If you’re like me, your first thought on reading that headline is “Walter Who???” So I looked him up on Wikipedia and, much to my surprise, he actually has a *few* science fiction titles under his belt. However, the great bulk of his writing is crime fiction. Maybe he was supposed to write Dixon Hill holodeck scenarios or something.
His trouble sounds, at first glance, like the sort of nonsense we’ve come to roll our eyes at… he was called up by HR and told that his repeated use of the “N-Word” in the workplace was a firable offence. But he claims that he did not use it to refer to other people there, but instead while describing what he said were autobiographical tales of Los Angeles cops using that word on *him.* At that level, it certainly sounds like he is in the “if this was a rational world” clear. But there are other factors to consider. Look at his Wikipedia writeup. It certainly *seems* like he may have a bit of an obsession on the subject of race; while he’s publishing books, getting paid for movie rights and working on Star Trek, he’s doubtless also complaining about how he’s oppressed by white privilege at the same time I can’t find a publisher to even look at my work and I’m pulling books off my shelf to sell. My sympathy for him declines somewhat. So it may well be that what annoyed whoever it was ho snitched on him to HR wasn’t his use of the “N-Word,” but his incessant, nonstop harping on on the subject
What’s better: when called on the phone by HR, he promptly quit. Didn’t fight it. Now, if *I* was working on a Star Trek series that I truly believed in and someone tried farkin’ with my job there, I’d fight it tooth and nail. This guy? “Meh, I’m out.” Says much about not only his devotion to crafting quality Star Trek, but also about everyone else there as well if he is the kind of guy they bring in to write.
Even betterer:
Mosley ended his op-ed by saying, “The worst thing you can do to citizens of a democratic nation is to silence them.” He elaborated, “And the easiest way to silence a woman or a man is to threaten his or her livelihood. Let’s not accept the McCarthyism of secret condemnation. Instead let’s delve a little deeper, limiting the power that can be exerted over our citizens, their attempts to express their hearts and horrors, and their desire to speak their truths. Only this can open the dialogue of change.”
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! yeah, good luck with that, bucko. Your pals are trying to “cancel” Dave Chappelle for saying things that hurt their feelings. The outrage mafia is taking down comedians for stuff they did *years* ago. Entire fire departments are getting shut down because one volunteer had gone to a few Proud Boy meetings. So don’t act shocked when you get a call from HR for saying The Naughty Word repeatedly in the workplace.
And this pretty much defines the problem with Star Trek today:
It’s worth noting that Discovery has a particularly inclusive writers room that includes three African American scribes, two Asian American writers, a Native American and Latinx woman, among others.
Inclusivity in modern Star Trek covers ethnicity, but not, it seems, a diversity of *quality* science fiction authoring experience.
