THREAD: An edited compilation of Beowulf is out. Many of you will be using it in your classrooms. There are some good pieces in this ie) @b_a_saltzman, D. Hawdbawnik, @MDockrayMiller, M. Pareles & @MaryKateHurley, et al. But, please don’t overlook some very problematic things 1/https://twitter.com/ericamweaver/status/1210356958424752128 …
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Full disclosure, one of the editors contacted me months ago to tell me this book was coming out and acknowledged that they were painfully aware of its lack of diversity. I responded in kind with a generous email but because I hadn’t read the book didn’t think it was 4/26
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my place yet to comment on it. I never heard back from that editor again & I can only speculate as to why I never received a response (note that this lengthy email from the editor was unsolicited and requested feedback). At the very least a lack of reply was rude, but 5/26
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perhaps this individual has valid reasons for not responding to a message they initiated. Scholars of color are continuously disrespected in this way. White scholars want our time and energy, will use our work but as it appears here, consciously choose not to include any 6/26
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scholars of color or scholars from other marginalized communities. We are passing footnotes or references or told that you learn a lot of from us, but your continuous erasure of us as scholars in this academic community is exhausting and nothing less than upholding white 7/26
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supremacy. This same editor wrote a paper about removing the term “Anglo-Saxon” from ISXX back in 2017 but couldn’t be bothered to edit it out of the book in its countless unnecessary uses throughout. There is zero reason why the term couldn’t be removed considering 8/26
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his piece was written years ago. This shows the lack of conviction or commitment on the part of some white scholars who want to come across as progressive &woke but can’t be bothered to actually put in the work to make change. It’s lip service. 9/26
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The problem we as scholars of color find repeatedly is that white scholars would rather talk about race and race issues in our absence or discuss without acknowledging us or our work. They will acknowledge racism when it suits them and is convenient. 10/26
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There are two papers that talk about indigeneity in Beowulf in this book. Not only are there zero indigenous scholars cited, these papers do not reference or cite the ONE indigenous scholar who speaks and writes on Beowulf in our field @adam_miya 11/26
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OR an upcoming indigenous scholar
@tandrews156 who is a wealth of knowledge on this subject. This blatant erasure of scholars of color in this text is appalling. Rather than do the right thing, the editors made a conscious decision to 12/26Näytä tämä ketju -
highlight the lack of diversity in this compilation. This isn’t ‘doing better’ this is continuing the tradition of gatekeeping &racism. One of the essays is written about Charlottesville. Again, written by a white woman. I’m mentioned in a passing footnote about the whiteness 13/
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of the field &the racism within academia but was never approached to participate in this collection. Some of these conversations we are having now would not exist without us PoC in the field. The intellectual work would not exist without us, and yet you will only find us as 14/26
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passing footnotes. Let me say it again. The editors chose to accept the whiteness of their edition and write about how white it is rather than include scholars of color in this conversation on race, sexism and gate-keeping. 15/26
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Another essay racializes Beowulf & Andreas (two characters in Old English poems) in some wtf way. The inflammatory language throughout about darkness & savages of the “mediterranean looking Andreas” reeks of racist language --- something that neither the author nor the editors 16pic.twitter.com/X4RTtrjGi9
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cared to reflect on. This book seems to be written BY white people FOR white people. This field is so appallingly racist and scholars are continuing to excuse their whiteness& whitewashing w/ passing notes to say they left scholars of color out while plagiarizing! What the fuck!
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Speaking of other marginalized groups, this edition has a couple of queer authors but the author of a piece on Beowulf &queerness is straight cis-gendered &is not an expert in queer theory. This author trivializes queerness. I will let my queer colleagues like
@erik_kaars 18/26Näytä tämä ketju -
and others respond to this. How this handling of queerness (or the lack thereof in Beowulf) passed the editors hands is concerning. There is a reference in the introduction about
#femfog 2016. If you don’t know what that’s about, it’s about a senior white male scholar 19/26Näytä tämä ketju -
Allen Frantzen (now retired) who became an MRA member and wrote a bunch of racist, sexist, homophobic shit on his blog (his own sexuality did not shield him from his blatant homophobic rants). Upon reflection people started to realize how these beliefs were not new in 20/26
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his retirement and how his work reflected a general racist, homophobic, sexist gatekeeping in our field. Google or check
#femfog if you want to know more. Anyway, one of the authors had written extensively about Frantzen &showed drafts of their piece to a number of colleagues. 21Näytä tämä ketju -
I was one of those who read that piece. The editors removed every negative reference to Frantzen but chose to keep names of scholars in who are terrorizing our field with their sexual predatory behavior &bullying. This is not boundary pushing work. 22/26
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As much as this book tries to address some major issues in our field, it is safe, it is gate-keeping, it is racist. It is easier to ask for forgiveness than it's to get permission. I guess white scholars would rather steal our work (as they did w/ @adam_miya, use our ideas 23/
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as they did with mine,
@dorothyk98 and not even acknowledge our non-PoC colleague@erik_kaars who has steadfastly fought for a more responsible use of the term Anglo-Saxon. These things are inexcusable. Some of these articles are so overly offensive I don't know how they 24/26Näytä tämä ketju -
passed through the review process. Read this work with a critical eye. Teach it by acknowledging the problems that are weaved throughout the book. Like I said, this book was written by white people for white people. By and large it is offensive & not addressing 25/26
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the issues in our field with a modicum of seriousness they deserve. We need to do better. We have to be honest about how books like this that purposefully continue whiteness in the field, gatekeep & glorify marginalization also perpetuate exclusion & erode our field. 26/26
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