#FAIR for All

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Leigh Ann O’Neill and Brent Morden

Published: Oct 12, 2023

It’s Fall, and writers are submitting their best stories, essays, and poems to literary journals, which have reopened after the summer break. The readership for many of these journals may be small, but they are powerful gatekeepers for aspiring poets and literary authors. Many journals receive hundreds, or even thousands, of submissions every month, from which they typically select only a few pieces for publication. Of the works they publish, they nominate only a handful for prestigious prizes—such as the Pushcart, the O. Henry, and the Best American series—which can launch a young writer’s career.

In apparent violation of federal anti-discrimination law, a growing number of literary journals across the United States are openly discriminating based on race or ancestry in setting the fees they charge to writers submitting their work. By following the current trend toward race essentialism, literary journals are establishing an ominous precedent, while flouting the fundamental principle of equality under the law, regardless of skin color.

Submitting work to journals is easier now than it once was. Gone are the days of mass postal submissions and stamped self-addressed envelopes. Most journals have transitioned to electronic portals such as Submittable.com to manage submissions; and they often charge hopeful authors a submission fee to defray their operating costs. All you need to do is upload your piece, pay your money, and keep your fingers crossed. A single story or poem might be rejected dozens of times before it finds a home.

Even though these fees are typically quite low—five, ten, or twenty dollars—they can start to add up, especially when one considers that the payment for published work offered by these journals is often nominal. Historically, journals have been mindful of the hardship their fees can impose. Harvard Review, Yale Review, and many other prestigious publications offer need-based fee waivers or fee-free submission periods in the case of authors suffering financial hardship.

Recently, however, many journals have taken a different approach: They are assigning fee waivers on the basis of applicants’ skin color and ethnicity. At Ecotone (affiliated with the University of North Carolina), for example, “historically underrepresented writers” may submit earlier than others, and are exempt from fees entirely, regardless of financial need. A similar policy was implemented at Indiana Review (Indiana University Bloomington), where “Black, Indigenous, and Person of Color (BIPOC)” writers were automatically exempted from fees. (Non-BIPOC writers were required either to pay, or to request fee waivers on an individual basis.) At Black Warrior Review (University of Alabama), those who are a “Black, indigenous, or incarcerated writer … may skip the Submittable process and email your submission directly to the editor … for no fee.”

These race-based fee structures violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin by universities and colleges that accept federal funding. In the case of public universities, race-based fees also run afoul of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. And yet, this sort of overtly race-based treatment has continued largely unnoticed and unchallenged.

At the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR)—where the two of us serve as managing director of legal advocacy, and managing director of FAIR in the Arts, respectively—we’re actively working to change that. And we’ve already had some success.

Perhaps these developments should not come as a surprise. Literary journals are simply exhibiting the fixation on racial and ethnic identity that has become a mainstay of academia and mainstream publishing. But trying to atone for past discrimination by imposing differential race-based treatment on citizens isn’t just illegal in many cases; it also serves to stereotype non-white people as poor, beleaguered, and victimized. And it serves to overlook those who do need assistance because of disadvantages they’ve suffered in life, but who don’t possess the immutable characteristics considered to be an indicator of struggle and strife.

Moreover, these practices foster societal division by elevating superficial differences over all the elements we have in common. This undermines the sense of empathy, imagination, and intellectual freedom required to create compelling literature; and deadens the unifying, inspiring, and humanizing effect that art can have on us.

In the grand sweep of things, the submission policies of small literary journals may not seem to be an important issue. But it represents yet another challenge to our liberal values—and a harbinger of what kind of racially Balkanized society awaits us if we allow unconstitutional race-based policies to become the new normal in American cultural life.

Leigh Ann O’Neill is managing director of legal advocacy at the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR). Brent Morden is managing director of FAIR in the Arts.

