White dudes aren’t in style? As a person of color, and as a person with a disability, that sort of mentality drives me up a fuckin’ wall. Good writing is good writing, and while certain genres may move in and out of popularity, we should never reverse discriminate against people with something thoughtful to add to the marketplace. The publishing industry is making the prejudice worse by creating this artificial landscape where only “diverse” writers are allowed to thrive. Your experience should irritate you for obvious literary reasons, but as one of your minority readers, I hope it also upsets you because of how terribly backward the industry treated you. That’s not progress. That’s stupidity, and most intelligent people of color will reject anyone promoting us because they feel sorry for us.