For my fandom followers: white supremacist harassers are also showing up in person to stalk and intimidate medievalists of color at academic conventions, using the same exact tactics they use against anyone in fandom speaking out against racism. #medievaltwitterhttps://twitter.com/jeffgstoyanoff/status/969426733752553472 …
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This is one of the things they do in order to silence, intimidate, and humiliate.
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At WisCon in 2014, I had to have security at every one of my panels because some people had it in their heads that I Must Be Stopped. They were sending emails to the organizers, sending threats, etc. It was so bad the GoH that year,
@nkjemisin, and@tinytempest met with me b4handShow this thread -
These were people making so much noise that not only did I need the extra support, they also wanted to vet me in person to make sure that basically, I am who I say I am. That doesn't stop harassers from keeping on harassing, but since then I've attended 3 times, brought my family
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But in 2014? I did a "Badass Women in History" panel, and there was someone in the front row with an open laptop, GOOGLING EVERYTHING I SAID, then interrupting the panel to correct me, or comment on it somehow. Four other people on the panel, incl. mod, but I'm the only one+
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getting the google treatment? I was newer to that format then, in retrospect, I wish the moderator had done something about it. It was weird and frustrating, and needless to say, all I had were a few handwritten notes on the back of the program. All I had were MY words.
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Was I supposed to memorize the urls of academic journal articles containing my assertions? Again...I really wish the moderator had stopped it.
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Even now, people who know me in person as well as on twitter, get ridiculous messages from total strangers parroting harassment about me at them. Expecting me to release a bunch of personal information to "prove them wrong", as if that's reasonable in this kind of environment??
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I've talked about this with medievalist professors of color who've been subjected to harassment about being "unqualified"; well-meaning associates unfamiliar with online harassment saying, "Oh, just post your CV!" No one being harassed should EVER do that.
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Basically, what I am hoping people will realize that this IS happening, mostly to women & femmes of color, across the board in academic disciplines, in fandoms, in literature, anywhere someone is speaking out against bigotry.
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Keep in mind: this is a tactic harassers have been using for YEARS. Before, it was always "acceptable targets", those who are multiply marginalized, those outside of institutional protection, so it received very little attention, and rarely was anything done to help.
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What changed is that powerful bigots already entrenched in "Respectable" institutions have become emboldened to act purely upon their bigotry, to call in professional harassers as allies, because of the sociocultural and political condoning of open bigotry in the past few years.
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America's rotten core: genocidal white supremacy, has been promised by those in power that all forms of social progress are actually "oppression", and they are free to re-cast themselves as victims of a fictional wave of influence from those who are marginalized and vulnerable.
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NONE of us can afford to be silent about this. NONE of us are neutral. I have seen our best voices silenced, driven out, ostracized and neglected unto death because of this. Our schools have become shooting ranges with live targets, our colleges soapboxes for nazism.
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I have been fighting this on medievalpoc for five years, elsewhere for the majority of my adult life. I can't do this alone, none of us can. Thankfully, we don't have to. We're together in this, and we CAN recreate society, even as it's being dismantled around us. WE can save us.
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*addendum: was talking just now with one of the con chairs from that year; it's possible *I* was to mod for that panel i talked about, but i do remember trying to get someone to help w/the situation and, well, not. in general it was just, um, it sucked.
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If you're able to help support my work here, it is super appreciated: http://patreon.com/medievalpoc or just buy me a ko-fi:http://ko-fi.com/medievalpoc
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End of conversation
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