If you ever needed a good reason to stay away from a lot of modern-day highly-political writing organizations, this is it. Mercedes Lackey, on the exact same day that she received the SFWA Grand Master award for lifetime achievement, they decided to kick her out of an online Nebula conference because she said a “bad word”.
Now, I’ve known Misty forever. I knew her husband, Larry Dixon, before they got married, back when she was an almost unknown author. He was a furry artist, I was involved in the very early furry fandom, I knew him, I met her, that’s how it goes. They’ve been married only a couple of months longer than my wife and I have been so it’s been kind of fun.
That said, this is really idiotic. It’s more leftist pearl clutching and that’s ruined science fiction fandom over the past couple of decades. So what was it that she did that was so horrible?
She was praising legendary author Samuel R. Delaney and used the word “colored”. The horror!
That isn’t a “racial slur” as it’s been described. If it is, then the NAACP is a racist organization. You know, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People? Yeah, them. You can’t keep up on the leftist stupidity anymore. You need a daily code book of what words are now offensive and what words are acceptable.
Screw that. Misty did nothing at all wrong. It’s the morons running the SFWA that did. Some imbecile was watching the live cast, freaked the hell out when she said something that they didn’t like and pulled the plug. There is nothing at all offensive in the word “colored”. It might be out of fashion but who cares? Misty is in her 70s for crying out loud! The kind of linguistic eggshells that you’re supposed to walk on these days is absurd.
Besides, Delaney wasn’t offended in the least. He said that his aunts used to refer to themselves as colored. He preferred black, but who cares? Delaney is also gay, something that isn’t especially relevant because being gay doesn’t affect his skill as an author.
Unfortunately, Misty threw out a half-hearted apology to appease the regressive idiots. Never, ever apologize when you’re not in the wrong. The people who need to apologize are the SFWA for being such a load of political half-wits. It’s another one of those organizations that I want nothing to do with, given how they’ve behaved. They’re not getting my money anymore, not ever again. This has probably been coming for a long time but that was the last straw. You don’t treat the people who are your best advertisements that poorly.
Fuck the SFWA.
