RWA 2020: No Happy Ending in Sight, Just Hollow Women

Update: 12 February 2020 – the entire RWA Board has now resigned.

We are the hollow (wo)men
We are the stuffed (wo)men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

“The Hollow Men,” T.S. Eliot, 1925 (edits mine)

Oh, hey, look. T.S. Eliot predicted the current RWA “board!”

I use quotes because I can’t fathom the complete lack of leadership, awareness, or comprehension they’ve displayed in the past few weeks. February 2020 is looking to be as long as January 2020 in RWA-time, so let’s catch up.

I’m tired already.

As of this morning, 11 February 2020, resignations of RWA membership are being posted, shared, and tweeted. I’m a little surprised that “RWA Resignation” isn’t trending nationally.

Much of the anger that has resurged is due to past RWA president Leslie Kelly sharing that she has resigned from RWA after offering to serve as assistant to past president Dee Davis to re-establish the Leadership Development Committee:

Their goal was to find a qualified president for the RWA Board of Directors, one who met the bylaws’ requirements and was willing to serve. After working with Interim Executive Director Leslie Scantlebury,  an individual it is important to note “for whom we both have great respect,” Scantlebury took their offer to the current Board of Hollow Women (not their official title):

I was surprised–though not hugely–to learn that our offer was declined. Apparently, the board has “personal concerns” about us. (source)

(I suspect they were mostly concerns about me, since I spearheaded the 1st letter from former BoMems. Bless Dee, who said we were a package deal.)

In my opinion, this current board allowed their personal anger and resentment against people who’ve spoken out against them to outweigh their responsibilities to RWA. I consider that a severe violation of their fiduciary duty to the organization. (emphasis mine)

And so, I’ve finally reached the point so many of my friends and colleagues have. We can’t keep throwing life-rings out to those who don’t want to stop themselves from drowning I have now joined the ranks of those who’ve realized that RWA is probably beyond saving. (source)

Fiduciary duty is the legal obligation one voluntarily undertakes to work and act in the best interest of another party. In this case, what Kelly is saying is that the current Board of Directors has acted in their own interests (and has done so repeatedly, if you’re asking me) instead of in the interests of RWA. Their duty as board members is to work in the best interests of RWA. That’s the volunteer job one undertakes as a board member. This board does not appear to be acting according to their fiduciary responsibilities.

Remember us – if at all – not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow (wo)men
The stuffed (wo)men.

Further anger ignited the still-smoldering month-old conflagRWAtion after Suzanne Brockmann recounted the multiple requests for her 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award speech in advance prior to the Denver RITA awards, and her insistence that she not be censored again:

And Sarah MacLean’s recounting of the behind-the-scenes machinations that interfered with the team of writers who created the 2019 RITA Award ceremony, which was outstandingly excellent.

 

Speaking of the national conferences, RWA also announced the new 2020 Conference Registration rates. Registration will open March 10, 2020. (No, I am not attending.)

RWA 2020 registration fees looked like this before now:

RWA Member Early registration: $499
RWA Member Regular registration: $549
RWA Member Late registration: $649
(Source, via Courtney Milan)

This year, March 10-March 11, RWA member registration will be $199. (I just typoed $1.99, which made me snort. Like it’s an ebook on sale.)

RWA Special registration: $199
RWA Member Early registration: $350
RWA Member Regular registration: $425
(Source, via Lorelie Brown)

Per board minutes posted by Lorelie Brown:

Rationale: Policy requires that Board set conference registration fees. Due to an expected lowered attendance at conference, we would like to offer a more appealing registration fee. (source, emphasis mine)

It is entirely my opinion that attending RWA this year would be damaging for one’s professional reputation, unless one wants to be visibly affiliated with an organization whose board refuses to perform its job, and in which a portion of its members eagerly and loudly embrace white supremacy out loud, in letters to past and present boards, and in forums hosted by that organization.

Brown also pointed out that the absence of discussion in that meeting as recorded in the minutes has damning implications:

 

Former board member Adrienne Mishel echoed that the lack of discussion and the unanimous votes of the current RWA board is another example of failure of fiduciary duty:

https://twitter.com/DrenzPen/status/1226661006123859969

Also of note: the current list of resignations of the RWA board since 24 December 2019. That’s a painful list to read.

On the chapter level, more terrible news. Seressia Glass has shared:

That would be the same CIMRWA whose officers took the time to speak with me in my four-part podcast series RWA: One Month Later about their work on the recall petition against then-president Carolyn Jewel (who resigned) and then-president-elect Damon Suede (who also ultimate resigned after the petition was verified by RWA). That CIMRWA.

