BC SOCIETY
Saved by @Alex1Powell

Last week, a white guy wanted white solidarity to undermine a minoritized group's access to a safe space. I was in the group he approached.

Afterthoughts now collected.

It's story time 🧵!

Comment if you'd like with any favorite readings on safe spaces by minoritized writers.

 Some quick terminology!
White solidarity - the tacit agreement that we will protect white privilege and not hold each other accountable for our racism.

This is the definition white sociologist Robin DiAngelo uses.
Safe space.

SAFE SPACES FOR BLACK FOLKS ARE NOT NEGOTIABLE; THEY ARE NECESSARY AND VITAL TO PROTECT THE MENTAL HEALTH AND SUPPORT THE MULTI-FACETED WELL-BEING OF BLACK PEOPLE. 

This and more on safe space by Black writer Cameron Glover:

https://t.co/0wYUQQrvbS
White Guy (WG) approached a white-majority community I'm part of. They were upset and distressed. Being one of the group insomniacs, I was, y'know, up.
Upon inquiring I soon learned they were upset because they were white and had been excluded because they were white from a safe space for BIPOC being used to discuss an intra-community situation.

intra- = within, inside of;
inter- = between

(I often confuse these)
BUT I'M NOT BAD WHITE PEOPLE (paraphrased from memory; it's a common white-people-shenanigans theme)

We as white & anti-racist white people have caused & do cause harm.

We get trapped trying to prove we're "good" because intentions.

📢 Focus on impact, not intent. 📢
Even if we are that white person who has miraculously never caused harm (this is mythical, but let's roll with it) we look like the white people who HAVE harmed non-white people.
It takes a long time of ongoing rock solid anti-racist praxis and plenty of mistakes to truly reduce harm.

By the time we as anti-racist white people get to a place where we're consistently reducing or avoiding harm, we already understand why we may sometimes be excluded.
I struggled then & now to articulate this. I know this is true from lived experience. I've caused harm with my whiteness while: not knowing it, being called in/out & denying it, & while catching myself in the act. 😬

Nobody needs any of that in an already stressful situation.
Having made my clumsy attempt to articulate this, WG's next point was that they are in solidarity with the community and therefore deserved solidarity in return from the community, including the non-white subset of that community.
(TBH, I'm still processing how i could've handled this part better. EXPERIENCED advice appreciated!)

Did my best to make the point that being excluded because we are white isn't personal, & that we CAN be in solidarity by respecting boundaries AND it helps build community trust.
By morning, others had chimed in with similar but better articulated responses.

I don't think any of it landed for WG because not long after this conversation, they felt the need to share themself rapping. Were they trying to prove they weren't white? (they're white.) 😬
In the following days, they undermined requests from and talked over BIPOC leadership and were eventually removed from the community.

Several of us shared additional anti-racist resources.

I always try to leave room for folks to grow.

We shall see.
About that white solidarity: when a WG approaches your white-majority group with anything that sounds even remotely like a reference to reverse racism, right then is a GREAT time to review what white solidarity is, how it functions to uphold racism, and GIVE NO QUARTER.

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in the past when I’ve thought about this I’ve thought about it from the perspective of my own safety/comfort. And I’m good on that front; I can handle it. But now I’m thinking about it differently: thinking about the people who tell me they join or stay on twitter because of me.

Every time someone in the press refers to me as a “twitter celebrity” (actual phrase that I don’t fully understand or subscribe to but this is what people say) it means that my presence and voice are adding social cachet to a company that I find to be quite terrible.

People tell me that they learn a lot from what I have to say here, and sometimes that it’s their first or only exposure to certain ideas, histories, perspectives, etc. and I have to weigh that too. But I could post that stuff elsewhere.

We’ll see. I’m just thinking aloud for now but I’m watching closely to see what @twitter and @jack do in the coming days and how they respond to what we now know about Cesar Sayoc (beyond one really stupid tweet). Because we know it’s not just him. Big changes need to happen.
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Abir Ballan \U0001f60a
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@abirballan
I have just received information about a family that has locked up their child at home in isolation because she complained of some aches in her body. They suspected the child as having C19. She was tested and after a couple of days, the test came out negative. 1/n

The girl has already been in isolation for 4 days. Now they are waiting to do another PCR test today to check again because they fear that the first test was done too early and it didn't detect covid. So this little girl will remain in isolation for at least another 24 hrs. 2/n

This is idiocy. Insanity. Ignorance. Cruelty. Simply a crime against children.
The stupid fear and the stupid policies are driving parents to abuse their children. 3/n

Children are not the main source of C19 transmission.

"transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from children under 14 years of age was minimal in primary schools"
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The Nashville Operation - A Battle in the War

A thread exploring the Nashville bombing in the context of the 2020 Digital War (via SolarWinds) against the United States perpetrated by our enemies, likely China, Iran and/or Russia.


SolarWinds Hack

A digital "Pearl Harbor" moment for the United States, whoever was responsible had access to the keys to the kingdom for months during 2020, including sensitive military infrastructure. This is war!

SunGard + SolarWinds

SolarWinds software company is owned by same company that owns SunGard, which essentially provides data center services. A secure place to host internet servers with redundant power and "big pipe" data connections.

https://t.co/U3P3SrrkM1


SunGard Data Center

In Nashville, around the corner from their "big pipe" connection, AT&T. Like any data center, highly secure. Only authorized personnel can enter, and even fewer can access the actual server rooms. Backup generators are available in case of power failure.


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Lindsey Simmons
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@LynzforCongress
When I was 25, I worked as a legislative assistant in the Missouri General Assembly.

It was a dream job, honestly.

But that dream dissipated the day the #MoLeg decided to name Rush Limbaugh as an “honorable Missourian” and place his bust in the “Hall of Famous Missourians.”

1/

The Hall of Famous Missourians sits in the Missouri State Capitol.

There are busts of Mark Twain, Dred Scott, Josephine Baker, Harry Truman and other legends of history.

The day I learned Rush Limbaugh would join their ranks, I thought it was a joke.

2/

We received phone calls from constituents appalled that Missouri would honor a man who had become infamous that year for calling a college student a “slut.”

And who just that week had continued spreading the racist birtherism lie about our then-President, Barack Obama.

3/

What I learned that day is that it wasn’t *despite* his racism, but because of it that he received this award.

It’s because he created a universe where it was permissible to lynch with language America’s first black President.

4/

Several State Representatives and their staffers intended to protest the vote and the selection.

By the time we made it to the doors of the House Floor, we weren’t allowed in. It was Republicans only. The doors were locked and secured by the Highway Patrol.

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Two things can be true at once:
1. There is an issue with hostility some academics have faced on some issues
2. Another academic who himself uses threats of legal action to bully colleagues into silence is not a good faith champion of the free speech cause


I have kept quiet about Matthew's recent outpourings on here but as my estwhile co-author has now seen fit to portray me as an enabler of oppression I think I have a right to reply. So I will.

I consider Matthew to be a colleague and a friend, and we had a longstanding agreement not to engage in disputes on twitter. I disagree with much in the article @UOzkirimli wrote on his research in @openDemocracy but I strongly support his right to express such critical views

I therefore find it outrageous that Matthew saw fit to bully @openDemocracy with legal threats, seeking it seems to stifle criticism of his own work. Such behaviour is simply wrong, and completely inconsistent with an academic commitment to free speech.

I am not embroiling myself in the various other cases Matt lists because, unlike him, I think attention to the detail matters and I don't have time to research each of these cases in detail.
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