CEO DATELINE - Racism controversy rocks romance writers association
CEO DATELINE - Racism controversy rocks romance writers association
- January 7, 2020 |
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Walt Williams
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A controversy about the handling of racism allegations by the Romance Writers of America has led to the cancellation of the genre's most coveted awards after several judges and authors pulled out in protest, the Guardian newspaper reported Tuesday.
At issue is a complaint filed last year by novelist Kathryn Lynn Davis against author Courtney Milan after Milan publicly accused Davis of perpetuating racist stereotypes about Chinese women in one of her novels. RWA received the complaint and decided to discipline Milan, a move that quickly prompted a backlash from many of the association's members.
RWA eventually reversed its decision, but not before Milan and several board members resigned from the group in protest. Davis, for her part, has since accused the association of encouraging her to file a complaint against Milan even though she was originally hesitant to do so.
The latest wrinkle came Monday when RWA's board of directors decided to cancel the group's annual romance writing awards—the RITA awards—because so many authors and judges had withdrawn that the contest would not reflect the breadth and diversity of the genre, the Guardian reported.
"By not holding a contest in 2020, we will be able to move away from making piecemeal changes," RWA said in a statement. "Instead, we will have the opportunity to take a proper amount of time to build an awards program and process—whether it's a revamped RITA contest or something entirely new—that celebrates and elevates the best in our genre."
The group added that members who entered the contest would be refunded their full entry fee, which is $50 for the first entry and $75 for the second one. (Authors are limited to two entries.) http://bit.ly/39WHfXA
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