You will be monitored. I have never read such a strict gag order in a NDA. — Remark by one of the lawyers working on my civil lawsuit, many summers ago.
Too angry to ask what the remark meant specifically, I stared instead at the documents before me.
Only one thing was missing from the NDA, I thought: no carrier pigeon.
The rigid gag order took me by surprise, but it should not have.
An article I had written about all the details of the incident, using the police reports, had been set aside until the lawsuit ended, at the request of my lead attorney.
Unfortunately, the opposition learned about the draft.
I refused to sign away the literary rights. The defendants were not going to tell me what I could or could not write about.
Attacked during a routine errand on a summer afternoon before a large crowd because of an admitted error, the incident, caught on police and private audio, and store video.
Charges were filed, but the assailant had fled.
At the time, a full-time, adult college student on summer break, I didn’t use a computer for medical reasons; class assignments were handwritten. I am right-handed…
Hours after the assault, sharp pain and swelling in my wrist and hand appeared… symptoms aggravated further by the following.
Eighteen months after the assault…
En route to the settlement conference, a driver failed to yield and broadsided the vehicle in which I was the passenger.
Two months later…
The opposition lawyers relented, and the agreement was revised to read that if the real names of the parties were not used, I could write about the case.
I agreed.
“You may write under your name,” an attorney later said, but I chose a pseudonym, and the lawsuit, written as a true crime memoir, landed on a bestseller Kindle list in three legal categories.
Then I excerpted certain chapters and the police reports and produced a supplemental lesson for high school and adult students.
Later, 900+ media outlets downloaded a press release on my updated business book for aspiring entrepreneurs.
So there was progress, but many disruptive incidents ensued, past and present, bringing progress and goals to a halt.
R.M.S Coincidence Sailed
1. Locked out permanently from marketing platforms. No explanation.
2. An invitation to curate content for a group board for second-grade teachers on a major platform led to my adding a child entrepreneur news article with my logo attached.
But the logo was found repinned to a mug shot of a murder suspect, and also to a naked man fleeing from police.
3. Important emails and other communication proofed would be received jam-packed with mistakes, that did not appear in my draft.
4. In 2021, my newly updated 2014 ethnic studies lesson, which had been on another primary sales platform for seven years, was removed without warning.
The issue: Howard Zinn’s quote about slave masters and their contribution to cultural stereotyping. quote included since 2014.
5. Business email hacked.
6. My Hire Me page, riddled with typos and formatting issues, despite proofing by a publisher, a retired coffee table publisher, and a SCORE counselor.
7. Manuscript submitted to a major book distributor with strict production guidelines, passed and went live… later found riddled with typos.
8. *Two niche magazines used for classified ads for my library business title, before the lawsuit, exhibited hostility and refused my ads for the same library title updated after the lawsuit…
*Both are now defunct.
9. A pattern emerged: editors with whom I had worked more than once, and received a thank you note, sent me a note thanking me for the content …suddenly stopped replying…
10. An amazing number of tech issues that baffled the technician.s
Accidents happen.* Millions of Americans are hacked every day. Things happen.
So it was, I thought, a terrible run of bad luck compounded by a long-term disabling injury sans pain medication and the resulting economic challenges.
Then, in 2022, a records request revealed the terrible run of bad luck was anything but …
Tips
1. Own your platform. Rethink, reimagine ways to market outside the reach of algorithms and conservative rules on racial issues.
2. Do not link your business email addresses to personal ones or other business email addresses.
I have decided not to start a newsletter and risk being more unexplained Twilight Zone incidents.
For the time being, I will publish twice a month on this post, about…..
3.
Conclusion: I know for sure many twists and turns experienced in my criminal civil suit could have been avoided had I learned about the culture of non police racial profiling.
I am law-abiding. I believed that as long as I committed no crime, that was the best protection,
Right.
As a child, race was not discussed in the household. Attending schools in good areas in the US, living in two countries, and three parts of the US through my teens did little to enlighten.
Much of what I knew or thought I knew about race was from TV, or what I read, and what I had assumed. And what I had experienced, BL. (Before the year of the lawsuit)
What I should have learned about nonpolice racial profiling I discovered by prepping more than 100 reading tapes for graduate students studying for their PhDs.
There was a lot of legal and medical information that would have helped when I suddenly found myself a plaintiff in a racial profiling lawsuit…
For five years, I learned the hard way.
My focus changed from entrepreneurial material to include business, social justice, medical, non police racial profiling topics and how they intersect.
This post is my alternative to reaching a decision not to publish a newsletter for distribution elsewhere.
Starting next month, I have decided to post at least twice a month on a regular basis here. The content will focus on takeaways from present and historical …
Sources
*Ethnic studies freebie with printable lessons and two answer keys.
https://nichecreativity.com/ethnic-studies-freebie/
*The Writer Got Screwed (but didn’t have to): Guide to the Legal and Business Practices of Writing for the Entertainment Industry, by Brooke A. Wharton, March, 1997, Harper Pernennial.
In 2025, evergreen content will still be relevant despite other major changes in Hollywood. The information about myths concerning big money lawsuits is revealing.
See subheading, And Some Cases are Outrageous contains examples of writers.
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