I’ve heard some rather ‘interesting’ comments about CG this week, for standin’ up and shoutin’ out. Who does he think he is? He’s virtue signalling, he’s making it about him, he’s playing White *Saviour… *yawn, yawn, fuckin’ yawn*

*Savior, for those of you across the pond.

The scene: come with me, if you will, to a blog post that’s been doing the rounds over the last few days. (It’s here, for ease of ref): https://www.christophergolden.com/post/to-those-of-you-nodding-along-with-tom-monteleone

It’s Golden’s response to the latest rant from the extraordinary (and not in a good way) Tom Monteleone. I’m not going to include a link to TM’s hateful horseshit here, as his own particular brand of blogwank doesn’t deserve any more traffic. And yeah, I use ‘hateful’ on purpose. It’s that quiet, posh, all-singing, all-dancing racism that’s been swept under many a rug for decades. Monteleone has (or had) a black friend, don’t ya know? (Linda Addison is “a very nice, congenial and smart lady I always considered a friend…”) And for that, read: I’d better state how lovely she is, right before I say something racist and douchebaggy, just so I can’t be called a racist douchebag.

That’s racism 101, pal. Black friend, and lovely-person disclaimer. Quiet racism, almost to the point of silence. But here’s the thing: the quieter the racism, the louder we must shout.

Suffice t’say, ol’ Tom has it covered. All of it. Sussed. Not content with being your common-or-garden bigot, he’s really gone to town this time, covering all bases. Rampant misogyny? Check. Homophobia? Check. White Privilege? Check. I think he must be after a frickin’ medal or something, for Most Boxes Ticked in a Single Sesh. Not that he would be in with a chance of winning, though, what with fragile white dudes being, like, so oppressed ‘n’ shit. (Poor loves.)

This is something he makes sure to point out, by the way, in case you were in any doubt. Only two—TWO—straight, white guys were nominated for whatever the fuckever’s got on his tits this time:

‘I think the recent history of the LAA speaks for itself—a definite DEI agenda, which got me excoriated for merely pointing it out in an aside in my nominating letter. Indeed the push lately to nominate three winners in a given year seems to be an obvious effort to balance the scales even a little bit. I know I don’t need to state the obvious, but I will: for the last six years, Straight, White Guys: two; Women: eight; “Writer of Color”: five.  I rest my case.’ (Spoiler alert: does he bollocks rest his case.)

He doubles down, too: according to him, Linda isn’t a writer of horror poetry, but a writer of “horror poetry.” Ah, those scathing quote marks that say so much. About him.

‘Her body of work is mostly poems and a handful of collections, but hardly what any student of the field would deem a lifetime of work that “significantly influenced and contributed to the field.” To me (and lots of others who kept their mouths shut, the selection was somewhat of a surprise)—especially after many mentions of the Addison award prefaced it with the proclamation that she was the first black recipient of the award (as if skin color should be a reason for accomplishment to be recognized).’

Tom, U ok, hun? [insert worry-face emoji here]

(But enough about him. There’s plenty of online commentary out there, should you care to go down that hole of rabbits.)

So what, by contrast, do we have in Christopher Golden? An author, supporting other authors. Shocking!

Supporting friends. HOW DARE!

Supporting the oppressed, the underrepresented, the marginalised. What a terrible person. Sheesh.

‘Linda Addison does not need you to acknowledge her worth to be worthy. She doesn’t need to have been embraced by readers who are not interested in poetry for her contributions to be significant. You don’t need to have felt her influence or even observed it for her to be influential.’ – Christopher Golden.

Standing up for People of Colour does not make you a white saviour. It makes you human. It makes you a decent person. It’s the right thing to do. And I’m kind of at a loss as to why more people aren’t doing it. Allies are precious. Being that it’s usually we white folks doin’ the perpetratin’, isn’t it up to us to call out the bullshit everywhere we smell it?

So, yeah. To those of you nodding along with Christopher Golden, and to the man himself: thank you.