(NB: I’ve written to confirm the dissolution, as it may be discussion at this time. Will update when I have confirmation.)

Updated, 11:26am 11 Feb 2020: Laurel Cremant has confirmed to me that the vote to dissolve the chapter was put to the membership on 10 February, and that confirmation of the results of that vote should be available by the end of this week. They’ve also shared the letter they sent to their members:

You can read their full letter to CIMRWA membership online as well.

During our February 9th, 2020 board meeting, the CIMRWA board motioned to bring the action of the dissolution of CIMRWA to our chapter members.

This decision was not made lightly, but with the full understanding of the values and mission that CIMRWA was founded on. As well as respect for our members, their integrity and their emotional health. (emphasis mine)

Oh, hey, T.S. Eliot covered this feeling I’m now experiencing, too:

The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

The potential loss of CIMRWA, of Las Vegas Romance Writers, of the entire board of RWANYC, and of every chapter that may be revising their upcoming agenda to address whether to be an RWA chapter at all, is a crushing collection of lost kingdoms. That may be more overwrought language than I typically deploy, but seriously: what an incredible loss this is.

Lost time, lost work, lost progress. Farrah Rochon said this morning:

It may be that right now is the crest of the latest wave, and another tipping point for those who are tired of bailing water from a floundering ship and are leaving it behind. Is what has happened enough to make a member want to put RWA in their rearview mirror? (All the transport metaphors! All of them!)

Why stay aboard? Some, like Dee Davis (and absolutely zero criticism is intended here) are preserving their membership to vote in the August elections, despite increasing anger and frustration:

Some want to try one more time to combat the seeming resistance to change, to see what may happen under Leslie Scantlebury’s interim term, or to support whatever comprehensive changes the promised DEI consultant (sending strength to that person, whomever they are) might make. I get that feeling. As discussed in the podcast series I produced and as I said in my original post, it wouldn’t hurt so much if it didn’t matter, and it wouldn’t be so enraging if RWA wasn’t important.

As HelenKay Dimon and I discussed in her interview, RWA still has industry connections, though it still doesn’t seem to be using that industry advocacy regarding Dreamspinner’s lack of payment. RWA’s missions of advocacy, education, and community could be served again.

Some might stay because their local chapter is a major part of their support system and career, but if chapters are dissolving or closing because of members’ unwillingness to associate with RWA National because of the actions of the board since 23 December 2019, then what keeps those members as part of the organization on the national level?

To quote Dee Davis, there are people who “want RWA to be worth saving:”

I’m a stubborn and tenacious person (bet you knew that) and I get the feeling of, “Ok, one more try. One more.”

On the other side: the fact that as more and more members resign, those who are left as voting members are more likely those who will embrace or silently support the white supremacy and bigotry that got us in this situation in the first place.

To quote Courtney Milan in her interview, where she predicted a lot of what’s happening this week:

I think a lot of white people, including some very well-meaning white people, are going to see all the people of color leaving, and they’re going to say, well, we have to prove that this place is safe, so I’m going to stay here and make it better. And I’m going to tell you that what you are doing at this point is reinforcing white supremacy….

I think you’re going to have to figure out how to get out of RWA, if RWA can’t get itself out of this nosedive. And I don’t think it can!

if RWA doesn’t figure out how to get rid of white supremacy, it’s a white supremacist organization. And right now it doesn’t look like they’re even trying.

Yes. Exactly that. It doesn’t look like this board is even trying.

I’ve been waiting for a sign that the current board is going to try something. I don’t think they’re even fixing to try, much less trying to fix. And I don’t see effort to do anything but preserve power for a limited time while acting against their fiduciary responsibilities.

As it currently stands, it will cost potential future board members time, energy, and books written, completed, and sold. It will cost members time, energy, and work to try to fight and explain again and again why what someone said was racist, was bigoted, was rooted in blithe privilege. The amount of words some people have written to combat and educate the bigoted members in email, in loops, and on the RWA forums would create at least a 10-book boxed set at this point.

I’ve personally spent hours trying to compile and contextualize all of this mess, too, which is increasingly feeling like a waste, because it’s dispiriting to watch the yield of the efforts of dedicated people I admire amount to obstruction, refusal, discouragement, and despair.

As I wrote in my post, “Where Does RWA Go From Here?”

