I submitted DIGITAL DIVIDE to Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award early this past year. It made it through the first rounds, but was blocked from going further. The contest is long over (I didn’t want to post this and make it into a Thing while it was ongoing), so I’ll just leave this here for you.
Because people who look “normal” have never, ever experienced harassment for being different.
K.B. SPANGLER 
Well, everyone “knows” you can always (always!) Tell Jews by their nose, lesbians by their butch clothing, gays by their fluttering hands, commies by their vodka-nose, hippies by their earthy scent, Chinese by their ‘R’ (L), the blind by their stare, Germans by their lederhosen, French by their baguette, British by their monocle, etc…
So obviously the ‘expert’ review is clearly in the right here: we live in a perfect, bias-free world after all, and no one could possibly know anything about their co-worker that is not obvious at first glance!
(Bwahahahaha!)
P.S. just finished my third re-read of DD today, still brilliant! Still finding new things!
First, in what sense was Digital Divide set in ‘a politically correct world?’ The story is FAR more well-developed than that! Blagggh!
And double-blaggghh! Apparently the “expert” has never known anyone with a hearing impairment, visual impairment, non-local accent, speech impediment, gifted IQ, autism-spectrum disorder or any other non-immediately-visible difference that paints a huge target on their backs in terms of bullying. Wonder what ivory tower they logged in from.
As someone who fits into more than one of the categories you mention, I absolutely agree. PCness – I don’t see why the reviewer thought any such restriction was or should be made!
Mindboggling in its stupidity – is there a way for readers to submit reviews of their reviewers? 😛
I actually hope you don’t mind but I submitted Digital Divide to a book review page as my pick as a reader (they don’t accept reviews but do accept recommendations). Because I know that DD stands out to me as something worth not only reading but rereading – I have read it at least four or five times by now, and still enjoy it.
As for that reviewer, they need a very big clue as to how paramilitary and military orgs tend to operate. PC is NOT the reality.
But… but outright harassment is exactly how groups of people deal with individuals they dislike. Didn’t that reviewer go to high school?
(and, uh, I’m not sure they read very carefully because there are politics in the story but the world is not at all about being PC.)
I’m legitimately curious now, have they ever been in an environment with enough diversity to see the ways people interact?