When you only know privilege, equality feels like oppression. Life has been unfair for women, people of color, and LGBT folks for some time, and straight white men were the beneficiaries of their hard luck. Now, as we’re making the slightest moves toward a fairer, more equitable system, these same straight white men are only reacting to how the shift affects them, and only them. If you’re any kind of writer, look at the situation from the perspective of a writer who has had to work twice as hard to get half as far because of her race, her gender, her disability, her religion, or some other core facet of her identity. Listen to James Patterson’s complaints from her perspective, and hear how hollow they sound.

Too many straight white men are reacting in a way that reveals an essential truth about their character: deep down, they think they’re the only people who really matter. That’s what needs to be fixed.