I am Young Adult and Middle Grade author Barbara Binns, writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for adolescents and teens. As my tagline says, I write Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them.
If you are part of Romancelandia, or even if you are not, you've probably heard about the Romance Writer's of America® (RWA) "Christmas Surprise." The Board of Directors voted to censure Courtney Milan for an ethics violation and creating an unsafe environment for members. Milan is a former lawyer and a New York Times bestselling romance author. She is a long-time advocate for marginalized authors, frequently commenting on barriers authors of color face within romance publishing and racist tropes in fiction. She is also the former chair of the RWA ethics committee.
Her activism has made her numerous friends both inside and outside RWA. Unfortunately, it also made a number of enemies.
The board sent her an email on December 23, 2019, stating the Ethics Committee had unanimously found her in violation. She was suspended from RWA for a year, and barred from ever holding an elected position in the organization again.
Twitter exploded and sent a reality check to any board or staff member who thought their closed until after the holiday announcement would shelter them until the storm died down.
The hashtag, IStandWithCourtney began trending Monday night. By Tuesday, the board reconvened and rescinded Courtney's suspension. Instead of being buried amid the holiday rush, the story was picked up by NBC and CBS news, plus Entertainment Weekly, The Guardian, and even Perez Hilton. That means chances are high even your teens and tweens have heard a version of this.
Unfortunately, there were soon many versions of the story, depending on whom your information source(s) are. I'm going to give you mine.
In the interest of full disclosure and transparency, something requested but not received from RWA, I'm going to make a confession. I know Courtney Milan. In 2008, when I first joined RWA, she was a member of my local chapter. We lost touch several years later when she and her family moved to the west coast and I remained in the Midwest.
Through the magic of the Internet and twitter, plus the beauty of her novels that won't let me stop reading, I still feel a connection. Among other things, she introduced me to figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu, who filled her twitter posts on the morning of Dec 23. Skating videos filled her posts in the morning. That changed by afternoon.
I will also disclose that I resigned from RWA several years ago, because I was tired of dealing with the microaggressions I found at the conventions, and even within my home chapter. The effect of a lifetime of racism is like being stoned. No one blow is lethal, but the accumulation over a lifetime leaves every part of your body quivering in anticipation of the next pain. I chose to step away from the organization.
Courtney Milan chose to fight for change. She worked for years to make things better for all marginalized authors. It's the kind of work that can make you a lot of friends. It can also make enemies in powerful places.
The current controversy began in August 2019. I won't go over the timeline of events that let to her censure. Events continue to unfold, literally by the hour. If you want to know details of actions between then and now, check out https://www.claireryanauthor.com/blog/2019/12/27/the-implosion-of-the-rwa Note that this timeline is constantly being updated with the latest news and activity. I go there every day.
I will, however, remind you that Courtney Milan is half-Chinese. Imagine how she felt when she looked through yet another book containing racist depictions of the Chinese culture in general and Chinese women in particular. She exploded. Maybe the profanity she used in describing the book wasn't necessary, but she was talking about something that hit personally. She was being stoned again. Trust me, the continuing blows make you want to scream.
RWA was started by a black woman. Her name was Vivian Stephens, and author and editor. She started RWA to enhance the professional and business interests of career-focused romance writers. Writers. Not merely white writers. She created an open party for authors to network and mingle. A place for all authors to hone their crafts and reach for their dreams.
Somehow that changed, if not in words, then in reality. The party became almost exclusively white. For three years I walked through the halls of the RWA national conferences, surrounded by white women. The year I finaled in the Golden Heart, 2009, I heard people saying that maybe black authors couldn't right well enough as if dark skin conveyed an inability to string words together. Only one black author has ever won a RITA, the RWA's signature award, and that happened last year. No name books have finaled and even won. Books by black authors, including New York Times and USA Today bestselling books, could not get past first round judges to make it to the finals.
IStandWithCourtney because she worked hard to change the colorblindness that led many RWA members to ignore who was missing from the table. Even worse, the racism that led them to move when a person of color joined their table. Yes, that has happened, and it is yet another stone.
The Cultural, Interracial and Multicultural Chapter of RWA (CIMRWA) led a petition drive asking for Mr. Suede's recall. They managed to get over a thousand RWA voting members to sign up the weekend after Christmas. The recall election will be held in the next few months. Mr. Suede and the "rebellion forces" will each be allowed 250 words to state whey he should or should not be removed from office. Hopefully his will include an explanation of how he can be president. Apparently he does not fulfill the requirements for office in terms of published books. That includes have published a minimum of five books (he has four) where one was published int he last two years (his fourth book was published in March 2017)
The author who filed the original complaint alleged she lost a three-book contract because of Courtney. RWA included that in an announced made to the PAN loop. Only a few days ago, that author finally admitted in an interview with The Guardian there had never been a contract for her to lose. (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/04/kathryn-lynn-romance-novelist-interview-racism-complaint)
In fact, she now claims she never wanted to pursue an ethics complaint against Courtney, but RWA officials encouraged (practically forced her against her will) to file the complaint.
