tribal elections,but I think I would beat the snot out of him if he said that just having it gave him insights into diversity, even if we do have proof that great-grandma was on the trail of tears. But then again, what can you expect from a grown man who proudly calls himself a "rabid puppy"...what a fucknut. Some tribes (Hopis, for instance) are *totally* strict about whom they let in, but I kind of doubt that anyone with Hopi blood would be all "all this damn diversity, messing up our quality!1"

Although, like I said, being mixed did kind of fuck my grandfather up so I guess it could happen.

I just read the Wired article about the Hugos: [link], and it sounds like it turned out as well as it could have.

Would have been better if the writer had any sense of Science Fiction history. Like how they scrambled back to add in Octavia Butler and Connie Willis and Ursula K. LeGuin. No mention of Chip Delaney or James Tiptree, or Joanna Russ or....etc. You'd think that science fiction had gone directly from the Campbell 50s to this year as an undifferentiated slab of Square Jawed White Guy Engineer Stories, without any knowledge of the New World/Dangerous Visions era, or Cyberpunk (with Alec Effinger, Pat Cadigan...).

Not related to the puppy probem, erika, I'm 1/16th Creek, too. But no Trail of Tears for my branch of the family - my ancestors stayed in Florida, hiding out, blending in, or purposefully forgotten.

I think I know this guy. [link]

I feel like the Wired writer needs to be given the A Clockwork Orange treatment with that scene in The Jane Austen Book Club where Hugh Dancy is informing Maria Bello about all the great SF writers who were women.

My mother's book club decided they needed a name; since they don't tend to like depressing tales, they very nearly chose "The Happy Endings Book Club."

Fortunately their newest member (not my mother, she was clueless) was able to educate them on why that was a poor choice.

OTOH, mash them up with that book club that invited the football player to join them and you have a hilarious sitcom waiting to happen.

I think I know this guy. [link])

Man that guy sounds pretty cool.

I think I come out as 1/8 Cherokee (one great-grandmother was from the reservation in North Carolina). Since I'm culturally about as white as you can get, I've never done anything about it. Genetically ... I seem to be missing most immunities to European diseases.