By Jerry PDX
tuesday, february 28, 2023 at 12:45:00 p.m. est
James Patterson tells the truth...then shows he doesn’t truly have the strength of conviction, so he drops to his knees and begs for forgiveness:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/james-patterson-apologizes-saying-white-male-writers-are-victims-racis-rcna33635
from the article:
“in an article published sunday, the sunday times paraphrased Patterson as worrying ‘that it is hard for White men to get writing gigs in film, theatre, TV or publishing.’
“the sunday times quoted Patterson as saying the alleged problem is ‘just another form of racism. what’s that all about?’
“‘can you 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,’ Patterson told the outlet.
tuesday afternoon, Patterson shared an apology on twitter.
“I apologize for saying White male writers having trouble finding work is a form of racism. I absolutely do not believe that racism is practiced against White writers,’ he wrote. ‘Please know that I strongly support a diversity of voices being heard—in literature, in Hollywood, everywhere.’”
“the percentage of writing credits by people of color in last year’s top 200 films had more than quadrupled since 2011, jumping from 7.6 to 32.3 percent, according to ucla’s hollywood diversity report 2022.
“‘people of color nonetheless would have to increase their 2021 share by about 10 percentage points to reach proportionate representation in this employment arena (42.7%),’ the report reads.
“in the united states, non-White people make up about 40 percent of the population, according to the u.s. census bureau.”
I’d be curious to know what percentage of those “people of color” are black. It may well exceed their 13% population representation. I’d also be curious to know how many of those “poc’s” are White hispanics and how many are not. As usual with these statistics, that kind of information is not given.
I have to wonder also if these numbers consider new upcoming writers and if you isolated in the under 25 yr. old age range, there would be disproportionately more poc writers than there are in the general group of writers. So what we may see in the future as writers age is reverse discrimination against White writers.
I wonder if what Patterson is also seeing is racial bias that is elevating mediocre non-White talents and marginalizing superior White ones. I suspect he was trying to say that, without saying it directly. He’s just a writer, though, if he had not apologized then publishers would have dropped him and bookstores would have stopped selling his books. Exactly what has happened to Scott Adams.
jerry pdx
ReplyDeleteDilbert may have been dropped by the MSM but you can still read and support his work online:
https://dilbert.com/
He has an active comments section and plenty of supporters:
https://dilbert.com/strip/2023-03-01#comments
One of the few comic strips left nowadays that can make me laugh once in a while.
It isn't as if Patterson has to worry about blacks boycotting his books!Books are already avoided at all costs,by blacks--especially Patterson's novels--one would think,so don't sweat it J.P.
ReplyDeleteWant to avoid blacks?Go to a bookstore(if they have them anymore.)
--GRA