Sitting in for Angela this week is award-winning writer Antaeus, with commentary by James M. Walsh, Esq. Thanks, guys!! 🙂

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Recently, I began the submission process to send my work to a fairly well-known magazine. The magazine pays $120 per prose piece.

When I reached their Submittable page, there were two options for submitting prose. If you are not Black or Indigenous, you must pay a $5.00 submission fee to submit your story. If you are Black or Indigenous, there is no submission fee.

I had seen similar options from other magazines – free submissions for a particular race, sexual orientation, or whatever the cause of the day is. To me, this double standard practice is racist in so many ways.

It is racist because this magazine is assuming that Black and Indigenous people can’t afford the $5.00 submission fee. The magazine is discriminating against non-black and non-indigenous authors by charging them a fee to submit their work regardless of their income. That’s reverse discrimination…which IS discrimination.

Why not include women authors, people from the LBGTQ+ community, or trans authors in the free submission category? How about authors who are members of oppressed religions, or authors oppressed because of anti-Semitism? How about including children? Children don’t have a lot of money or outlets for their work. Why not include people with disabilities, people who are financially challenged, or veterans and first responders? What about the elderly?

There are writers who live day-to-day on a fixed income. Some of them are disabled. This fee may seem a pittance to those editors, but to some elderly people, $5.00 buys them an entire day’s sustenance. They surely could use an opportunity to be paid $120.00 for a story! To them, that money would be a windfall that might keep a roof over their head this month, or pay a utility bill. However, that opportunity is denied to them because they can’t afford the $5.00 submission fee.

In my opinion, this magazine exemplifies oppressive behavior in the form of sexism, ableism, classism, ageism, and anti-Semitism. According to dictionary.com, oppressive behavior is “The exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner or an act or instance of subjecting to cruel or unjust impositions or restraints.”

That is exactly what this magazine is doing when they charge non-black and non-indigenous authors a fee. Some may say it’s their magazine. They have absolute authority and can do whatever they want. However, by exercising absolute authority, and not allowing other oppressed people or cultures and non-black and non-indigenous writers to submit without paying a fee, they are not only guilty of oppression, but they are also guilty of despotism as well.

Why did the magazine single out Black and Indigenous writers to receive preferential treatment? Why not all or nothing? Perhaps they tossed a coin, or maybe they just wanted to try to look good.

In my opinion, it’s all about pretending to be WOKE, and making money at the same time. Look behind the scenes and it’s always about the money. The more oppressed people they include in their free submissions, the less money they make. So, they give Black and Indigenous authors a free ride, puff out their chests, and say, “screw everyone else.”

The fallacy of their whole charade is that it is easy to scam. How would the publisher know if someone who was not Black, Indigenous submitted a story? How would their readers know? The publisher doesn’t ask for ID in their submission requirements. Even if they did, it would still be easy to scam them.

They are relying on an author to self-identify. So, if I identified as Black or Indigenous for today, I could submit for free. In my opinion, they don’t really care about oppressed authors. If they did, they would include all the groups I mentioned in this article in the free submission category. It’s all for the show so they can pat themselves on the back while still maximizing profit.

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COMMENTARY FROM JAMES M. WALSH, ESQ.

This is incredulous and patently offensive at first blush.  The U.S. Constitution extends to “state action.”  Meaning, there must be government action – state action – abridging an individual’s constitutional rights.  The U.S. Constitution generally does not apply to private, individual, or corporate action – in this case, the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.  Race based discrimination is illegal.  The Supreme Court of the U.S. just reversed itself. Long standing racial preferences in education admissions are no longer constitutional.

It interesting to note that Justice Clarence Thomas, a lifelong beneficiary of affirmative action and an African American, is staunchly opposed to race-based initiatives. Often described as “at war with himself,” Justice Thomas believes that race-based initiatives stigmatize beneficiaries and that the University reward simply is to “obtain their aesthetic student body.”

I venture to say that I would be surprised if the writer’s state does not have some type of regulatory prohibition on racial preferences. It is a divisive and polarizing bone of contention particularly in light of the Woke cultural movement and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) initiatives that are slowly being dismantled or abandoned altogether.

Under the laws enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), it is illegal to discriminate against someone (applicant or employee) because of that person’s race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information.  This prohibition likely extends to the writer’s application fee under state equal protection and consumer protection laws.

