While I do not seek this grave responsibility, given the historical context of the current situation, if SFWA requires a POC President-for-Life in light of the horrific structural racism of the organization, I will humbly accept the position once the white racist Mary Robinette Kowal resigns her office:
Yesterday, SFWA announced a racist — and illegal via several Civil Rights statutes — action in which if you are a member of a certain race, you do not have to pay SFWA dues nor do you have to pay to attend their convention. Moreover, the California Incorporated SFWA announced they would be giving money from their coffers to causes which have nothing to do with club members nor science fiction.
As a corporation, SFWA has to abide by rules which do not discriminate via race, gender, religion, etc. And yet with their denying my entry when I duly qualify, and now these initiatives, they are showing that they do not respect minority authors at all, but view us as slaves who are too poor to be able to handle business as their “proper” white authors like Mary do, and also they believe we are too stupid to be able to handle our own charitable causes or have our own opinions on public matters which are different than what Mary or Cat (both white women) advocate for.
I recommend she step down from SFWA leadership and appoint a PoC in her stead who will guide SFWA in matters only someone who doesn’t try to culturally appropriate a cause would do. What Mary Robinette Kowal has done these last 24 hours and during her tenure of leadership of SFWA is deplorable and irredeemable and must be disavowed by any non-racists.
My program is straightforward.
- Appoint an African editor of all SFWA publications. Preferably one who speaks an African language and does not speak the language of the oppressors.
- Award the 2020 Nebula Best Novel Award to Octavia Butler (posthumous)
- The 2021-2025 Nebula Best Novel Awards will be given to NK Jemisin, the greatest SF writer in the history of SF writing.
- Award the 2020 SFWA Grand Master to NK Jemisin.
- $5,000 annual reparations will be paid to all POC authors from a pool collected from the white membership of SFWA.