Truth is the enemy of the Cancel Mob

A young author trying to land an agent for her debut novel set off a storm on X when she listed the reasons why she wasn’t landing an agent.

The cancel mob came for her because one of the reasons was that she was a straight, white, female.

You might be surprised to learn that she is actually correct in her assumption that her being a white, straight, female author can be a net negative among a vast majority of agents and publishers today.

I will note that at no point did she say that "marginal" groups should not get representation. She merely noted that agents/trad pub are more likely to pass on her queries these days simply because of her race, gender, and orientation.

In my mind, any discrimination is wrong. Apparently, in the minds of the Cancel Mob that wants her head on a pike, when they discriminate its perfectly fine.

In the last 24 hours I've had several of these creatures telling me that as a straight, white, man I couldn't possibly know what its like to be discriminated against.

Oh, you poor sweet summer children... you have no idea what lies in my past. Any more than you have the first clue about my ancestry, especially on my mother's side. You have merely judged by my last name and skin color. Congrats, you've figured out my dad's ancestry. On mom's side, I'm as much a POC as most of you and more so in many cases, In fact, a minimum of two of my maternal ancestors were standing on the shore when the Mayflower first dropped anchor here in the New World. Another arrived here aboard an ship full of African slaves. As cargo.

So miss me with that racist bullshit.

But that's not the point here, boys and girls. The topic is the publishing world. And it has indeed been biased against people like Jordan for some time now.

How do I know, you ask?

I've been on the receiving end of it myself. And its a little worse when you replace female with male in the example above.

Years ago, long before 2014 when I landed an agent and was traditionally published in 2015, I had a novel I was shopping around. An agent loved it. Had a publisher that loved it.

Only thing was, they wouldn't publish it unless I wrote under a pen name. One that implied the author was a female, POC, and possibly BIPOC at that. A fake photo would be used and no public appearances would be made to hide the fact that this great novel had been written by an unclean white, straight male.

I said no. Eventually, with another novel, I landed an agent and was published by a small house. A few years later, I went Indie and now own my own small press. I never regretted my decision.

And that isn't even the earliest example I can give you.

Rewind the tape back to the mid-1990s when I was early in my newspaper career. There was an opening at one of the papers I worked for that I applied for. That I was qualified for. The job I did every day while the hiring process played out.

I was passed over, despite top marks on my reviews. No big. I kept doing my job. 4 months later, the job opens again when the person they hired couldn't cut it.

I apply. I don't get it. The person they hire flames out six months later. This happens twice more. Finally, I ask HR, what do I need to do to land the position that I am not already doing?

The answer?

You are a white male and not in a "protected" employment classification. We will never be able to move you up to that position per company hiring policy.

For over 30 years, I've personally witnessed this. Not only directly to me, but done to many others as well.

ALL discrimination is bad. There is no "it's okay when we do it because we need payback" because all you are doing is building up the backlash when the pendulum swings back and comes for you.

And it always does.

Maybe we need to stop looking at the color of someone's skin, who they love, and what sex they are.

Maybe, as Dr. King said: We need to judge them by the content of their character.

We certainly need to start judging their books by the content inside, and not the outward appearance of the book’s author.