Consequences

Consequences

June 28, 2020 0 By Elaine Arias

So my post on the cancellation of Ember Days by Alexandra Duncan has made some waves. It was posted on Free Republic and, of course, Bethany C Morrow herself has taken notice of it. She is, predictably, angry over it. Not just angry at me for daring to disagree with her or her fellow authors, but at Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews for including her name and screenshots of her tweets in the original versions of their articles. Both publications have scrubbed her name and tweets from their articles, but thanks to archive.is, the Internet is forever.

She went on a tweetstorm of rage, because how dare I not bow down to her supposed victimhood. Leftists like her absolutely LOVE it when some conservative is forced to endure the consequences of their free speech, but they hate it when it’s their turn in the proverbial hot seat.

I wanted to address some of the things she’s said…not everything because I have a life, and I have better things to do, but I wanted to address some of the things she’s said.

I’d just like to once again bring your handiwork to your attention, PW and Kirkus. I’d like you to take note of other Black women named. Almost as if this same narrative has been weaved before. I hold you responsible.

This tweet included screenshots of my post (before it was edited, obviously). The other black women named are Justina Ireland and LL McKinney. Bethany Morrow doesn’t care about Ellen Oh, who is Korean and endured such a backlash that she deleted her Twitter account. I think Justina Ireland deleted her Twitter account too, but LL McKinney still has hers.

Anyway, I don’t think Bethany C Morrow really understands just how I found out that it was her that got the ball rolling on the cancellation of Ember Days. Look, all I had to do was go to archive.is and enter the URLs for both articles in the search box to see if anyone had archived them. The Publishers Weekly article had already been archived. I took the liberty of archiving the Kirkus Reviews article, and included both in my post.

From there I went to Twitter thanks to the links in the original Kirkus Reviews article, archived those and took screenshots.

It’s not entirely their fault her name got out there. They did what they could do, which is remove her name and tweets from the articles. They could have contacted archive.is to possibly get the archived versions removed (even though those are downloadable), but I am sure they did not anticipate that someone would use such a service. But, for future reference, that’s what I did. But, she’s angry at them anyway.

Which is hilarious, considering this next tweet:

The writer of this post (who I’ve hopefully edited out) notes that they got my tweets from Kirkus’ article, but that I haven’t taken them down.

Explain why I should mute my opinion when the issue is that 2 publications chose to frame a cancellation as being down to me. Pardon?

Um, if you don’t want to mute your opinion, why are you so upset that those two publications published your name? Are you saying that you had nothing to do with the cancellation of Ember Days? If you’re so proud of your damn opinion, then it should not matter if they included your name and tweet.

I only noted that you hadn’t taken them down because people like you do this all the time – you get heat, and you either make your Twitter account private or delete the posts. I see this happen all the time. I don’t care if you keep them up or not. I just find this amusing, and further evidence of your hypocrisy.

Either prove you had nothing to do with the cancellation of Ember Days, sue the two publications for defamation and/or libel, or shut up.

Let’s be clear: what this kind of “reporting” by @PublishersWkly and @KirkusReviews tacitly but consistently implies is that by challenging the legitimacy of white authors writing Black POV characters, I am responsible for the voluntary cancellation.

I have a question. What would you have done if Alexandra Duncan hadn’t cancelled her book after you criticized it? I’ve allowed comments from guests now, so if you’re brave enough, or otherwise inclined, you can answer this question, as I don’t have a Twitter account.

See, that’s the crux of the issue. Nobody on my side of the proverbial aisle is buying the notion that Duncan willingly cancelled her book. You very publicly criticized elements of the book. What were you hoping to expect with publicly criticizing it? You can’t blame people for connecting the dots, and anyone watching your Twitter account and hers didn’t need Publishers Weekly or Kirkus Reviews to do so. You made complaints about the books, other people in the YA community echoed those complaints and agreed with them…lo and behold, Alexandra Duncan decides to cancel her book. It’s not as if the cancellation happened in a vacuum.

They can and will ignore the white supremacist society we’re all living in, disregard the transparently white supremacist sympathy attached to the author which will inevitably result in attacking the BW inexplicably attached to the story. Because WHO could’ve seen this coming.

