Silencing Straight, White, Cis Males — Not on My Watch

“I will not read books by ____ people.” Filling in that blank is perilous. I’d suggest we just not even do it. Read what you can, read what you must, read what you want, strive for diversity, but don’t ignore what others are reading.

Trying to shut out one group of voices (having had my own voice shut out for so long… and with a ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court, once more) is to ignore the reality of that voice. If people feel like they’re being ignored when they feel like they have something to say, they don’t just go away meekly — they start shouting. Then they start pushing.

As an undergrad, in order to better understand what racist extremists thought, I read “The Turner Diaries.” I didn’t enjoy it, I didn’t agree with it, I certainly didn’t take it as some kind of instruction manual or blueprint. I read it because I wanted to know what Tim McVeigh was thinking and I turned to what he read. It was offensive, but illuminating. And now, after reading that work and others, I know better the language of radical racist hate, the shibboleths and the signs they use, the rhetorical arguments and the names of the philosophers they quote. I know it well enough to avoid its adherents before getting entangled with them.

Just because we read something doesn’t mean we internalize and integrate its message. If we do internalize and integrate the message, that doesn’t mean we can’t excise it. If we fear our filters might not catch something subtle, then we should probably work on our filters because the subtle is everywhere.

In the LGBTQIA+ (and pardon me if I left your letter off) I count many straight, white, cis males as allies. I count many straight, white, cis male writers as allies. They share my rainbow cloak of protection and I won’t abandon them after all of their support.

And if you don’t like an author because they’ve made racist statements, or sexist statements, or homophobic statements in the past, then avoid that author. And if, for whatever reason, you have to read someone you disdain, then check it out from the library.

But urging people to not read a certain group is like ordering a writer not to write about certain subjects. Art must be free in its expression or else it is merely propaganda.