How trans activists in publishing hijacked a children's book competition to pursue a personal vendetta

Bought a copy in solidarity with Onjali. I'm sure DS will enjoy reading it!

The arrogance and downright rudeness is staggering.

Link to Feminist Current article from four years ago which includes (near the end) an account of how Goldsmiths students tried to derail the Deptford People's Project. Similar points made. So depressing.

"Are people really that lacking in self-awareness??"

Oh yes they really really are

Will be buying a copy of Boy at the back of the class right now

I know the children themselves vote for the winner if this prize, but I REALLY hope the award organisers are aware of this. If ASHawes client won the award it would send a very bad message after her doing this.

Gender ideology in general uses “intersectionality” as a shield and is supposedly all over BLM, but it’s only to serve the purposes of trying to seize the moral high ground. Actually it doesn’t give a crap about anyone who’s dealing with actual oppression, because it’s all about trying to grab the “most oppressed” prize from them. And it’s privileged people who are the worst for this because they want to feel morally pure instead of feeling bad for being white, rich and western.

This.

Utterly reprehensible from start to finish; & she thoroughly deserves to suffer reputational damage for being so utterly unprofessional. How could any author trust her to represent them when she pulls stunts like this?

Yep

Jesus Christ.
Does anyone know if Onjali Raúf's publisher or Kereen Getten's have made any comment?

Its 99p on kindle

So ive bought it

And theyeve got an offer for two paperbacks for £7

So ive bought them

Dreadful situation, thank you for bringing to my attention purgatory

Just posting my utter shock at this despicable behaviour.

A TRA being a proudly dishonest bully? Shocked, I tell you.

(It's grim, and thanks for the thread)

I’m really shocked to read about this. My children are too old for the book but I shall be ordering a couple of copies anyway out of solidarity for the author. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Also something that’s interesting is that although some writers have been cancelled / dumped in various ways for having t*rfy views, a whole lot more haven’t. That’s because publishing, especially big, corporate publishing, cares more about the bottom line as well as about other initiatives like promoting more black and Asian writers, and understands the importance of having a wide reader base. It’s smaller, newer, younger, more right-on publishers and agents who are more likely to push trans ideology and cancel authors (and Alice s-h is a very young, new agency).

I'm not in the UK

Can we not use the term bipoc please? This is the U.K., not the US

I can’t believe the author joined in, it’s repulsive behaviour and she should be removed from the shortlist.
Bullies shouldn’t get awards, otherwise what does that teach the children?

Onjali Raif has been targeted before, when she was chosen for something by Booktrust. A bunch of children’s authors were openly boasting on twitter about how they were trying to get Booktrust to fire her.

There was also some kind of fall out because a children’s author who wasn’t even GC, but had congratulated Rauf or liked one of her tweets or similar was then hounded off twitter.

Horrible behaviour.

This is despicable. I'm on the fringes of the industry and it's setting up BIPOC initiatives left right and centre. Get this shows how shallow it all is.

Still it’s breathtakingly appalling behaviour like this that helps to draw back the curtain. Gender ideology in general uses “intersectionality” as a shield and is supposedly all over BLM, but it’s only to serve the purposes of trying to seize the moral high ground. Actually it doesn’t give a crap about anyone who’s dealing with actual oppression, because it’s all about trying to grab the “most oppressed” prize from them. And it’s privileged people who are the worst for this because they want to feel morally pure instead of feeling bad for being white, rich and western.

Alice S-H lays this all out on a plate. I hope more people see it and wake up.

I’m in this industry and have been following this. It’s so telling of how this ideology convinces people they are right and morally superior on the basis of no evidence, that someone as insignificant as Alice can not only do this to the great and garlanded Onjali Rauf, but publicly snigger and invite an audience for her bullying. How deluded can you get. And the author egging her on. Nastily, childish school bullies.

I hope her author’s book gets withdrawn from the shortlist over this. It’s totally not on.

Though OP if anyone thinks children’s publishing is heartwarming and cosy, it’s not. It’s dog-eat-dog!

“Am I petty and procrastinating enough?””

No I think what you mean is “am I enough of a cunt?” to deliberately target a Muslim woman writing about child refugees

Just breathtakingly awful behaviour from a deeply privileged white woman lacking in even the tiniest level of self awareness

Still I expect it went down a storm in the hyper we’re sooo woke literary circles she moves in

Thank you purgatory for starting this thread. What an amazing woman Onjali is.

And thank you necessary for the transcript.

This is pretty shocking - also that another author happily cheered her on. And people say cancel culture doesn't exist.

Alice is despicable.

And illiterate.

I've just bought her book . Alice is despicable.

Here is Onjali Rauf speaking at WPUK. This was the Brighton Labour conference event from 2019, so you can here the crazed hate mob outside hammering on the windows throughout her speech.

Even aside from the issue, the basic behaviour here makes clear which side I want to be on.

I just knocked up a partial transcript.

As a woman of faith, whose God, may I please remind everyone, is genderless, I have zero problems with anyone who is anything other than me. if you're a man who feels more comfortable in stepping out of the socially-constructed he-man-esque box that is "man" to make a home in a socially-constructed box of "woman" then go for it. I have absolutely no problem with that.

But please, please, please, don't do so to invade a space that women are still fighting for. [applause] Feel free to create your own space - a third space, a fourth space, a seventh space. One in which caters for you and your unique experiences and needs, because those won't be shared by us either. Or better yet take, that space from the men -they've got loads! [laughter + applause]

And please don't pretend that my own experiences of transforming from a girl to woman, and all the millions of tiny hurts and digs and pains and prejudices and push backs that we as women suffer daily as a result of being those two words - girl or woman - can be shared by you either, because you were born with certain privileges.

Whether it's toilets or changing rooms, specialist services in a refuge, school toilets or prison cells, it's vital that woman's uniqueness, lives and wants be as respected as you want your uniqueness, lives and wants to be respected.

As someone working with women fleeing domestic violence and wars, human trafficking rings, childhood sexual abuse and million-and-one other experiences of male-inflicted violence in-between, our underfunded drastically-reducing single-sex spaces are literally our last vestiges of safety.

For women who have been literally punched, beaten, raped and broken at every possible level you can possibly conceive, to be forced to accept a former man as part of the healing process will, to put it bluntly, lead to further trauma or worse still a distrust of the services that were placed there to help them in the first place. [applause]