If the person filing the complaint now admits to one lie, can we tell if she is telling the truth about anything else? Especially since almost every plea for RWA to be transparent has resulted in silence from the office. We do know that board members of color resigned right after the censure with a common statement that they could not trust leadership. So did the president, moving Damon Suede into the role of President of RWA.
The original censure read that the Ethics committee unanimously found Courtney guilty. That turned out to be only a partial truth, the original ethics committee was bypassed and an ad hoc committee was put together and tried the case. Damon, who served as liaison between the ad hoc ethics committee and the board, reported they found her guilty and then recommended the Board accept the result. Many of the original ethics committee members resigned in protest because they were never even told of the complaint.
For now, Courtney Milan seems to be trying to get on with her life. She tweets about friends, books that she likes (and dislikes) and more about Yuzuru, whom I agree is grace on ice. She is keeping an eye on RWA, expressing outrage as new issues emerge, while getting on with her life. Whether or not she will pursue legal action for defamation is unknown. So is whether or not the RWA will really implode.
8 comments:
Thank You for this post, Barbara. I'm sure Vivian Stephens original intention when RWA was started has been lost for some time. I was on the fence about renewing but decided to stick it out for one more year with national although I've dropped all chapter affiliations.
B. A., I am heartsick at the way you and others were treated by RWA in the past, and currently. I am not going to comment on the specifics of the RWA/Courtney Milan mess because I don't know everything and new information is still coming into the light. But I apologize for not being aware of many aggressions and not doing enough to support my fellow romance writers. I have decided to stay in the organization (at least for now) and fight to make things better.
This will be a tumultuous year, at best. Are you on either the PRO or PAN loops? I understand the president is being totally silent. The outside world is not. A group of agents signed a letter divorcing themselves from RWA. And just now both Avon and HarperCollins have announced they will not be at RWA events, including the 2020 conference. So far RWA president Damon Suede has remained totally silent, not even answering emails so there is no idea what he is thinking. Some of the top people in charge of the RWR magazine have also resigned. Also, some one has made a complaint to the Texas committee that oversees non-profits about fiduciary responsibilities. This could be the end of an era. At the very least, it will be a time of great change.
Barbara, I'm on the PAN Forum as well as the Discussion Forum. I do look at some of the posts but they are, for the most part, angry accusatory and I find myself opting out after 30 minutes or so. I was not aware of how deeply racial bigotry misogyny sentiments ran in the organization. I've remained a member more for a show that I'm a professional author than because I've found the organization need satisfying. And being a member for only that reason I've not been diligent in being aware of the extent, depth, breadth, discriminatory practices. I will be doing my due diligence this coming year and make the decision as to whether I remain a member or not this coming December.
And, yes, one of the members did file a complaint with the Texas Secretary of State's office that has oversight on non-profits. Another member reached out the to law firm that was hired to do an audit and learned that it is a limited audit that does not address any complaints outside of the Milan issue even though the list of concerns (to use a very mild term) is long.
Again, I really appreciate your speaking up here at Romancing The Genres..
Thank you for this post, Barbara. I ended my membership in RWA a few years ago because the organization did not serve my needs as an Indie author, and I got tired of seeing various groups of authors belittled and/or excluded over the years.
I'm saddened but not surprised to learn this happened. The lack of diversity in the Ritas has always been telling. I'm proud of those members who stood up for Courtney and demanded justice.
I also want to thank you for sharing your appallingly beautiful description of what it is like to endure racism over a lifetime. It took a lot of courage to do so. I've always admired your courage and determination.
I've been a member of RWA for many years. I just want to clarify (for people who aren't aware) that the RITA judges are member published authors, not the RWA executive or staff. The reason multicultural published authors haven't won more often is not because of RWA executive choices. I was a RITA judge, for example. I had no idea who wrote and published the books I was judging. All published authors who submitted books for the RITA had to judge. It is a color-blind process, and marks are given based on the quality of the writing. Ditto for the Golden Heart award for unpublished authors. (I never finaled, BTW.) Also, I have been to RWA conferences where authors of color/different cultures have been keynote speakers. I have noticed the RWA effort to be inclusive at the conferences I attended, and in the articles selected for the RWA magazine. However, in my opinion some members of that ad hoc committee must have had it in for Courtney to over-react that way. Unfortunately racism is a systemic issue in society, and RWA members are a subset of society. Kudos to Courtney for speaking out. I think she - a very successful author - was made a target, and now that jealous hatred inside RWA is exposed. Believe me, it is NOT new that some jealous unpublished and published authors attack successful authors on social media, or even plagiarize their work. That is why I am not a member of any RWA on-line forums.
FYI, after publishers and,agents withdrew support for RWA, and a recall election was set, both President Damon Suede (elected) and Executive Director Carol Ritter (staff) have resigned.
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