RWA can’t maintain its current membership nor its leadership and at the same time say it’s going to rebuild. Rebuilding requires people in leadership positions who are trusted by current and prospective members. And it requires trust in fellow members of the community….

RWA can’t serve a large portion of its current membership and have a future that includes marginalized writers. Genuine change is not possible if the organization can’t identify and articulate who it serves and prioritizes, and then address and rectify the harm it has done.

Since I wrote that on 10 January 2020, one month and one day ago, I still don’t know who the current board of RWA serves, except themselves.

And so RWA will most likely slowly deflate as members leave, and instead of Romance Writers of America, it will be a collection of Really White Authors.

I’ve tendered my resignation of membership to RWA this morning.

You knew this ending was coming right?

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but with a whimper.


 

Well, now, cue up the JoJo and your old Tina Turner movies because the RWA Board has resigned, setting a special election for 13 March 2020.

The motion to hold the special election can be read in full on the RWA website, but there are a number of questions, and such a playlist to be built because nineteen songs are competing for space in my brain.

First, there are no candidates, no leadership committee, and no specific policy to follow for said election, as HelenKay Dimon said on Twitter.

Jamaila Brinkey pointed out that there is no information given on who will run the election, how to declare candidacy, or if there are any viable candidates:

The board can’t change bylaws without membership approval, so even then the remaining membership is rather stuck.

My reaction is jaw dropping anger and seismic impatience, to be honest. As Laurel Cremant said, the organization was pretty much hemorrhaging members, but now,  NOW they’re doing something.

To quote Madelina Rivera, this really is “the epic flounce.”

https://twitter.com/AlyssaColeLit/status/1227693144877088768

I’m absolutely gobsmacked. This is so too little, far too late. This could have been done MONTHS ago. This could have been fixable months ago! But much like convincing publishers to spend money is a LOT harder than convincing them not to, it’s also going to be a challenge, I think, to convince members who just resigned to pay dues again.

This action by this former board of still hollow women only reinforces my belief that they weren’t going to fix anything, and weren’t going to try to fix anything, either. They held on too long, made everything worse, then left. Absolutely disgraceful and an utter lack of understanding of fiduciary responsibility.

 

Categorized:

General Bitching...

Comments are Closed

  1. NomadiCat says:

    I’ve been angry since December 23rd. And some time in the last two weeks I’ve shifted gradually to grief. I’m not a member, though it was on my career goals list, and if I’m experiencing this level of raw grief and rage, my heart breaks for the people who invested their time, money, heart, soul, and health into RWA.

    Sarah, thank you for all of your work in chronicling this shitshow. The podcast series was illuminating (and in its own way, triumphant and healing even as it was devastating) and all of your work here and elsewhere to rally people’s better angels and document the self-destruction of a once-vital juggernaut has been a boon. It’s important that people are keeping track of the RWA’s choices to again and again and again self-immolate in the most spectacular and damaging way possible. And thanks to you and everyone else out there documenting and discussing it, it won’t be politely swept under the rug so that people can comfortably forget what happened in a few years and keep things going the way they always have.

    Thank you. Thank you for everything you’ve done, and thank you to you and everyone else who has the courage to walk away now or outline exactly when they will be walking away once they’ve done all they can do. Thank you.

  2. Isi says:

    Thank you so much for all your work in putting these posts together! I am on twitter, but even I found it very hard to find out why there was this wave of resignations.
    I have been thinking on what Bree said: This board is no longer flailing and helpless, but pushing thorough their agenda to get rid of the troublemakers and back to “politeness” (https://twitter.com/mostlybree/status/1226972409531596805?s=19). I think that’s so true! Their crisis management is to sit it out and hope that all the “SJWs” will leave and the “normal” people stay. They’ll be left with racists and those who think speaking up to racism is not nice. There is no way to fix people (or institutions) who don’t want to change.

  3. JoJo says:

    Couple questions. As a avid reader, how can I not support the RWA?
    And can you link to the podcast episode that spells it all out.
    Thank you!

  4. SB Sarah says:

    Thank you, y’all, for the comments and the support.

    @JoJo: as a reader, there isn’t much you have to do. Reading romance widely and inclusively, and seeking out authors from marginalized communities, are easy ways to support the opposite of what the current RWA board seems to support.

    As for the podcasts, there are four, and they are all on the podcast page, beginning with episode 388, featuring the officers of CIMRWA.

