(06-14-2020, 08:51 AM)LynnInDenver Wrote: On the other hand, I'll gladly purchase and consume anything written by John Scalzi, or produced by Adam Savage, because they're showing they're on diverse humanity's side in spite of/despite being straight cis white guys.
This is discrimination on the basis of sexuality, gender, race and sex. Because what you are saying here is that as a result of John Scalzi and Adam Savage being straight cis white guys you would not buy and consume their stuff, if it wasn't for them doing stuff you approve of.
Feel free to discriminate between the providers of goods and services on the basis of their business practices, actions and politics, but there's a reason discriminating on the basis of race, gender, race or sex is at best looked poorly upon.
(06-14-2020, 08:51 AM)LynnInDenver Wrote: Note that my niece actually takes it much further in one area; she won't read novels written by white, straight folks at all.
My brother laments this, thinking she's missing out on some gems, but I myself don't feel like I can discourage her from this sort of course, especially given my own status.
You absolutely should discourage her exactly because of your own status. Drogn's right, your niece is being racist and heterophobic (what, it's not as if there's a snappy counterpart of homophobic). It's perfectly alright if she refuses to read a book, or books by a given author or publisher because she doesn't like the subject matter, writing style or any number of different reasons, but if her refusal boils down to 'the author's heterosexual and white', well, that's exactly the sort of nonsense you have to deal with, the lens has just been turned around a bit to shine the light from a different angle.