#FAIR for All #Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism #illiberalism #racism #racial discrimination #literary journal #racial identity #neoracism #woke #wokeness #cult of woke #wokeism #wokeness as religion #religion is a mental illness

[the-fruit-tea-devil]

#martin luther king jr #Daryl Davis #FAIR for all #happy black history month #quotes #mlk jr

[pangur-and-grim]

I got too excited while playing chess and told my opponent that I was going to slit his throat and slaughter him like a hog. something to work on for next time

#to be fair to myself I had his king surrounded #so it was all in the heat of the moment

[adhd-merlin]

some people really be out there typing fanfics longer than war and peace in their free time and then going on about their life like it's no big deal. how fucking incredible. like no offense to tolstoy but that was like. his whole job

#amazing #fandom #the hands of a hundred winters #though to be fair to lev he was also kept pretty busy by all the cheating on his wife #those peasant girls aren't gonna fuck themselves!

[inkskinned]

probably time for this story i guess but when i was a kid there was a summer that my brother was really into making smoothies and milkshakes. part of this was that we didn't have AC and couldn't afford to run fans all day so it was kind of important to get good at making Cool Down Concoctions.

we also had a patch of mint, and he had two impressionable little sisters who had the attitude of "fuck it, might as well."

at one point, for fun, this 16 year old boy with a dream in his eye and scientific fervor in heart just wanted to see how far one could push the idea of "vanilla mint smoothie". how much vanilla extract and how much mint can go into a blender before it truly is inedible.

the answer is 3 cups of vanilla extract, 1/2 cup milk alternative, and about 50 sprigs (not leaves, whole spring) of mint. add ice and the courage of a child. idk, it was summer and we were bored.

the word i would use to describe the feeling of drinking it would maybe be "violent" or perhaps, like. "triangular." my nose felt pristine. inhaling following the first sip was like trying to sculpt a new face. i was ensconced in a mesh of horror. it was something beyond taste. for years after, i assumed those commercials that said "this is how it feels to chew five gum" were referencing the exact experience of this singular viscous smoothie.

what's worse is that we knew our mother would hate that we wasted so much vanilla extract. so we had to make it worth it. we had to actually finish the drink. it wasn't "wasting" it if we actually drank it, right? we huddled around outside in the blistering sun, gagging and passing around a single green potion, shivering with disgust. each sip was transcendent, but in a sort of non-euclidean way. i think this is where i lost my binary gender. it eroded certain parts of me in an acidic gut ecology collapse.

here's the thing about love and trust: the next day my brother made a different shake, and i drank it without complaint. it's been like 15 years. he's now a genuinely skilled cook. sometimes one of the three of us will fuck up in the kitchen or find something horrible or make a terrible smoothie mistake and then we pass it to each other, single potion bottle, and we say try it it's delicious. it always smells disgusting. and then, cerimonious, we drink it together. because that's what family does.

#this is true #writeblr #warm up #relatedly for some reason one of our Favorite Jokes #amongst the Siblings #is like - ''this is so good u will love it'' #while we are reacting to something we OBVIOUSLY find viscerally disgusting #like we will be actively retching and be like ''nooooo it's so good'' #to the point that i sometimes get nervous if someone outside my family is like oh u should try it its good #(obvi we never force each other to eat anything. we are all just curious birds and #like. we're GONNA try the new thing.) #edit to answer why we had so much vanilla: #my mom is a very good cook and we LOVE to bake. so she just had a lot of staples in the house. #it's one of those things that's like. have u ever continuously thought ''ah i should get butter im probably out'' #even tho u are not out of butter. so u end up with like 5 years of butter. #my mom would do that in a costco but like with vanilla extract #to be fair we WERE always using WAY TOO MUCH bc we were kids #so like she was right to stock up #ps. yes we were VERY sick after this lol i just didn't want to include it in the post in case ppl had an ick about that #u can tell it's real bc we knew "oh no we fucked up that's too much vanilla to waste'' but our reaction was to just. keep drinking it #> sibling understanding that vanilla extract isn't free > knowledge mother doesnt mind if we use it for milkshakes #> sibling choice to maybe get in a loophole of ''not wasting it'' if we drink it bc that's the same as using it (not throwing it out) #listen bud i was like 13 and my sister was like 9 #when my mom discovered this we. got in. A LOT. of trouble. a lot of it. a LOT of it. #3rd edit bc i guess it isn't clear - i am 1 of my brother's 2 little sisters #i am the middle child #out of all the ways i have had to explain a post before being like ''did u forget a middle child can happen'' is my favorite

