James Patterson has written more New York Times bestsellers than any other author and sold more than 300 million copies worldwide, according to the white author's MasterClass synopsis. Still, he felt compelled to play the reverse-racism card, complaining about a perceived lack of job opportunities for white writers in an interview published on Sunday with the British newspaper, The Times.
″[It’s] just another form of racism,” Patterson said. “What’s that all about? 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.”
Patterson went on to defend Academy Award-winning film director Woody Allen, whose memoir spurred an employee walkout at publisher Little, Brown and Company. “I hated that,” Patterson said. “He has the right to tell his own story.”
RELATED STORY: Ted Cruz offers up a reverse racism Supreme Court hot take and gets battered in the responses
Allen was the subject of an HBO documentary revealing sexual abuse allegations against him, yet somehow Patterson still deemed the millionaire worthy of defense. “I’m almost always on the side of free speech,” Patterson said.
Fittingly, so are the Twitter users who criticized the noted writer’s hypocrisy. He practically bathed in privilege, defended the privileged, then condemned any breaches of white supremacist systems.
Activist Shola Mos-Shogbamimu tweeted: "Caucacity of this false equivalence claiming ‘racism’ against White men is more White supremacy personified. What an obtuse statement from James Patterson. He best pick up books & educate himself on what racism is. He’s missing good old days when White men had ALL the writing gigs?"
Writer Leah Johnson tweeted: "James Patterson has a net worth of over 700 million dollars meanwhile BIPOC in publishing are still struggling to pay their rent and working for well under a living wage but please tell me again how racism is hurting older white men in the industry"
Author Alyssa Cole tweeted: “All I'll say about James Patterson is that his idea that cis white male authors are discriminated against/losing out, despite his continued success, is directly related to the replacement theory driving white supremacy, anti-trans laws, roe v wade, and everything else going on.”