Dr Zuleyka Zevallos

There's a curious discussion about social media. It's obvious that the panellists have faced a lot of public harassment (so have many #WOC who write about race). But there's no recognition that social media is a of community to many #WOC who are otherwise isolated and unsupported

This room is majority White. Conversation missed an opportunity to make a connection between #WOC individual stories of White women's tears & institutional racism E.g. White privilege was divorced from the theory - which is *specifically* about White women, gender, race & power

I'm going to finish this thread with a few more tweets because a few problems from yesterday's discussion are important There were no Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people invited onstage, though the panellists used Aboriginal people to make (poorly informed) statements.

The panellists, all light skinned, plus most audience members who spoke, talked about feeling left out of race discussions because they're 'White passing.' Hamad claimed race is not about skin colour, using example of Aboriginal people who present as White due to colonialism...

Lots of problems here, ESPECIALLY since the event & book are promoted as a way to stimulate race discussions. 1st, Aboriginal people are not examples for non-Indigenous people to validate 'passing as White.' Race categories have been used to deny First Nations citizenship& rights

2nd, Aboriginal scholars, communities & activists have extensive & complex discussions about Aboriginality & race. These discussions are for Aboriginal people only. Non-Indigenous people have no say in these and should never use these to validate non-Indigenous experiences.

3rd, race is absolutely about skin colour & other physical markers. But more to the point, it is a social construction used to classify people based on biology, in away that reinforces White superiority at the top, & at various times, Others, purely to maintain stratification

Societies sometimes elevate status to non-Black/Indigenous people to reinforce discrimination. E.g. under White Australia policy, Southern Europeans were not classified as White. Now they are. Their skin colour hasn't changed. Social definitions of race have (social construction)