Diversity in Publishing Isn’t Hurting Privileged Writers

It just isn’t.

This piece has been sitting in my drafts for a while as I try to get my thoughts perfectly clear.

Then James Patterson said some bullshit to USA Today, and, well… here we are.

If you belong to a marginalized group — whether you a person of color, LGBTQ+, a religious or ethnic minority, disabled, some combination of those, or some other marginalization altogether — and you are trying to be published traditionally, you have likely heard some version of the following:

Oh, you’re so lucky! Diversity is so hot right now!
Well, it’s easier for you, since so many agents/editors are looking for people like you right now
I wish I could write <insert your lived experience> books, but apparently that’s “appropriation”. It’s not fair.
It’s so much harder for white writers right now.

Or, as James Patterson said,

“Can [I] get a job? Yes. Is it harder? Yes. It’s even harder for older writers. You don’t meet many 52-year-old white males. [It’s] just another form of racism.”

I will wait while you go punch a wall and collect yourself.

It’s Not Racism

Racism is racially-based discrimination with the power of infrastructure and systems supporting it. Racism can only come from the top down, the word only applies to white…