  5. CT says:

    Thank you, Sarah. I’m on my local chapter’s board and really struggling with what to do. I made a commitment to this group, but my national membership renews end March and I can’t send $99 to a white supremacist organization. (To be clear, I wouldn’t sent any money to a white supremacist organization.) People I respect are committed to staying, either to continue to serve the local chapter or to try and transform the national organization. It’s such a hard decision and I appreciate everyone sharing their thought processes and feelings.

  6. EC Spurlock says:

    This really breaks my heart. I was a member for many years in one of the most inclusive and influential chapters, until a job loss destroyed my disposable income (and even then a couple of my mentors who really believed in me banded together and bought me a scholarship so I could continue for another year.) To see a strong, progressive group of authors undermined by a few bigots emboldened by the current political atmosphere is infuriating.

    IMO CIMRWA should not disband, but just throw the RWA out of their name and form a new, inclusive writers’ association that we can all stand behind. If not them, then some of the other strong and populous chapters, like the LA and Georgia chapters, should stand up and continue to uphold the standards that RWA is supposed to stand for.

  7. Margaret says:

    Sarah, Thank you for that beautiful, heart-wrenching post. It is absolutely heart-breaking that an organization that should, at ALL TIMES, put love first, has abandoned all pretense of open-mindedness and welcome. The beloved and talented authors (you, included), who have left RWA have shown courage and are setting an example for the rest of us. I (and probably many, many others) are grateful that you, by starting and sustaining this wonderful website, have created a community where romance writers and readers can feel safe and at home.

  8. Ren Benton says:

    Elizabeth Schechter (@EASchechter) livetweeted the February 9 board meeting. As of January 28, 300 members have lapsed into the “grace period,” which is usually 30 days but has been extended to March 31. If we assume renewal dates for 8800 members are evenly distributed throughout the year at 733 per month, 300 would be 41% of the members up for renewal in any given month. I’m sure some number of people typically need to wait until payday to pay their dues; I’m equally sure that number putting off intended renewal isn’t typically 41%. Hence the extension of the grace period keeping those members on the books until the end of the quarter, with fingers crossed Month 2 of the RWA Shitshow isn’t a repeat of Month 1 despite zero effort being made to convince unhappy members who haven’t been moved to resign so near their expiration dates that anything will change.

    I think it will trend the other way—as more actual leadership calls out the failures of the current “leadership” and walks away, they’ll take all the people whose respect they’ve won right out the door with them. RWA can keep kicking the “grace period” can down the road if they want, but if they continue losing hundreds of paid members every month, they won’t be able to fudge the loss of revenue.

  9. Carole says:

    Sarah thank you again for the work you do and I am sending hugs as we know how long you have waited to make your final goodbye from RWA, hoping for change and transformation. Clearly many in Romancelandia are grieving today.

    Is there any way that we will eventually get a list of who is still in RWA and who walked away? I would like to rejig my TBR book pile based on authors that I want to succeed, and I will vote with my wallet for those who stood up for what was right. I will no longer purchase books by those who have been propping up RWA and harbouring their unethical, unprofessional and racist agenda and behaviour. I have already permanently toasted from my Ebook Library several books by authors that I no longer will support, some of them unread. Thank you again for all you do and for the forum for truth and openess and integrity that SBTB provides.

  10. Ava Jarvis says:

    Just wanted to thank you, Sarah, for keeping tabs on all this. It is heartbreaking, but this is important work you’ve done, and I feel it will actually be vital in the near future and even the far future.

    When bad things happen, and we are able to bear witness, we must do so. History is easily forgotten, and if we forget what happened with RWA in 2019-2020, it could more easily happen again. We don’t need another organization started by a black woman to be destroyed by bigotry.

    Also what you’re doing is much better than just leaving everything to float on Twitter without an index, to be quite honest? Twitter isn’t focused on archiving information or even preserving information flow to be understandable as a holistic history, it’s focused on fleeting fragments of the present.

    One last plea, to any members who are staying in insistence that they could turn this ship around: if you spend your resources of time, money, and spirit on RWA, you will not have any to spend on the new organizations that are coming. I think it’s unwise for this reason alone to stay, much less every reason stated by many resigning folks and by Courtney Milan herself.

  11. PamG says:

    I have a question. I’ve been following this mess on twitter and here and through more mainstream outlets. I’m a reader only, so definitely no kind of insider. The one thing I have not seen is the names of those who stayed, those who are supporting the mess in some way. I don’t want details or accusations, but I sure would like to know, for instance, who was on that shadow ethics committee. I would like to know who is still clinging to any vestige of power. Who are on the current board. As a reader, I’m not up for dramatic boycotts of individuals who may be only cautious or overly optimistic, but I sure as hell don’t want to be ingesting poison either. I kind of think that some writers might need to come with warning labels. So, is this sort of info available anywhere at this point?

