As always, insightful from top to bottom. The point about the contest reactions (blaming some kind of affirmative action for the outcome) is on the money. I was so pissed (though not suprised) to see that reaction from some. Most offensive was Dawber's because she didn't seem to say it with bitterness or rancor--but more of like, "yeah of course this is what happened," which is WORSE than some white dude just ranting about it. She normalized that thinking with her comment, and thereby made it easier for people to agree with it without having to feel like they were co-signing some angry bitter white man. And when she said Medium vetted the winners with their legal team she ventured into the land of utter and complete ignorance...like she really believes writing contests are subject even to anti-discrimination law, let alone the very weak and watered down aff action laws still in place.

The WV comments are also prescient. I always felt the key reason WV was formed as a breakaway from Virgnia was precisely because they weren't as dependent on enslavement of black labor in the west of the state...same with east TN having to be forced to go along with secession because the mountain region didnt rely heavily on enslavement...the white folks in WV and TN were just as racist but didn't have to operationalize their racism in the same way. Of course the irony now is that you'll see confederate flags all over WV and East TN (shit, in PA and MI and OR for that matter), which pretty well lets us all know what the flag was always about...

Anyway, I meant what I said in my piece today. It was an honor to get beat by your amazing piece in the work prompt. And I say that as a straight white able bodied male who, to hear some tell it, should be enraged that my rightful award was stolen from me...ugh