Anonymous writes...

I'm an aspiring writer in an MFA program. I recently wrote a short story that my critique group was positive about and my teacher put me in touch with an editor that works in the industry. He said that he had trouble getting into my story because the names of my characters were "distracting." That was a PC way of saying they were too foreign for him to comprehend because I used names that are actually common in my native country instead of adjusting them to a Western audience, which would make no sense in the context of the setting. This is not the first time I have gotten feedback like this. This is the boundaries POC face when we try to publish our own stories.

And yet you and Brandon are getting praised for your mediocre attempts at diversity because golly isn't it just awesome when white men try to include us, even if they're completely unequipped to handle a topic, even if they fall into classic stereotypes, even if they're using their platform to spread misinformation, even if the characters have no depth, even if the content is bad? And since you get praised for doing the bare minimum, so why would you bother trying to do better?

So while you may think of yourself as some sort of saint or savior, you're really not any better.