  12. Kris Bock says:

    Does anyone know what will happen to the money rwa now has, if it is forced to fold? Or will the board likely keep spending money until it’s out? What about regional chapters? I’m wondering if any of this money will be able to go towards starting something new and better. I also wonder if anyone who could be trusted with a new and better organization has any energy left to start one, but that’s another issue.

  13. Judit says:

    I second (third?) Carole and PamG’s comments – transparency around who is currently on the board and more would help well-meaning readers choose reading more carefully. I appreciate Sarah’s advice to read widely and inclusively, but for some of us readers very much on the outside it can be hard to know how to do that (and if we are getting it right or inadvertently supporting the racist collective). Good intentions but not enough knowledge – please help!

  14. Svetlana Li says:

    Stupid question, but i am curious how RWA failed Jewish members? I am not part of RWA, and am not interested in it, but it’s something I want to know. Is it because of lack of Jewish romances or the fact they refuse to tap into Jewish market?

  15. Ava Jarvis says:

    @Carole @PamG @Kris I recommend checking out Romance Sparks Joy, an initiative started by Courtney Milan, which has this page:

    http://www.romancesparksjoy.com/recs-with-rep/

    A list of links to review sites that focus on representation in romance. I read Corey’s Bookcorner in particular, as you can find both rep listed per book (characters and author) as well as content warnings.

    If you are on social media, I recommend following marginalized authors. They don’t get enough follower love, and often little in the way of likes or retweets. And they will plug books of both their own and that of other authors.

    @Kris Several writers who worked for change in RWA are starting their own org. This includes folks from RWANYC and CIMRWA, and includes people with board experience. They have wisely chosen to save their energy and spend it on a new org designed to be inclusive from the ground up, rather than try to right RWA which seems determined to go down with the ship.

    @Svetlana Not a stupid question. Basically RWA considers their true base to be white, straight, allo, cis, neurotypical, able-bodied, thin, and *Christian*. Any author who doesn’t fit and whose stories don’t fit into that mold are ignored in terms of recognition and having their concerns addressed. Like, for instance, their ethics complaints about harassment by other members never making it to the ethics committee.

    It’s a very American mode of bigotry that RWA is into. In Europe it’d be a little different, likely more secular and also adding non-Irish, non-Romani, and non-Eastern-European to the Ideal Member Mold.

  16. Ava Jarvis says:

    Also apologies @Judit I mixed up the first series of @s in my previous comment. I am so tired. I need to sleep but the RWA mess keeps me up at night. I’ve been through similar storms and a ton of memories of microaggressions come back to haunt me. I badly want to see closure here, because I never got it in my own situation.

  17. Sarah C says:

    Sarah, what a beautiful post—sad!—but beautiful. Your inclusion of T.S. Eliot and the world ending not with a bang but a whimper in reference to the RWA literally gave me chills. Thanks again for your past plog post “WTF RWA” and the four-part podcasts series “One Month After”. I am not an RWA member nor a romance writer, however, I am a romance editor (and avid reader) and have been debating since 2018 whether I should join the RWA as a partner member. After RITA so white happened I decided to wait and see. RITAs 2019 occured and I felt such a huge swell of happiness and thought to myself: wow, wow, wow! I should totally join now. But again I waited. I wanted to see how things went in 2020 and be certain it wasn’t just a one off. For obvious reasons—Dec 23—I will not be joining. Ever. Members (soon to be former) of the CIMRWA have been hinting on Twitter that they might be organizing a new and inclusive organization for romance writers and I sincerely hope they do. If so, I will happily join them and vote with my dollars in supporting all authors rather then just some. Thanks again, Sarah, for your honest, very fair, and well-thought out reporting of this situation.

  18. Escapeologist says:

    Sarah, that was a beautiful piece of writing.

    Off topic but I thought it might make you smile – I’ve been listening to the old podcast episodes where you get silly with Amanda and Elyse, and they give me life. “You have a type and it might be mullets”, “Deep diving into our OTPs” and “Sarah and Amanda are terrible at watching TV” (girl, same).