[tattoosingarishhues]

#tmg #🐸‼️.txt #its been a tough year for a lotta people ‚ ik ive had my fair share of struggles. BUT!!! #we have made it #i hope the new year is warm for u all i am hugging u all

[egophiliac]

IT WAS ERIC AFTER ALL!!!! I'm so glad we got to meet him (before Vil snaps him away with those Infinity Gauntlets) (can't wait to see what happens when we get the matching Infinity Tiara to go with them, there will be no survivors)

(sorry to be so slow/rough lately, just got a lot of stuff on the ol' brain at the moment! alas, if only I could spend all my time drawing incredibly stupid characters I mean I do but)

#art #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland spoilers #tapis rouge #i know these are not my best but by god i needed to draw ~daddo venue~ #he is a treat! can't wait for him to yell at us for screwing up a shoot or whatever the last-minute disaster will be #i am SO HAPPY it turned out to be about movies after all! ...i mean sort of anyway #i'll take what i can get (and i do enjoy twst trying to be all cute about snow whAHEM i mean beautiful queen) (i see you there twst) #(also to be fair it actually wasn't poisoned in historial-revisionism-twstland so i think we can trust this apple. a+ acting eric) #anyway we are still. very solidly in the 'stand around and talk about the wallpaper for three hours' part of the event. #but HEY we got to meet eric! i was not really expecting it to be him so i am VERY pleased #also god help me i did think the shopping montage as portrayed by a rhythmic where they literally SKIP down the street was hilarious #there's a lot of Choices that were made in this event and that was a good one

[bigfatbreak]

Birds of a Feather previous / next

#feralnette au #my art #birds of a feather #eheheheoeooehooohoehehahahaa #ok ok i feel i should add. editing in some tags here #in fairness marinette doesnt 100% believe her nemesis' of COURSE #but when the situation is bad and the intrusive thoughts are bad. of course you think They Must've Been Right #so when she's under these situations of high stress and peril her brain automatically jumps to the worst conclusion: #which is of course. that the people who are her current greatest threats were right all along #and right now marinette is in great peril

[valentimmy]

💀

#puss in boots #puss in boots the last wish #death puss in boots #death wolf #fanart #digital art #my art #dreamworks #timmy draws stuff #doodle #this movie was so… I want to eat all of it #me and my dad watched it twice just to stare at the animation HDHSHHDHS #snyways why is every dreamworks villain so gender this isn’t fair ???

[wasabi-gumdrop]

Kabru has a secret admirer in the castle!

#running from my responsibilities (drawing armour) by imagining post canon Kabru fashion #minor spoilers in the tags! #royal advisor Kabru’s office is probably overflowing with gifts from foreign dignitaries eyeing him up for marriage #and sacks of perfumed letters from Melini citizens #Marcille would be so sick of it #Laios also has his fair share of proposals #Yaad is like … boys spare us all and pick a suitable candidate already #well Yaad there’s a saying that goes two birds one stone #anyway lol #someone might have suggested to Laios ‘hey Kabru works so hard. you should show your appreciation.’ #Laios (blushing sweating): uuuh how do i do that #Marcille probably: i hear it’s customary to give your royal advisor flowers the same colour as their beautiful blue eyes #Laios: well if you say so #but he starts having second thoughts bcs what if the gift is too romantic #so then Laios is like oh i know i just won’t sign it (: #fool proof plan Laios good job #totally not taking into account that Kabru can recognize his penmanship at a first glance #so at their next meeting Kabru is like ‘i wonder who my secret admirer in the castle is 😉’ #and Laios sweats so hard he falls out of his throne #doesn’t Kabru of Melini have a nice ring to it #better yet …. Kabru Touden #much to consider #dungeon meshi #dungeon meshi spoilers #kabru #kabru of utaya #labru #if you squint #wasabi doodles

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Melissa Chen: I Came to America for Freedom, but Now It’s Looking More Like the Country I Left

I grew up in Singapore, where I felt first-hand what it was like to live in a society where free speech is restricted. Social harmony is prioritized over civil liberties in Singapore's multi-cultural society, fomenting a culture of fear and self-censorship on top of legal prohibitions.

