Mercedes Lackey Ejected From Nebula Conference For Using Racial Slur

[Mallus]

When I was in London UK just a couple of years ago, that word was everywhere. Supermarkets aisles, in the names of chinese restaurants, everywhere. Once you noticed it it was hard to unnotice it. That news hasn't spread beyod the borders of the US yet!

It’s fine for food and carpets. I’d should have specified it’s… ahem... problematic when used to describe people.

I gotta admit, though, whenever I see something like ‘oriental sauce’ on a menu, I takes a fair amount of willpower not to ask the server questions like “is it sauce for orientals or made from orientals?”

I mean, I won’t. Mortifying your server is always terrible etiquette. But it is kinda tempting...

 

[This Effin’ GM]

That was entirely for your benefit. I didn't want to look like a jerk by using the word, looking like I'm pulling a "I'm not touching you" move. And to be clear, it's not that I think you're petty and would pull something like that, but I'm happpy to choose my words with consideration and respect for my audience.

That’s all I’m trying to say. Are we considering our audience and respecting them. No shade to anyone in particular, just wanting to voice “hey let’s be careful maybe.”

 

[Myrdin Potter]

I view the NAACP use of the word as a sign that their success as the people it was founded to help chose their own names. Personally, I much prefer black or Black as it is a color like white (and neither is accurate for the actual skin color). I honestly don’t know about others and how they want their skin color described. My wife and many Asians I know are offended by POC.

Older or not, Lackey is a professional writer and I would expect better use of words.

 

[MGibster]

I'm in my 40s, and I recall that the word was inappropriate in that context when I was about 18. This is not a new thing.

Same here, and I've never on any occasion witnessed the use of the word to describe a person in a contemporary setting. I've only heard it used in a historical context.

 

[Retreater]

Typically, during IRL conversations, I just shut up anymore. I realize I have nothing to add. This is why I don't discuss politics, race, religion, or other important issues. Everything is hobbies, the weather, sports, etc.

 

[Cadence]

The "Harassments Policy" seems to have a variety of specific levels available for sanctions that the "Moderation Policy" doesn't.

Harassment Policy

Harassment Policy - Nebula Awards Conference Online

Introduction SFWA® sponsors or hosts discussion boards, communication avenues such as the SFWA Slack Channel, social media presences via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Airmeet etc., publications, the SFWA website, Writer Beware®, the Nebula Awards® Conference and Ceremony, the SFWA suite and […]

events.sfwa.org

Moderation Policy

moderation Policies - Nebula Awards Conference Online

This page contains: 1. Rules for Communication in SFWA Spaces 2. Guidelines for Professional Courtesy 3. How to Report Breaches of Professional Courtesy 4. Moderation Procedure 5. Notes Rules for Communication in SFWA Spaces 1. […]

events.sfwa.org

 

[Ibrandul]

When two very similar words (in this case, two different constructions of the same word) have the same denotation but near-opposite connotations, it's inevitable that one will sometimes be used when the other is intended, because of the way human brains process and produce language. This phenomenon has nothing whatsoever to do with racist ideologies, unless you subscribe to debunked pop-Freudian notions of slips of the tongue as revealing deep-seated prejudices in a "return of the repressed."

To elaborate: when "... of color" (e.g., "writer of color") is considered by many to be perhaps the most sensitive term available—because most people would just say "Black writer" instead, and the primary reason to choose "... of color" is usually to emphasize solidarity/intersectionality with other nonwhite identities—and yet a very closely related term* is considered offensive, then sometimes, some people will end up saying the latter when they consciously want to say the former, simply because the terms are so similar and both have the same denotation, and the brain is a weird place when it comes to talking. This is a bit less common when the terms occupy displaced syntactical positions (in this case, after the noun vs. before it), but it does still happen that way.

This is doubly true for people with dyslexia, who are very often prone to slips of the tongue even when the denotations are different (classic example: "Dinosaurs went distinct millions of years ago"). My point is that for verbal dyspraxics, whether they technically qualify as neurodivergent, no amount of education and no degree of good intentions is going to save them from verbal slip-ups.

Mercedes Lackey is on record as being diagnosed with dyslexia. She is also verbally dyspraxic; watch any YouTube interview with her and this is immediately obvious if you know what to look for. The stumbles are very brief, and usually she immediately corrects herself, and she is brilliant and articulate so that's the general impression one comes away with. But it's there throughout her speech patterns. I just clicked on a random interview and she stumbles over her words seven times in the first three minutes, including (speaking of her birds) "They're extremely intelligence."


*I was about to hit "post" when I looked at the prior discussion regarding repeating the term in this thread. I have removed it for the same reasons articulated by MGibster above. If the term did not already appear several times earlier in this thread, I would consider it morally mandatory to include the term itself, so as to make plain exactly what Lackey said.

 

[Ibrandul]

Two things matter when a social taboo is violated: (1) intentions, and (2) what the speaker does after the slip-up.

Unfortunately, increasingly it seems to me that in many cases, and especially by organizations and institutions with the power and responsibility to respond to such incidents, intentions are not considered to be important. One even hears that taking an offender's intentions into account is somehow a way of compounding the violation, as though understanding why something has happened amounts to condoning, excusing, or even repeating the offending act.

It's clear that in this case the SFWA did not care about Lackey's intentions. It's also clear they didn't offer her a chance to apologize or respond before ejecting her from the conference.

The SFWA has, in my opinion, responded to the complaint in the third-worst imaginable way. The worst would be to retaliate against the complainant. The second-worst would be to ignore the complaint entirely. Why in the world should we celebrate an organization for doing something in the third-worst imaginable way?

 

[Cadence]

Reading up on things for myself...

2020 column n the Chicago Tribune

Column: Why is ‘people of color’ OK but not ‘colored people’? A reading list for white folks

After an earlier column, emails poured in from white people who said they had no idea that “colored” was offensive.

www.chicagotribune.com

A bit of history from NPR

The Journey From 'Colored' To 'Minorities' To 'People Of Color'

The words used to describe race and ethnicity are ever in flux. A favored term one decade becomes passé the next and not nice soon after that. But, the motivation for change remains constant: Respect.

www.npr.org

Folks called out for using it...

BBC in 2015 on Benedict Cumberbatch:
Warning: Why using the term 'coloured' is offensive

Amy Robach from "Good Morning America"

‘Good Morning America’ Host Apologizes for Using Racial Slur

“Good Morning America” host Amy Robach has apologized for using the outdated racial term “colored people” on air. “We all know Hollywood has received recent and quite …

variety.com

 

[MGibster]

Whenever I hear about these kinds of issues I have to remind myself that I very often don't have the full context. From the information currently available to me, I believe it would have been entirely appropriate for Nebula organizers have a chat with Lackey about her choice of words and to ask for an apology. But removing Lackey from the venue altogether was an overraction entirely disproportionate to her actions. However, maybe there is a context I'm missing. Lackey may have a history with the Nubula that I am entirely unaware of. But from an outsider's perspective, the Nebula Conference isn't looking so good to me. But sometimes mistakes are made.