Professor Green is the best scholar we have working Plague studies. Her work is important &invaluable, but really from our interaction, it was clear that this was abt History vs Lit, as she pointed out. I can't speak for her intent, but when she parses my apology 2/
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for her misreading (which it was), she became even more hostile. If no one has noticed, we are BOTH independent scholars. Just b/c I have a postdoc coming, doesn't mean that there wasn't an imbalance of power &authority. If this was a corrective, there were a myriad of ways a 3/
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senior scholar could have handled this, but Dr. Green's corrective revealed something else. "You don't belong." In this, Dr. Green played the role of gate-keeper. There was an attempt to delegitimize me as a scholar, as well as the scholars I pointed to in my piece. 4/
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It masqueraded as a corrective but the coded language was "you don't belong." The piece you SHOULD've written should've been grounded in history. You should've engaged primarily w/ my work for your public piece &how dare you cite Kendi, Laymon & Adoyo! She asked why I referred 5/
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to them, but I don't need to justify that choice. Ppl who read the piece will understand why I quoted them. They are relevant, just as she is. I totally agree that we should cite Black women & not just cite but engage w/ their work. But my goal was to speak to 6/
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the heart of what I was witnessing. This is not a peer-reviewed article. It was a public-facing piece that, at its core points highlighted why wyte ppl in particular were dismissing Covid19's toll on Black communities. I will continue to cite her & as many other Black women 7/
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as I can, but it was interesting that she did not acknowledge my own Blackness in her points & the ppl circulating her tweets (some gleefully) erased me too. The most damning thing abt this was seeing non-Black women of color weaponizing this to dunk. They did this w/ intent. 8/
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You know why? Anti-blackness is widespread, particularly in white-Latinx &Asian communities. Buying into the white supremacist narrative is a helluva drug. Dr. Green was used as a shield. You know why? None of these ppl (who are primarily lit scholars) have ever engaged 9/
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with my work. Not one & there is a record of this erasure.See here: https://twitter.com/erik_kaars/status/1272886332122071057?s=20 … Look, academia seems to make us all monsters in one way or another. Competitiveness is a driving force & ofc different personalities will make friends & enemies. 10/
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For wyte ppl not understanding how to navigate this situation I can see why. How do you jump in when a brilliant Black woman punches down on another Black scholar? How would you view this if we had been wyte? That's a question to consider. This is maybe an important takeaway. 11/
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Did you fear that responding would make you look racist? I received a lot of DMs from wyte scholars seeing something wrong, this gatekeeping &misreading, but they didn't know how to intervene. I get it. What happened was she weaponized her own Blackness at the expense of mine 12/
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& certain ppl outside of those who saw this about citation practice seized this w/ malicious intent. This played into the hands of white supremacists. Now, I am NOT asking you to attack Dr. Green. She has endured immense opposition & erasure throughout her career. 13/
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I get why she wants people to read her work. She deserves that. But as a historian, she does not have the final say. There are a multitude of voices &disciplines that we will benefit from to become better ppl. Literary historians & CRT add to our understanding of the world in 14/
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different ways. So, moving forward we need more interaction between disciplines. We also need to remain open to critique. I'm still learning, but I will never be Dr. Green & our approaches are different & that should be OK. One last thing, I think this could have been 15/
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handled differently had she replied to my email. I don't see the point in engaging w/ her on twitter now, but if we are setting correctives, here's 1. This could have been a different scenario altogether if there was concern abt making me 'better.' I was willing to step aside,16/pic.twitter.com/toYw5be8sn
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in fact, & did, so that she could write specifically on the subject given her expertise. The editor wanted an "intersectional/interdisciplinary" piece from me. That was the point. I know we're all busy, so I wasn't expecting an quick response, but I did receive an automated 17/
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reply saying there would be a couple days delay in response. Note too, I sent to 2 addresses to ensure she received it. My point is there needs to be room for more points of view. I tried to center Prof. Green by giving her access to this piece & hoping she'd write too. 18/
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Moving forward, we need to stop using Hist vs Lit arguments. We need to see how BIPOC can be weaponized against each other to further wyte supremacy. We need to acknowledge anti-Blackness w/in the non-Black POC community in &outside academia. We also need to
#DefundThePolice /endShow this thread -
And shout out to
@SouthAsianBuoy for pointing me to the first thread.
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