Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #BrightAgesSoWhite
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For anyone following #BrightAgesSoWhite it's important you know that there is an alt-right campaign to discredit every aspect of @ISASaxonists's professional standing in her field, and we must not tolerate this continual racist gate-keeping. 1/
Yesterday an anon ac, seemingly run by a grad student, started to look for aspects of Dr MRO's work to discredit. Let it be firstly said that this person 1) seems to not understand bk reviews + 2) has no known credentials to take a critical perspective. Let's start with 1. 2/ 
Book reviews show experts in a field taking a perspective on a piece of scholarship. If you read 5 reviews on the same work, they may vary widely. The author of the work reviewed + readers of reviews may not agree with the reading offered. That is academia.3/ #BrightAgesSoWhite
This is not remotely an apology. You said Dr. MRO was a race-faker, compared her to Jessica Krug, doubled-down, and blocked anyone who criticized you. This led to a huge amount of others attacking Dr. MRO as a race-faker. Why not apologize TO HER? #BrightAgesSoWhite
Dr. Araujo's awful tweets were quickly followed by similar tweets made by Dr. Sarah Bond's friend, as well as by a series of right-wing accounts. No apologies have been made. #BrightAgesSoWhite
Manu scholars of color, especially WOC, expressed how painful they found this entire episode. To not apologize directly to Dr. MRO and to the larger BIPOC community that was harmed means that this is an empty PR move, just like Dr. Gabriele's apology. #BrightAgesSoWhite
As she also decided to lock replies so one cannot actually respond. How is this an apology if you do not actually apologize specifically to MRO. #BrightAgesSoWhite The actual violent harm has not been named specifically or directed to the person who was targeted. #SlaveryArchive
Because really folks. MRO already had fascist sock puppet accounts coming to harass her by pulling pictures from the internet. Discussing more conspiracy theories about how she is not Black etc. How is this reparative if you are not addressing her? #SlaveryArchive
More ppl liked the above non-apology for actually attacking MRO w/ a fascist conspiracy theory vs. all the callouts to the white Bright Ages authors for their non-apology. They didn't actually spew that conspiracy theory, they just were white, silent, & deflected. #SlaveryArchive
A particularly cruel and unnecessary part of the recent racist set of events re: the book review of The Bright Ages is that many people have assumed Dr MRO ~brought it on herself by "seeking clout" i.e. speaking about her experience. It's misreading hypervisibility as power.
Misreading hypervisibility this way presumes that presence equals acceptance (it does not), that there can be no white norm if this presence exists (uh, wrong), and that hypervisibility equals power and this power will inevitably be misused (visbility is not the same as power).
Black women in particular across a wide variety of fields have discussed the abusive dynamics of hypervisibility and the misogynoir that often results as a consequence. Their presence is allowed in white and/or cis male dominant spaces only so long as they go along with this norm
Just to further clarify folks. #BrightAgesSoWhite #MedievalTwitter #ShakeRace #RaceB4Race #SlaveryArchive #TwitterHistorians This is the issue if you have NO CLUE about the alt-medieval academic ecosystem. Please look at the first two on the right. They are historians (D & S) .1/
Who medieval studies, and I specifically have discussed, as part of the alt-medieval (in long twitter threads), in this IHE article: 2/ insidehighered.com/views/2018/08/…
3/ I really want people to understand 2 things. How white supremacy is structural, STRUCTURAL & the WTGF WS, fascist ecosystem of medieval studies. Every white decision (including the BPOC supporting whiteness decisions) just further cements the structure of white supremacy.
