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...is that, if you get rejections, you can't help wondering if the rejections are due in part to the fact that you're writing about diverse characters. Or the fact that you're visibly a minority author. Or both.
I can see the anti-SJWs scoff at such a thought—"You were only rejected because your story wasn't good enough. Deal." But, I've seen the application of arbitrarily higher standards to stories with diverse characters over and over again. Like how fandoms will often ship two white characters (especially two white dudes) together even if they have zero chemistry, or negative chemistry (I will for the life of me never understand why fans wanted Sterek to be canon in Teen Wolf), but if there are two characters in an interracial relationship, suddenly it's "Why does everything have to be romance all the time?" "These characters don't have enough chemistry." "The man of color is a MISOGYNIST toward the woman because he HELD HER HAND once, CLEARLY this is a sexist relationship!!" (Meanwhile, "Yeah this white dude tried to kill the woman but he's just misunderstood, they have SO much chemistry as a couple!!")
And the prejudice is even more insidious when it comes to disability and neurodivergence.
Basically, this is a thing, it's not merely a theoretical fear, and it sucks to have this fear because you were trying to write a diverse book for a diverse audience.
I can see the anti-SJWs scoff at such a thought—"You were only rejected because your story wasn't good enough. Deal." But, I've seen the application of arbitrarily higher standards to stories with diverse characters over and over again. Like how fandoms will often ship two white characters (especially two white dudes) together even if they have zero chemistry, or negative chemistry (I will for the life of me never understand why fans wanted Sterek to be canon in Teen Wolf), but if there are two characters in an interracial relationship, suddenly it's "Why does everything have to be romance all the time?" "These characters don't have enough chemistry." "The man of color is a MISOGYNIST toward the woman because he HELD HER HAND once, CLEARLY this is a sexist relationship!!" (Meanwhile, "Yeah this white dude tried to kill the woman but he's just misunderstood, they have SO much chemistry as a couple!!")
And the prejudice is even more insidious when it comes to disability and neurodivergence.
Basically, this is a thing, it's not merely a theoretical fear, and it sucks to have this fear because you were trying to write a diverse book for a diverse audience.
