With the recent Nebula Awards ceremony now in the past, I’m reflecting on the chatter in social media about the fact that no white males won a voter-selected award this year. In fact, one tweet cheered in nearly those exact words: No white males!
Hopefully we’re beyond blog excerpts now and that bit of text above buries my real message below the fold. The title of this blog post is inflammatory to many people, don’t you think? Nothing like an inflammatory teaser to command attention. That said, perhaps a few white male SFWA authors were nodding in agreement upon reading that. It’s an easy knee-jerk reaction to have when people are celebrating that nobody like you won an award.
Nobody like you won an award. I’ve heard that a lot, and generally not from white males.
Thing is, the Nebula Awards are like most other awards. Sure, the quality of writing must be up to par, but there are other factors involved. People tend to vote for known quantities, so popularity has been and always will be a component to any elected award. There is also an aspect of social statement that emerges, very probably subconsciously. Or perhaps not.
A lot of writers emerging over the past ten years want the spec fic field to be wide open to diversity, and considerable progress has been made. That’s healthy for the genre. Different people of different backgrounds bring a rich flavor to the genre that really hasn’t historically been there. It raises everyone’s game. It has to, because every crop has cream. Diversifying the author pool allows editors to skim the cream from more than one pot, and that means everyone has to up their game. The competition is much fiercer.
The ones who lose in this scenario are the writers who skate on momentum. Many years ago, the genre was smaller and hacks could publish regularly. Today, those hacks have to get serious and improve. It’s improve or perish.
While it brings a superficial sting to see somebody celebrate the fact that no white males won an award this year, that’s an instinctive reaction and a shallow attitude. How many anthologies or award seasons gave everything to white men? That’s why we see intentional all-female anthologies. It’s a cry to let people in. People who have something to contribute and plenty to say should be heard. That’s why people were celebrating this year. It’s a celebration of inclusion.