I had the honour of being yelled at by Harlan at the 1990 Worldcon. He saw a queue and decided that it wasn't for him and came to the front. I was the voluteer sorting stuff out for people. I took a deep breath (knowing his reputation for tearing a piece out of anybody in his way) and quietly asked him by to join the end of the queue. The entire queue seemed to gulp at that moment. After a huge yell of "Do you know who I am?!", and my reply "Of course", he shook my hand and went to the back of the queue! When he (eventually) got to the front, he was a complete sweetie.
Harlan was a gem. We spoke on the phone a few times when i was getting the right to use a story of his in the Protectors Anthology, and we corresponded, a letter which briefly went viral. I agree with you mostly, except that that the Civil War statutes went up 50b years after the war to intimidate Black people once civil rights began to be coded into law. Germany doesn't let people celebrate the Nazis, but we do, and our Jim Crow laws inspired the Nazis, so until we have statues that explain that... I don't mind the ones of Confederate traitors being torn down and their schools renamed.
I had the honour of being yelled at by Harlan at the 1990 Worldcon. He saw a queue and decided that it wasn't for him and came to the front. I was the voluteer sorting stuff out for people. I took a deep breath (knowing his reputation for tearing a piece out of anybody in his way) and quietly asked him by to join the end of the queue. The entire queue seemed to gulp at that moment. After a huge yell of "Do you know who I am?!", and my reply "Of course", he shook my hand and went to the back of the queue! When he (eventually) got to the front, he was a complete sweetie.
Harlan was a gem. We spoke on the phone a few times when i was getting the right to use a story of his in the Protectors Anthology, and we corresponded, a letter which briefly went viral. I agree with you mostly, except that that the Civil War statutes went up 50b years after the war to intimidate Black people once civil rights began to be coded into law. Germany doesn't let people celebrate the Nazis, but we do, and our Jim Crow laws inspired the Nazis, so until we have statues that explain that... I don't mind the ones of Confederate traitors being torn down and their schools renamed.