[Full disclosure: I was a member of RWA from 2004 thru 2012. I've lost track of how many contests I judged in RWA, and frankly, it's not an easy job. I left because of how they treated erotic romance, gay romance, and ebooks. Their educational programs are fabulous, but the inbred weirdness of the Board and the management got to be too much for me. I also have several writer friends who are still members, and that's their choice.]
After the controversial handling of what amounted to a publisher's complaint against a POC member, the entire Board disintegrated. Board members quit in disgust. The president was forced to resign, as was the executive director. Then there was the dust-up over the old Rita Awards when a story about a Nazi officer who hooked up with a Jewish chick and she converted to Christianity won a fucking Rita.
A lot of folks quit RWA after those hot messes. Judges withdrew from participating in any RWA awards. Hell, even several chapters left the parent organization over the bullshit.
So the new Board, the most diverse Board I've ever seen, eliminated the Rita awards, going as far as cancelling them outright in 2020 (which was probably a good thing in regards to the raging COVID-19 pandemic though the cancellation happened before the U.S. shut down).
The new Board tried to address the marginalization of non-white, non-straight, non-Christian authors. They renamed their awards to reflect the Black founder of RWA, Vivian Stephens, and overhauled the rules for both entries and judging.
Apparently, they didn't go far enough.
I marginally paid attention to the Vivians on Saturday. I was in the middle of trying to finish writing a novel, and only because a friend was up for the romantic elements category. (She didn't win, and thank Cthulu, she wasn't in the Christian romance category!)
*facepalm*
I'm going to start by pointing out a similar FICTIONAL situation. Back in the early '80's, Chris Claremont was the writer of the Uncanny X-men, a Marvel title. (You may have heard of it.)
He had one of the heroes, Jean Grey, aka Dark Phoenix, eat a sun, and as a result, she killed an entire planetful of people. Billions of lives were lost.
During a story planning session with then editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, Chris outlined his redemption arc for Jean. Jim said, no, Jean needs to die. The men went back and forth until Jim laid down the law. Marvel heroes DO NOT commit genocide!
To me, this is a much bigger deal than DC claiming Batman does not eat pussy.
Other Marvel writers have since retconned the Phoenix Saga so it wasn't the real Jean Grey who committed genocide. But the original storyline has stuck with me. My heroes CANNOT do something so heinous and irredeemable and remain a hero.
Real life is bad enough. Real life sucks. Romance readers want their happy ending. I get that. But not at the cost of 300 real people who died in one of the most atrocious government acts in U.S. history. And especially, not when the bodies of dead Native children from what was a re-education facility were returned so recently.
RWA has issued a statement regarding the Vivian awards.
Every time I think things are becoming more equitable, reality slams a frying pan into my head. I should be working on my novel, but I needed to get my disgust out of system.
And to my friends who say RWA has changed, it hasn't, and it makes me queasy.
