A group "dedicated to addressing the representation of people of color in the fantastical genres such as science fiction, fantasy and horror" founded in 1999 at the feminist science fiction convention WisCon in Madison, Wisconsin, largely in response to "Racism and Science Fiction," written by Samuel R. Delany for the New York Review of Science Fiction. Named after Carl Brandon, the hoax fan created by active fans in the BArea, who rose to quick BNFdom and was supposedly a black. By the time the hoax got started, it had been close to a quarter of a century since fandom had seen an active black participant: James Fitzgerald, the first president of the first New York fan club (and some say the first "real" sf club), the Scienceers, in whose Harlem home the club met.
Although there numbers have grown, there still are not many blacks represented in sf’s professional or fan areas. In addition to Delaney, the most prominent black professional author is Octavia Butler. In fandom, Elliot Shorter and Vijay Bowen, both of whom are black, have stood for and won the Trans Atlantic Fan Fund (TAFF).
Contributors: Dr. Gafia
