I like the word asshat. It speaks to my inner 13 year old. And mudflap rhymes, so that's good enough for me. but this post is mainly about asshats, not mudflaps, and in particular asshats of the depressed doggy variety.
The whole Hugo, sad and rabid puppy thingumy has been written about by many people, most of them more knowledgeable and closer to the subject than me, which was one reason I, fledgling writer that I am, haven't bothered. But now I do have something to say, so here we go.
Oh, it occurs to me dear reader that you may not know what I'm talking about. Well, you could go google it (go ahead, I'll wait), but the short of it is some white male authors don't particularly like non white male authors and have decided to organise block voting to 'bring back the glory days' (their words, not mine) of white male authors in sci fi and fantasy. They don't say that, of course. Evil never advertises it as such. They dress it up with blah di blah di blah. But anyway, that sums it up.
Thing is a lot of people, George RR Martin among them, have said this issue might end up breaking the Hugos, and I really don't think we have anything to worry about. Thing is, the sadsacks need to work at being racist, misogynistic pricks. While the world turns on and inclusion becomes ever the norm these throws need to actively work at being hateful. They need to go and try and convince enough other people to be hateful with them. And the thing is, while hate often is a lifelong thing, life, as it were, isn't. There's a certain amount of die off when it comes to stuff like this. Exhibit A: KKK membership isn't what it once was.
You only have to look at the rates of female and gay authors in the Hugo honour roll over time to see what happens when things are left to themselves. People begin to enjoy good writing for its own sake, and not give a damn at the colour of the hand holding the pen. Which is great and as it should be.
I actually had a fairly long diatribe mapped out in my head on this subject, but given my point is "Don't worry, racists die eventually" I really shouldn't take the piss and go on longer than necessary.
See you later people, and remember what the great ones said: Be excellent to one another.
Michael