I moved to America for college when I was 17. I wanted a challenging education and a social milieu that valued the free exchange of ideas because I knew that was the only way to grow intellectually and cultivate emotional resiliency. It wasn’t until I was in graduate school that I realized that the America I had sought was increasingly resembling the conditions in which I grew up in in Singapore.

Across town from me in Boston, Harvard University had disinvited a record number of speakers, for reasons including their views on topics like immigration, Israel, and sexual orientation. Harvard’s guidelines banned “behavior evidently intended to dishonor such characteristics as race, gender, ethnic group, religious belief, or sexual orientation.” This guideline was nearly identical to what was law in Singapore.

But even worse than that, an intolerant ideology that promoted collective guilt and racial essentialism had begun to emerge. I noticed my white and male classmates were not being allowed to express opinions that addressed issues related to people of color or women. Phrases like “check your privilege” became a part of everyday conversation. This was something that I never witnessed in Singapore, a nation that was prosperous despite its faults because of its focus on the equality of all people.

After university, I co-founded an organization named Ideas Beyond Borders, where we translated and digitied texts about Enlightenment ideas into Arabic for free. We worked with translators who lived in places like Libya, Syria, Egypt, Iran and Iraq. My exposure to so many failed states led me to see the common denominators that undergirded societal dysfunction and civil conflict; many of these places were severely dogged by extremism, intolerance, and sectarianism.

Even more than my life in Singapore, this provided me with an intense appreciation for the freedoms we have here in America. Why were the students around me so focused on the problems with my white male classmates and teachers, while they largely ignored the injustices I was witnessing around the world?

And since I’ve graduated, it seems like these trends have spread through our nation far beyond the reaches of academia. While so many were focused on American culture wars, including for example asking Disney to fire Gina Carano for supposedly offensive tweets, few were paying attention while Disney made deals to film with the government in Xinjiang, China, where Uighur Muslims were being held in concentration camps. 

This way of looking at the world has a goal of raising awareness of racial injustice. That’s laudable. But within this conception of the world there is also a simplistic and reductive understanding of power dynamics in which oppression must always come from people seen as  white, male, western, heterosexual, cisgender, or ablebodied – and be inflicted upon those seen as marginalized – people of color, colonized or indigenous people, women, LGBT, or the disabled. 

This lens ignores the struggle against real repression globally, including what I have witnessed in Singapore and the Middle East. In doing so, it empowers illiberal, authoritarian forces, from China, to Russia, to the stirrings of Islamist groups eager to rebuild their caliphate.

All around the world, from pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong to feminists in Egypt, countless people seek the freedoms that we in the West take for granted. Meanwhile, we are undoing the ideas that have made the modern West the most progressive place on the planet, while shielding the world’s most brazen abusers of human rights from criticism.

If you care about justice for oppressed people, it’s incumbent on us to push back against bad ideas. America has problems, and we need to improve, but the center of the struggle for human dignity isn’t here. Please, let’s keep America the country I wanted to come to.

I’m Melissa Chen. Join me in defending pro-human values at FairForAll.org.

#Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism #FAIR for All #Melissa Chen #Singapore #authoritarianism #first world privilege #imaginary oppression #freedom of speech #free speech #check your privilege #cult of woke #wokeism #wokeness as religion #woke #woke activism #power dynamics #religion is a mental illness #Youtube

[tinyfantasminha]

guys unfortunately ace trappola has to die I have to kill him

#twisted wonderland #twst meme #twst shitpost #jack howl #ace trappola #THEY SHARED 3 EVENTS TOGETHER..... AND IN ALL OF THEM JACK IS R CARD WHILE ACE IS SR OR HIGHER 💀HOW IS THIS FAIR #JACK IS ON HIS FOURTH R CARD. FOURTHHHHHHH #ACE HAS ZERO EVENT R CARDS #I hope after this ace gets thrown in R jail and jack starts getting the SRs im so SICK AND TIRED FOR THIS #this is no longer an anti-idia zone its an anti-trappola zone #i want that twink obliterated #also me: *wants to roll for ace playful dress SSR*

[expelliarmus]

#mine #doctor who #dwedit #matt smith #david tennant #peter capaldi #alex kingston #jenna louise coleman #catherine tate #dw spoilers #ok i thought about waiting until saturday to make this #so that i could have a better quality one of fourteen and donna #but i couldn't do it!!!!! #the context for all of these kisses on the hand are so different i love it #but clara definitely got her fair share of them lol #also thought about including eleven and amy's forehead kisses but.... idk #anyways i'm very excited for saturday ahhhhh

[unfamiliarize]

The other primary explanation for our abandonment of civility as a first-principle is that we've turned our political views into our identity. We're more likely to intentionally surround ourselves only with those we find ideologically and politically aligned with our tribe. We're less likely to break ranks and be seen talking to the other side, let alone give any consideration to their point of view. When we turn our politics into an integral facet of our identity, every disagreement or criticism of our party feels like a personal attack.  ... First, take responsibility for what you let into your psyche. This doesn't mean you shouldn't stay informed about politics. But once you recognize that 90 percent of the news media–including the outlets who support your team–is designed to keep you scared and angry, you can choose to opt out. You can stay abreast of important current events without internalizing the dire messages that political candidates, cable news, and many pundits are selling.

How to bring civility back to our politics - FAIR

#outrage culture #the shouting class #arrogance #civility #civil discourse #politics #identity #personality #personal responsibility #the brain #psychology #group psychology #overload #news #fair for all

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

finally at that age where i'm thinking i should get a tattoo. not bc i feel strongly about it, just seems like a waste not to. i've got so much skin i'm not using

#feels so selfish like. all this skin what am i saving it for? #open to design suggestions! (please make me regret this offer) #maybe some deep sea horrors. a pretty watercolor of a gulper eel #once saw a person on the subway with various Skeleton Tattoos on all their limbs #i respected their commitment to the theme #but more than that i respected how all the skeletons were engaged in Activities #dancing in a ballgown. juggling its own (and two other???) skulls. swordfighting. being a mermaid skeleton #ANYWAY. the only reason i haven't already gotten tattoos is i just couldn't be bothered #i'm old enough to know i don't have any strong-but-potentially-temporary feelings driving me towards it #aesthetically i prefer decorated to non-decorated surfaces. but i'm not artistic or thrilled with commitment #honestly it feels like sheer laziness. indecisiveness--nay. immaturity!--that i HAVEN'T gotten a tattoo yet #letting all this blank canvas go to waste. tut tut i need to grow up and be an adult and get a tattoo sleeve already. #really i've put off my responsibilities long enough #(in fairness i DID at one time have 18 different piercings) #(but i took most of them out bc they interfere with wearing headphones and/or shoving my face in my pillow during Sleep Time) #(i only kept the nape piercing bc oddly enough it ended up being the most convenient. and the least painful to get now i think about it.) #(neck piercing? no problem. normal pair of earrings? Tribulations And Suffering. i don't make the rules i just poke them with a stick.)

[thechekhov]

TTRPGs really looked into the universal playground issue of “I hit you with my super special arrow-shotgun and kill you!” “No you didn’t, I dodged it!” and solved it by giving us some math rocks to roll about it, huh. 

#ttrpg #dnd #and thats beautiful #we are all just kids on the playground playing pretend #but like #with more rules to make it fair this time