I don’t think I can roll my eyes hard enough with this one. First of all, NO, for the eighty-trillionth time, we do not live in a “white supremacist” society. Second of all, I am not white. I love how you assume that I am, and then assume that the only people that have a problem with your jihad against Alexandra Duncan must be white, and white supremacists at that.

By the way, did you ever thank Alexandra Duncan for “doing the right thing” in ensuring that there’d be one less author for you to compete against? Oh, I mean…did you thank Alexandra Duncan for “doing the right thing” in scrapping her hopelessly racist, white supremacist book? That’s the least you can do, but apparently you don’t even have manners. How utterly ingracious of you. Apologies if I missed your apology…I can only endure so much whiny leftist nonsense.

Oh, and an imbecile named Shiloh Walker has this to say:

I think the cow behind the vitriol needs be named & shamed. I’m up for it.

Oh, so I should be named and shamed, but your superhero Bethany C Morrow shouldn’t? Your hypocrisy is nauseating. Once again, the left just HATES it when their sickening tactics are used against them.

But you go ahead, Shiloh Walker. Come and get it if you think you’re hard enough.

But back to Ms. Morrow. There’s another thread, one just as crazy.

I am 100% unapologetic about resisting a culture that gives time and space to white authors to speak for the rest of us. I will speak on it. They shoulda been grateful I replied and didn’t quote-tweet. Becuz my point wasn’t to incite a dragging, but a reconsideration.

If you wanted to offer constructive criticism, you should have done so PRIVATELY, and not on Twitter. That would have been the considerate, professional thing to do, but you didn’t. No, you wanted your friends and followers to pile on the criticism so you can wage your stupid jihad on “white supremacy.” You clearly only care about yourself and your image, and not about helping a fellow author. You also could have said, at the outset, that you didn’t think the book needed to be outright cancelled, but postponed and revised to be more respectful and accurate. But you didn’t do any of that, and now you sit there in your ebony tower, wondering why anyone on this Earth could possibly be angry at you, the Eternal Victim. And I use the term “ebony tower” instead of “ivory tower” becuz muh oppression and such. I’m nice like that.

As usually happens, the cancellation was unnecessarily announced.

We need to talk about this, white folks. Why do you need to announce an action meant to DECREASE harm? What can we point to in our ugly shared history that blinds you to the virtue signaling occurring?

Pardon me if people don’t believe that you meant to DECREASE harm. I love how, in the tweet after this one, you insinuate that Alexandra Duncan announced the cancellation of her book as a means to signal her virtue:

And what happens when a white woman virtue signals, even unconsciously, even while stating they take responsibility?

Someone comes along to print it like it’s a story. Gently, with the author, of course. Despite that

@PublishersWkly doesn’t report on the status of ALL books.

As usual, you did nothing wrong. Nope. You’re a victim, an Eternal Victim…everything you say and do is right, because you’re fighting the evil White Man and the Supremacy he forces upon everyone else.

You want to know why they reported on it? Well, because they report on happenings in the publishing world, galaxy brain, and also because it’s click-bait. Like it or not, that’s how the Internet works these days. People publish stuff to get clicks, and the more outrageous the better. It happens on the left, the right, and on non-political sites. Since you’re so proud of your opinion, I bet they thought nothing of including your name. After all, you can just chalk it up to another Glorious Victory in the Great Jihad Against Whitey.

Oh, but that can’t do, because then nobody would see you as the perpetually put-upon victim of RACISM, so no victory here…someone on the Internet disagrees with you! Oh my gods, you’re being LYNCHED!!!

But for some reason, an author personally cancelling their book – which again, is a private matter that didn’t require an audience – is worthy of publication.

But it’s incomplete, without an opponent. So w/o asking my permission, my name is included in the 1st paragraph.

The kind of criticism you were offering was also a private matter. But you had to have an audience too. Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews don’t need to ask your permission for anything. What the hell? Does the First Amendment mean anything to you? You really think these rules only apply to evil white people and Republicans? That you can just demand someone keep your name out of their mouths and publications because, what…you’re a poor oppressed woman or something? You think that you shouldn’t endure the consequences of your free speech like the rest of us do?

