- “We are disturbed and offended by the defamation of our colleagues, which has caused deep-seated harassment and loss of professional opportunities for both. Such harassment is rooted in a long history of silencing and mischaracterizing non-white voices in mainstream western media.”
It goes on to condemn the “deeply problematic and dangerous” behavior of “literary gatekeepers” The New York Times and The Atlantic, as well and free speech organization PEN America, with regard to this particular case and to their wider coverage of the cultural fallout from Israel’s war on Gaza:
“Though serious strides have been made in the last two decades in redressing complex identity politics in the United States, the fallout of the Gaza war among media and cultural institutions has reeked of centuries of racism. For literary gatekeepers such as the New York Times and the Atlantic to disregard fact-checking—fanned in no short form by newspapers Haaretz, The Times of Israel, and The Forward—is deeply problematic and dangerous. Additionally, free speech organization PEN America also joined these neo-McCarthyist erasure and reductionist efforts in a press release, and, along with the New York State Writers Institute, must issue a full correction in order to stop defamatory lies from spreading.”
Continue reading at https://lithub.com/hundreds-of-authors-have-signed-an-open-letter-in-support-of-lisa-ko/