The magazine in question would be well advised to waive the fee only in instances of a low income applicant/submittal, and not couch the threshold of a fee based upon race.

Note:

“The federal Robinson-Patman Act requires sellers to treat all competing customers on the same basis, unless there is some recognized legal justification for different treatment. But, the Act targets anticompetitive effects, which are unlikely to arise in the highly competitive online market.”

Discrimination based on age, gender, and race, likely runs afoul of state law.  Income preferences, however, are not a suspect class inviting stricter scrutiny.

I feel your pain, Antaeus.

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Antaeus is an award-winning author of “The Prepared Citizen,” a situational awareness series. Raised in an inner city, Antaeus began working at age seven. He wrote his first poem at nine while cleaning toilets in a bar. Antaeus was a high school dropout at thirteen, working full-time to help support his family. At seventeen, he joined the Navy, where he finished his education. As a civilian, Antaeus spent most of his life working his butt off at a job he hated. Now comfortably retired, Antaeus volunteers his time and writes from a lakefront home in Southwest Florida.

Antaeus is also the first place winner of the WritersWeekly.com Spring, 2024 24-Hour Short Story Contest! Read his winning story here.

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JAMES M. WALSH, ESQ., is a former Navy JAGC officer and a recipient of the American Bar Association’s coveted LAMP Award for excellence in military legal assistance practice. A rolling stone, J.M. has globetrotted most of his adult life. After the military, J.M. pursued commercial real estate development, leasing, and asset management. He resides in Catania, Sicily. He spent almost twenty years in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Luzerne, Erie & Lackawanna Counties. His handiwork as an editor and author is interspersed throughout this novel. Leo A. Murray fondly refers to J.M. as his collaborative, literary ‘Coach’ or ‘Lieutenant.’ Agnes claims that he has gypsy in his heart and rabbit in his feet.

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MAXIMUM IMPACT, a Novel, is finally available on Amazon.

EXCERPT (from Chapter 46):

Detective Jason Garcia was holed up in The Bellevue Hotel, a historical landmark on Broad Street and a popular Center City destination.  He had been there for several days.  Bleary eyed and beyond intoxicated, he had just finished watching the evening news and the joint press conference.  He was in a world of hurt.  Disheveled, he had put in a full day at the famous XIX lounge, on the 19^th floor.  He ingested more than his share of innovative craft cocktails and a little too much blow.  Along with a razor blade, a fractured line of white powder was on the suite’s desk, his lapel, and under his nose.  He hadn’t shaved in a several days. He bore a striking resemblance to Tony Montana in Scarface when his kingdom collapsed.

Garcia was on the floor, slumped against a full-length mirror just outside an opulent bathroom that was equipped with an outdoor balcony and Jacuzzi.  He unholstered his service weapon, a Glock Model 27, .40 Caliber, semi-automatic pistol that he carried in accordance with PPD Directive 10.6.  He withdrew his PPD Badge and gazed at it for a tearful and somber moment.  He was mentally bent and twisted beyond salvation.  In one fell swoop, Garcia chambered a round and fired it into his mouth.  His brain stem and the back of his skull exploded.  Jason Garcia was no more.  His carcass slumped forward like a discarded marionette revealing that a large section of the back of his head was gone.  The mirror simultaneously shattered, but a large triangular section remained intact and affixed to the wall.  It resembled a red Rorschach test – a tactile Rorschach test – as the splatter was accentuated by bone fragments and brain matter.  The hallway was immediately filled with frantic guests who heard the unmistakable sound of a gunshot that emanated from the Stanley Suite, Room 237.

Atop the freshly made bed was a $2,600.00 Prada duffle bag made of Re-nylon and premium Saffiano leather.  Garcia acquired the bag at Fratelli Prada (Prada Brothers), a destination Italian purveyor of aristocratic and aesthetically pleasing leather goods.  The designer luggage was stuffed with cash and five hundred grams of cocaine.  Next to the duffel bag was a cache of weapons, including Zach’s, which could be traced back to the Philadelphia PD’s evidence locker.

The message light on the phone began to blink intermittently as a call from the front desk had gone unanswered.  Detective Garcia was busy meeting his Maker…

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