Star Trek: Discovery Writer Departs Following N-Word Complaint
Prolific novelist Walter Mosley has quit the writing staff of a CBS All Access series, later confirmed to be Star Trek: Discovery by the network, following an HR complaint regarding his use of the N-word in the series' writers room.
Without specifying which series he had been writing for, Mosley, who is African American and Jewish, shared the circumstances of his departure in an op-ed published by The New York Times, revealing it was tied to his recounting of an incident from his past to the other writers on staff.
"I just told a story about a cop who explained to me, on the streets of Los Angeles, that he stopped all n—-rs in paddy neighborhoods and all paddies in n—-r neighborhoods, because they were usually up to no good," wrote Mosley. "I was telling a true story as I remembered it.”
Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Start nowLater, Mosley received a phone call from the network's HR department informing him that his use of the racial epithet had made someone uncomfortable and was unacceptable even to express an experience he had lived through. In response, Mosley decided to resign from Discovery's writing staff.
"There I was, a black man in America who shares with millions of others the history of racism," explained Mosley. "And more often than not, treated as subhuman. If addressed at all that history had to be rendered in words my employers regarded as acceptable.”
Following the publication of Mosley's op-ed, CBS has issued a written statement observing that it cannot divulge the specifics of confidential employee matters but that they continue to admire him and his work greatly and wish him the best in the future.
Streaming on CBS All Access, Star Trek: Discovery stars Sonequa Martin-Green as Commander Michael Burnham, Doug Jones as Commander Saru, Anthony Rapp as Lt. Commander Paul Stamets, Mary Wiseman as Ensign Sylvia Tilly, Shazad Latif as Ash Tyler, Wilson Cruz as Dr. Hugh Culber, Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike, Mary Chieffo as L'Rell, Tig Notaro as Chief Engineer Reno, Ethan Peck as Spock, Rebecca Romijn as Number One and Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou. Season 2 is available in its entirety now.
(via Variety)
Source: www.cbr.com