The Bold And The Clueless...

You know, I’m continually amazed by how tunnel-visioned some people can be.

This comment caught my attention first thing this morning, whilst I was over at Dear Author.

Oh no, this old race card chestnut AGAIN!
I’m with AnneD,


From what I have seen proven on this board and the simple but provable fact that as a gay man I cannot for the life of me tell what the hell color or race or gender or whatever the author is when I read their book… WELL, that leads me to believe only the extremist are wanting to remain extreme. A hidden agenda if you will… A fart in the punch bowl.


Great idea in that even bad publicity and horrendous public behavior and even worse, racist diatribes and hate for your own people, will get a crappy useless waste of space author noticed.

I thought it seemed a particularly strange reaction, seeing as the original blog post was so moderately written.

I knew something was amiss when his next post was this:

Oh Monica! Mz Jackson… Here honey!
I am waiting.

Then this assholic comment finally got me to react:

Well guys I go to Gay Bookstores almost exclusively.
Why? Because it focuses on one specialty topic that concerns me.
And it is all about me. I am a pig ya know.


That’s all there is to it. They make buck doing that too.
So who the hell cares if these authors want to stay in their own section?
Are they honestly saying they do not want to but they are forced to and who buys that argument?


Does anyone here really believe for one minute some publisher in their right mind…
Would say NO to the author wanting to remain segregated or “go mainstream”?
Say NO, if that is where the author is making the money?


Say NO, if that made them “the publisher and the book store” look good to those buyers wanting to feel they are being superior and activist in some way from buying in that segregated area.

Lord, some people are truly blinkered.

Anyway, I responded, without using the word ‘fucktard’ once. I’m truly proud of that feat. Believe me, it was hugely tempting. Anyway, his comments get even more asinine than the ones prior:

Why is this even a big deal? Did these authors set out to classify themselves into a narrow bin to begin with and are now complaining that they did not get something for that decision they thought they should? I keep hearing faint echos of entitlement where none has been earned. That to me is a red flag.

How clueless can one person be? What he’s basically saying here is, that if an AA author chooses to write books about black people, they shouldn’t complain about where they are shelved.

This was one of his pearls of wisdom with regards to AA authors who weren’t happy with where they were being shelved:

Then do what every other author has done when they do not like how they are marketed packaged or ignored FIND ANOTHER PUBLISHER.
If you do not like how you are being categorized in the readers or book buyers mind use another Pen Name.

Because it’s obviously as easy as that.

He also suggested that black authors should lie about what colour they are, if it bothers them so much.

Jesus. Effing. Christ.

*Head-desk, head-desk, head-desk.*