This exists.
In the year 2012.
People, remember the post I wrote about Scalzi getting shit for writing about white male privilige? Consider this Exhibt A. This is a dystopian future where white-skinned people are in the minority and darker skinned people are dominant and tyrannical....I don't have to say any more, do I? If you can read more than a few paragraphs without closing the preview window you are a stronger person than I am. If you can fight back the urge to weep in despair you are made of iron.
Recently, Weird Tales magazine did a silly thing by giving this book a positive review, saying that it was not a racist book. In fact, if anyone had a problem with the book's racial dynamics, its the fault of the reader! Yes, if you are sufficiently open minded, you can enjoy the different perspective this book brings! According to Weird Tales editor Marvin Kaye:
"The blessing is to wish they acquire sufficient wit, wisdom and depth of literary analysis to understand what they read, and also the compassion not to attack others merely because they hold a different opinion."
You saw the video links of people reading the novel I posted and the Amazon link to check it out for yourself. You saw what was written. Make up your own minds. Irony or irresponsibility? You decide---but the answer is the latter. Yes, it is truly an opinion not commonly expressed, in no small part because this isn't the reconstruction era south anymore and its not tactful to denounce people based on their skin colour anymore. They're also allowed to sit wherever they want on buses too, and they don't have separate drinking fountains anymore.
Saying you need to have an open mind to enjoy this novel is pure chutzpah. It completley ignores the issue, and arguing that if you treat it ironically or symbolically its okay is an excuse that nobody who wishes to be considered an adult should make. I'm not saying Kaye is a frothing at the mouth bigot but he is being very disingenous, towards the contents of the novel and anyone who objects to it. Ignorance of the implications of the text is dishonourable at best, inexcusable at worst.
The internet response to it has not been pretty. Anne Vandemeer, who was a supporting editor for the magazine, has resigned in disgust. NK Jemsin laments what the magazine, who published some of her work, has become. No professional talent is likely to want to be published in Weird Tales. Since the magazine was purchased by a new publisher and fired the Hugo Award winning editorial board, the future will not look bright. I'm slightly disinclined to supporting a boycott solely because we need more short fiction venues---an incredibly weak line of defence, I know, but if Marvin Kaye can resign and go into exile hopefully the reputation of the magazine can be repaired.
My favourite Tweet on the matter.
Racism did not disappear in 1965; if anything I'd argue its making a comeback. Not legally, but in the mind where it finds fertile ground. Since Barack Obama...well, existed, the level of racist discourse in the United States has risen, and it has never been so blatant . Clothed in symbolism and metaphor, but its very obvious what perspective they have in mind. A lazy other mooching off the successes of white people. Food stamp abusing, malt liquor swigging, gangsta rap listeining jigaboos. Welfare cadillac single moms. The content of Republican agitprop of the last thirty years.
Its a vanity press published novel, so the audience the book recieves will not be large. I hope. I pray. It is gaining a well deserved infamy, and will be spoken of in geek circles as an object of ridicule, an unfortunate and inexplicable atavism. I hope that it is also seen as a cautionary tale. All the negative attitudes about race we think went away before we were born? They haven't: they're still around and finding an audience. They'll never go away but hopefully they can be minimized. The fact it is not available in shops is a very good sign, but believe you me this book will find defenders.
Crosses aren't burning on the lawns of America, not anymore, but in the quiet privacy of too many minds they are blazing.
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