David Mack posted on his blog yesterday about why he includes diversity in his fiction, and, today, io9 picked it up. The exposure on io9 is great, of course, but be sure to read David's original post. He slams it out of the park.
The person who sent that email is certainly free to express his opinion, however distasteful I might find it. That is what the Bill of Rights guarantees, after all. David Mack's response to that opinion, however, is just one more reason I continue to buy and enjoy his books.
As David Mack touches upon in his response to this rather unfortunately ignorant e-mail, how do these people become Trek fans? One of Star Trek's defining principles is acceptance and tolerance in diversity, accepting everyone regardless species, gender, skin colour, beliefs, and yes, sexual orientation. And yet, this guy is hardly the first Trek fan to express prejudiced opinions like this. I've seen many other Trekkies be homophobic or sexist, racist and what have you. Kind of sad, really.
I'm reminded of a letter-writer to an issue of DC Comics' Star Trek who complained about a plotline where Scotty and Uhura became close because, you know, different races. The editor made the point that, clearly, the letter-writer didn't get the point of Star Trek.
Wow. I had no idea this would get picked up. I'm floored, humbled, and honored that io9 would think my blog post was newsworthy.
Way to go David. Ignorant people like that, who are also trek fans always disappoint me. How can someone have an opinion so close minded and still be a trek fan? They just don't really understand it. They must think it's about space battles and Kirk banging everything that moves. So sad
Got posted over at TFN Lit's Diversity thread too. Great piece! I also took the opp to push Vanguard.
You're forgetting Elaan, Miramanee (though the actress was white), and Martia, and alternate Kirk's interest in Uhura in the '09 movie. Not to mention the occasional green Orion woman.
It wasn't supposed to be a serious answer but a sarcastic one, to follow the thinking of those narrow-minded fans.
Gotta applaud David for his composure. I would have just told that ignorant hillbilly fuck to get himself neutered so his stupidity wouldn't be passed on to the next generation.
I have to protest. "Hillbilly" is an ethnic slur as ugly and wrong as any other. It's inexcusable that in a society where we've come to recognize most such stereotypes as immoral and incorrect, we still uncritically embrace such a grotesque and hateful stereotype toward people of Appalachian heritage. We need to accept once and for all that all categories of people deserve equal respect and dignity, and that if anyone behaves badly or holds harmful beliefs, that's a function of who they are as an individual, not what category they belong to. Meeting a slur with another slur of any kind is just being part of the problem.
Wow. A lot of the Io9 posters are saying, "Wow, I'm gonna have to read this Mack guy's stuff". I hope they follow through. Also, Io9s "Quote of the Day" for today came from the David Mack thread.