  19. My emotions about this are complicated.

    I’m a romance writer who’s been a member for 20+ years — the organization has been a huge part of my life for a long, long time. So the loss of that is sad — among other things, I’m going to miss seeing people at the national conference that I only get to see then, because we’re all so scattered.

    At the same time, I’m completely ready to walk away because RWA has squandered every opportunity it’s been given to become an organization that embraces and fosters diversity and equity. The *only* reason I’m still a member is that I have to be a member of the national organization in order to be a member of my local chapter, which*is* committed to diversity and equity, so long as the chapter is affiliated with the national organization. Dissolving the chapter or disaffiliating it from RWA National takes time; once that happens, I’m resigning my RWA membership. My chapter is worth sticking with and supporting.

    Which brings me to this: people may be members of RWA for reasons like mine, kind of stuck with their national membership because they need it to support a local organization that’s doing the right things (and always looking for ways to do better). So I won’t use RWA membership as a litmus test — given my situation, I can’t believe it’s a good gauge.

    @Svetlana – One category for the Rita award is “Inspirational”, books where characters’ faith journeys are integral parts of the plot. The thing is, that faith journey in the finalists is always about Christian faith, never about Jewish or Muslim or anything else. A friend of mine once wrote in the RWA magazine that they ought to be called Christian and have done, and she received anti-Semitic responses. There’s a very strong vibe about this category that it’s Protestant Christian romances — I don’t remember a finalist about Catholics or Episcopalians or Eastern Orthodox believers.

    @Kris Bock – I don’t know what will happen to RWA National’s assets should it fold — I’m not sure how much will be left once it reaches that point, tbh. If a local chapter dissolves or disaffiliates, it’s required to turn over its net assets to the national organization. The conversations I’ve heard have all been about how to legitimately spend down those assets beforehand. (There are things you can’t do as a trade association, which is what RWA and the chapters are, iirc, so it’s not a straightforward process.)

  20. Vasha says:

    @Svetlana, I recommend reading back through Felicia Grossman’s tweet stream for comments on ways that RWA has permitted & promoted abusive behavior towards Jewish writers. Others shared experiences too (pardon me if I’m misremembering this, but I think it was in a RWA chapter contest that someone got feedback from a judge saying was there a reason that her main character was Jewish and if not, they should be Christian).

  21. kt says:

    Um, I went to click through to the Board of Directors and by the time I finished cutting up my cheese for lunch… the page had been replaced with an announcement that they’d all resigned?

  22. Local Chapter Board Member says:

    I wish I had the freedom to walk away from the whole mess, but as a board member of a chapter with a lot of money that would have to be forfeited to the national organization if we disaffiliated, I wouldn’t be doing my fiduciary duty to our members by resigning. Please don’t think that the chapters that aren’t taking a stand are in any way in agreement with what the national board is doing–right now a lot of us are working hard to protect our assets. Best case scenario is the RWA goes belly up and we keep our name, our money and our trademarks.

  23. Sveta Li says:

    So I can honestly thank RWA and Hollywood for causing me to feel less than human and unable to connect to larger world?

  24. Sveta Li says:

    Thanks for answering my question ladies. I was worried it would be ignored…Lol years back it was nothing but blondes I remember…I rarely see brunettes as heroines. Sometimes I am very tempted to write an essay on how much WASP society had an effect on me growing up…but then I can’t imagine anyone will read it.

  25. Lada says:

    I appreciate your heartache and all the hard work you’ve already put into this fiasco.

    Have you considered a podcast with well known editors, agents or other publishing reps? I think despite the number of members leaving RWA, nothing will really make a difference unless it also involves romance publishers pulling their support. I’d love to hear from Harlequin, Avon, etc. whether they plan on continuing to support RWA or what changes they would like to see. Will they continue to quote RT reviews and place RITA considerations front and center as a marketing tool as they have in the past now knowing the inherent problems? Will they continue sponsoring RWA events?

    A roundtable discussion of sorts would be very interesting and I can’t think of a better person to put something like that together than Sarah.

  26. SB Sarah says:

    @kt: I think it was the cheese what did it. What kind of cheese are we talking about here?

    I’ve updated the post, and I’m absolutely stunned at the spineless, willful cowardice of this former board.

  27. Ms. M says:

    @Sveta I would read it. I think a lot of us would.

  28. Ava Jarvis says:

    @Sveta RWA, Hollywood, they do indeed have a lot to answer for.

