Quick note and then back to business…
I just wanted to thank those of you who sent positive comments and comments in support or apologizing on behalf of aggressive, unhelpful people.
To those of you who think I made a mistake with the original post, I’m sorry you feel that way, but I maintain my position. Am I upset that you…"That is where your seething anger has gotten you.
Instead of fostering a positive, supportive place of discussion and change, you have bullied one more person TRYING to help back into their corner.
Congratulations.”I know I’ve already said my piece but this is really what hit home. That, somehow, my anger about being told that POC didn’t have a place in the anon’s story caused the discussion to be hostile. That my protest about your leniency on exclusion is equivalent to bullying. If my anger is seething, it’s because I’m tired. I’m tired of having to constantly empathize with white people in my life, in my books, in my shows, in my games, but white people have a hard time “imagining poc” in those very same settings. My existence is not unrealistic. I am not part of someone’s imagination.
But at the end of the day, you win. The end of the day, you will have heroes that you can look up to and I’m left with the meager scraps that the literary world and Hollywood gives me. People like me are left justifying our own existences because “well-meaning” people like you still reduce our voices to SJW extremism. It’s not unreasonable for us to be angry about being excluded from literally every part of the media.
If your blog is nor POC friendly, then it’s not literary friendly. It’s obvious you don’t want to make any meaningful changes or you would actually listen to our hurts and our voices and make a meaningful apology.
But honestly I think that would be above you at this point.
I’m sick of it as well. In case people didn’t know: anger is good. Anger gets shit done. Anger motivates people to challenge the status quo.
Change, a lot of the time, is achieved by anger.
It is more than telling that criticism that isn’t super polite, is labeled as extremism. Tone-policing is one of the most toxic things, nothing more than a cheap tactic to dismiss criticism. Listen: politeness is not a prerequisite for validity.
The above can be applied to every marginalized group/identity. I am very much in agreement here. Representation is vital and, quite frankly, I have no patience for writers who don’t even attempt it.