Dr Zuleyka Zevallos

#WhitePrivilege is not just about being in a "favoured state, whether earned or conferred by birth or luck." It is about power & dominance.

#WhitePrivilege is a special form of cultural power – it is the “permission to escape or to dominate.”

I.e. White people can opt out of race discussions; they can choose to see racism or not; they can work to understand Whiteness or deny it.

White people can use their #WhitePrivilege to consciously discriminate or unconsiously increase racism. #NDTMeetScienceTwitter chose latter.

To chastise one of few public Black scientists with international platform based on misinformation of his use of fame= #WhitePrivilege.

#WhitePrivilege is about reframing equity discussion AS WELL AS a call to action. "Describing #WhitePrivilege makes one newly accounable..."

1/2 "As we in Women’s Studies work to reveal male privilege and ask men to give up some of their power..."

2/2 "so one who writes about #WhitePrivilege must ask, “Having described it, what will I do to lessen or end it?” <<White people need to act

All those White women & men using #NDTMeetScienceTwitter ignore their #WhitePrivilege & used this as opportunity to let race go unexamined.

It's not that NDT is beyond reproach, no one is, it's that anti-Black dynamics matter as well as what's expected of Black people in science.

Moreover, #NDTMeetScienceTwitter is yet another example where White "allies" deploy their Whiteness, just like SciMarch. #marginsci

1/2 Includes the same White women & men who say they are "intersectional feminists"* but are relishing opportunity to promote themselves

2/2 and gleefully skewering a Black scientist under cloak of #scicomm. White people jump on any opportunity to capitalise on racism. STOP.

*Also White people can't annoint themselves "intersectional feminists" -intersectionality is not an excuse for White women to ignore race.

#NDTMeetScienceTwitter is functioning very differently than #BillMeetScienceTwitter & has different race dynamics. This is troubling.

Asking a White male personality for attention & recognition is very different than demanding professional Black male scientist for the same

Black scientists have to overcome systemic barriers in education & in life to get a PhD. More service is asked of them on equity & diversity

1/2 Black scientists have at least twice the emotional labour: mentoring Black junior scholars above their usual supervision workload...

2/2 ...And the emotional "#POC of colour tax" of having to educate White people on racism at the same time as dealing with racism in life.

1/2 Black men *should* give back; & they have relatively* less to deal with than Black women & femmes & other Black gender minorities.

2/2 *Relatively less meaning cisgender Black men to other Black people NOT White women: that's where this NDT tag has gone very wrong.

Black men have male privilege; but White women who think WW are most disadvantaged are deploying #WhitePrivilege & thus contribute to racism

Finally, I see some #POC using the #NDTMeetScienceTwitter tag. Please stop modelling yourselves on White people's sci interests & #scicomm.

You don't have to like NDT to see how #NDTMeetScienceTwitter feeds #WhitePrivilege & anti-Blackness by sheer ignorace of what he said.

English-speaking #SciComm has many probs with equity & diversity; chiefly White scientists are only aware of, & care for, other White scis.

Now you know more about #WhitePrivilege & how it confers dominance whether you're consciously benefiting or not. What will you do about it?