    @Lada I think Sarah needs to take a break. It looks like RWA is dead, considering publishers pulled their support for the 2020 conference entirely, so things look to be moot. RWA went off the deep end and pretty much gave every publisher an excuse to ignore the needs of romance writers. A change, a sea-change I dare say, has already been made.

    I vote not to tell Sarah what to do in any case anyways….

  29. Ava Jarvis says:

    Oh gods it just got WORSE

    There are reports the board sent out an email saying that Leslie Kelly and Dee Davis refused to help out, thus implying that they are at fault for what happened to RWA just now.

    After the many olive branches offered!!!!!!

    After Dee staying on as a member to try to continue to help!!!!!!!!!

    I don’t even know anymore

    I’m going to go lie down

  30. Dee says:

    First of all, thank you to Sarah for chronicling this shitshow. None of the current but now fully resigned board (thanks for posting the names) look like writers I have ever read but I will save the names so I can save my wallet. It really is sad to me that in this day and age people don’t want to be A) cognizant of their own behavior (especially since they LOVE judging everyone else’s) B,) want to learn to be more open minded and loving especially since C) most of them preach about it to others but live in glass houses.

    I’m not saying I’m perfect in this regard, I am fully aware I am a work in progress and am open to learning to do better. Unfortunately, the NWL that killed RWA would rather clutch their pearls and blame everyone else. Sad.

  31. kt says:

    @SB Sarah: It’s a delightful cheese. The Robin, true old fashioned Colby, by Deer Creek Cheese.

    https://deercreekcheese.com/portfolio/the-robin/

    Back to the subject: As others have said, thanks for your reporting on this. It’s one tiny corner of the wide, wide, world — but so emblematic of the troubles we’re up against right now, illustrating how connected we are and how we all pay a price in the end. Urgh. I’m trying to take what I learn here to other organizations, other power structures….

  32. Sveta Li says:

    @Mrs.M even though I am Russian Jewish? Very often Jews are seen as white/WASP culture rather than a minority, and I often think others will look at me that way. I also hate identifying myself as white, mainly because I don’t feel white and never felt white…

  33. Ava Jarvis says:

    @Sveta I am interested. This is where we start getting into intersectionality. Oppression is not the same or equal on all axes of marginalization, but these axes exist and interact with one another in a myriad of ways. Cultures also play a role; what is going on in the US is different from Europe, for instance, in terms of how these axes interact.

    Of course, this doesn’t take away from the fact that intersectionality is not widely taught, so people of all stripes tend to be clueless about other axes they do not experience. This is just what white supremacy wants: for us to be divided, not united, for when we are united we do things like raze RWA for the larger cause of supporting Romancelandia.

    So taking Eastern European white Jewishness as an example… And this is gonna be simplified yet still complicated. I’m going to use the US cultural context.

    One axis of marginalization is being Jewish. Anti-Semitism is a pillar of white supremacy in the US, and a lot of white supremacists do not actually classify Jewish people as being “properly” white. As a result, due to being Jewish, you end up sharing some of the struggles that non-white people do.

    One axis is being Eastern European. In the US there is a really bad bias against anyone without an acceptable accent (US ones, British ones, in general, with some regional variations). An accent that is not acceptable leads some bigots to assume you don’t really belong and/are of lower intelligence, and more extreme ones will actually count this against your whiteness.

    You have at least, in the US cultural context, two axes of marginalization intersecting for you. This is like combining the oppression elements from set A with those from set B, and you start to see why the more marginaliations someone has, the worse off they are.

    Now let’s start discussing intersections with other axes of marginalization other folks have and you might not have.

    Let’s say for initial simplicity that someone is Black. They have a particularly nasty axis of marginalization. It actually combines elements of the axes of colorism and non-whiteness along with unique elements all its own.

    Axes of marginalization do not all have the same “weight” in terms of awfulness, and that weight can change depending on particular situations. This is really important to remember, otherwise you go down weird and factually incorrect roads like “white women and Black women have the same oppression in society” which is what leads to a lot of awful stuff in social interactions.

    So someone who is both Black and Jewish will have elements of oppression they share with you, and you both will have elements not shared.

    This is not terrible because this means in certain situations one of you will have more social power to boost the voice of the other one. For example: you are more likely to be listened to by other white Jewish folks when you say a Black Jewish person is just as valid in their community. And vice versa.

    Now we start to get into more things about intersectionality. For example, oppression can happen not just from an oppressive group to a marginalized group, but also within the marginalized group, and also between marginalized groups.