My tweet is included, so that my handle is easily looked up. But since they’re taking a conversation I intentionally had on twitter, in a reply thread, people have decided to reach out to chastise me in my other spaces.

Becuz my opinion isn’t allowed, but theirs are.

Okaaaaaay…so if you didn’t want people to criticize your opinions or even so much as disagree with them, your Twitter account should be private. Oh, and she used the word “chastise” – absolutely hilarious! This woman’s acting as if someone dragged her out of her house, gang raped her, filmed said gang rape and posted it on YouTube for all to see, and she uses the word “chastise”.

As I said, anything you say or do in public is fair game. The same goes for me, and for everyone else. You’re quite comfortable with chastising or otherwise criticizing people on your Twitter account – I mean, it’s not as if Alexandra Duncan solicited feedback from you, as far as I can tell – but you clearly can’t handle any criticism coming your way. No way.

Nobody said your opinion wasn’t allowed. Like every other leftist on Earth, you don’t fully understand the concept of free speech. Living in a society that cherishes free speech means you have to deal with opinions you might not like. It also means that whatever you put out into the world is open to criticism, ridicule, etc. It’s a give and take. It means that yes, you might experience consequences due to whatever it is you’ve said…such as people “chastising” you in your other spaces.

Getting blowback or backlash due to something you’ve said does not constitute nor does it amount to your opinion being disallowed. But that’s your victim complex speaking, so I shouldn’t be surprised.

So I just want to know who is taking responsibility for serving up Black women for abuse. Who at

@PublishersWkly — in this climate of supposedly acknowledging anti-Blackness — is going to acknowledge this rich history of making a Black villain to defend a white woman’s honor.

Oh, so someone thinking you are responsible for the cancellation of Ember Days is abuse? Could you be more of a drama queen? Nobody’s “defending” Ms. Duncan’s honor – if anything, I think she’s fragile and cowardly to bowing to the mob’s whims. Her honor has nothing to do with anything. In all likelihood, there was probably nothing seriously wrong with her book. If you don’t want to be depicted as a villain, don’t act like one.

How long do you intend to leave that non-story up, when you attached MY name to it?

Did I just release a whole novel about how this is not what we mean by Say Her Name?!

What tf is WRONG with this world, this industry, this everything. How dare you.

I laughed at this one the hardest. What is wrong with this lady? Nothing is going to happen to you, Ms. Morrow. Calm down. A handful of people that might have considered reading your work might not read it now. Oh well. I don’t know what she means by “Say Her Name” and whatnot since I have not read either of her novels, but come on. Leftists really can’t stand the idea that they too might have to deal with the consequences of their free speech.

And to put the finest possible fucking point on it: if you’re a white woman and you choose to write and sell a book from the perspective of a Black woman, I bet you won’t simultaneously experience the misogynoir leveled at Black women. Just say you want the money & not the life.

So now any white person writing a black character, whether it be male, female or one of the eighty billion other “genders” is an evil asshole who’s just in it for the money. This statement is just utterly absurd. Any good writer should be able to write from the perspective of anyone. I don’t know, I just think that people resent being told what they can write about, especially when it comes from a perfect stranger.

Okay, I can’t do anymore. I’ve worked on this post for an hour, and I think that’s long enough. But here is the first thread, the second thread and LL McKinney’s thread.

In closing, I just want any leftist reading this to know that I will be damned if the only people forced to endure the consequences of their free speech are conservatives. I am quite familiar with Saul Alinksy’s Rules for Radicals and I will do everything in my power to ensure that you are held up to the standards you hold for other people. If doxxing right-wingers is okay, then you’re gonna get doxxed. If bullying a white person or some other person you don’t like for whatever reason is okay, then the same is going to happen to you. If piling on to some right-winger who dared to express their opinion in public is okay, then we’re going to do the same to you.

We are not going to live under your stupid rules while you skate through life consequence free while simultaneously playing the victim. That power trip you’ve been on for the past decade is OVER.