You May Resume Your Racism Against James Patterson

James Patterson has reversed his opinion on reverse racism! James Patterson has reversed his opinion on reverse racism! (I’m being a newspaper hawker.) Get yer James Patterson racism news ‘ere, extra extra! See if you actually do meet many 52-year-old white males!

If you recall, James Patterson, the illustrious mayor of the rack they put outside of a bookstore with a bunch of books that cost $.25 or you can just take them it’s fine, spoke to The Times this past weekend about racism. Not the “normal” racism you might be thinking of, though. Babe, no. This is a funkier kind of racism — au courant racism. The kind of racism that affects white guys in publishing and screenwriting.

Patterson, a multi-millionaire many times over, lamented to The Times how difficult it is these days for white men to “get writing gigs in film, theater, TV, or publishing,” calling it “just another form of racism.” “What’s that all about?” he said. “Can you get a job? Yes. Is it harder? Yes. It’s even harder for older writers. You don’t meet many 52-year-old white males.”

As you can imagine, his comments were not met with compassion, nor were they met with attempts from readers to finally meet a 52-year-old white male. So on Tuesday, Patterson offered an apology on Facebook, saying, if I may paraphrase: actually I don’t think that LOL.

“I apologize for saying white male writers having trouble finding work is a form of racism,” he wrote. “I absolutely do not believe that racism is practiced against white writers. Please know that I strongly support a diversity of voices being heard — in literature, in Hollywood, everywhere.”

Hahaha. OK. White guys are in fact having trouble finding work, which is bad, but it’s not racism, and also it’s good. All right. I’m glad we talked.