    Examples:
    – white ppl doing white things (lots of examples)
    – able-bodied Asian folks dismissing disabled Asian folks
    – Black Christians dismissing Black Jews
    – Asians co-opting Native cultures
    – Light-skinned South Asian folks dismissing dark-skinned Asian folks
    – Poor people are dismissed by middle class and rich people
    – Poor Latinx being dismissed by better-off Latinx
    – Physically disabled folks dismissing neuroatypical folks and often vice versa
    – etc

    This is not to say that white people oppression is not as bad or even is equally bad to all those other examples, and this is not to say that those examples mean white people don’t need to work on themselves, nor is this to say that it’s a good idea to stick your nose into a marginalized group’s affairs without being extremely conscious of intersectionality and how you might be doing harm and not good.

    This is especially not to say that all oppression is equal, which is often something that is taught in the place of intersectionality.

    Intersectionality is a hierarchical and complex tree, with white cis straight allo neurotypical rich Christian males at the top in the US, and then branches that cross over and over beneath. And even so I’m still simplifying to a point of inaccuracies with references to the tiptop of the hierarchy.

    Anyways … I’m only stopping here because I’m exhausted. And remember, this is the simplified version. But… People don’t have to really know every detail out of the gate. It’s a lot to learn. Operating in society is always a lot to learn.

    TLDR your writing would offer a valuable viewpoint, because we can only learn the intricacies of this network of oppression and marginalization by listening to different viewpoints within it. And in my opinion folks who say that the concept of this is worthless are themselves short-sighted and unwise, and fated to harm themselves and others in ignorance.

    Also we are all human and we all have so much to work on. It’s good if we can listen to each other. This is ultimately the blocking point in a lot of conversations.

    Also @everyone apologies for me going on and on about side topics related to oppression and bigotry. It’s kind of complex and boring and I just spend a lot of time thinking about it all. I can definitely stop if this is bad conversation I’m making. I’m not so great myself at times at being sensitive and clueful.

  34. Svetlana Li says:

    @Ava Jarvis I think you have actually nailed a lot of what I experienced as a Russian Jew in America. I also should add that even within minorities groups exist, and that does include religious minorities.

    I often feel too that it’s important to listen to one another and try to understand each other. People stopped listening to each other. They attack each other over everything, and that, more than anything else is what divides us today.

    Like I told a male friend, you are not better than me, nor am I better than you. We are human beings with different abilities.

  35. […] keeps up with all the trends in Romance novels, had a good overview of the latest happenings at “The Board of Hollow Women (Not their actual name).” Apparently, people to whom they looked for future leadership have given up and resigned. The blog […]

  36. Ava Jarvis says:

    @Svetlana Yup, marginalized groups of all kinds also contain marginalized groups, whether through the intersection of other marginalizations or through other means.

    I will note though that some people are trying and succeeding way more at attacking and suppressing others, and thus some folks need to listen a lot more. It’s never as simple as “everyone is equally not listening to each other” which is a fallacy that gets in the way as well.

    In the end, everyone is human, though, and deserves the dignity of same.

  37. Escapeologist says:

    @Ava Jarvis and @Svetlana Li : this has been a very enlightening discussion, articulating and validating a lot of experiences I’ve lived, as I’m sure many other wonderful humans have.

    So something good came out of the shitshow after all.

    Alyssa Cole said it better than me – in her last newsletter “Girls with Glasses”, the first article titled “An Overabundance of F*cks”

  38. Escapeologist says:

    Whoa, I just read the updated post. That Alyssa Cole tweet and replies are pure gold, especially this one from Suleikha Snyder:

    https://mobile.twitter.com/suleikhasnyder/status/1227704144057839618

    All hail Queen Alyssa, Queen Courtney, and all the other amazing writers who are creating a new better world.

  39. The RWA started with corruption, and it has continued that way. It was never for the writers, never for the members, but a way of promoting certain authors from certain publishers.
    Look at it that way, and things start to fall into place.
    When it doesn’t concern its core values (the ones in the Other Book, so to speak) then anything it has done can be read in that context.
    It started with racism, too. Look what happened to the founder of the organisation, Vivian Stephens, and ask yourself why the main awards aren’t called the Vivians. It did help romance to become a major genre, perhaps the major genre in fiction in the USA, but this too is fragmenting.
    Let it die. There are other organisations.
    And don’t forget the millions in the bank (about three, or so I understand). If the conference doesn’t happen after all, they’ll have to pay the hotel a lot of money for the cancellation. That happens if not enough rooms are filled, too.

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