Black author and writer Walter Mosley admitted in an op-ed for The New York Times that he quit his job as a writer on a television series after he was "chastised" by human resources for using the N-word on the job. Although Mosley did not reveal which show he quit, The Hollywood Reporter claims that it was CBS All Access' Star Trek: Discovery. Sources tell THR that showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise were informed that someone in the writer's room complained after hearing Mosley use the N-word several times. HR called Mosley to inform him that usually, they fire people for using the N-word but instead, he would just receive a warning not to say the word at work. HR cited company policy about using words such as the N-word, which is forbidden.
"Earlier this year, I had just finished with the Snowfall writers’ room for the season when I took a similar job on a different show at a different network. I’d been in the new room for a few weeks when I got the call from human resources. A pleasant-sounding young man said, 'Mr. Mosley, it has been reported that you used the n-word in the writers’ room,'" Mosley wrote in The Times. "I replied, 'I am the N-word in the writers’ room.'" Mosley stated HR said that he was free to use that word in a script, he "could not say it." Mosley then clarified, "I hadn’t called anyone it. I just told a story about a cop who explained to me, on the streets of Los Angeles, that he stopped all n---ers in paddy neighborhoods and all paddies in n---er neighborhoods, because they were usually up to no good. I was telling a true story as I remembered it."