Thread by @POCZineProject

I promise you that what BIPOC zinesters don’t need is white academics making data viz projects of zines by BIPOC.
We can make those ourselves. What we need is increased access to resources & funding & a seat at the table as project leaders, not being your research topic.💯🧵

Also pay attention to the ways that white allies have been tangibly supporting discovery of BIPOC zines for years: @qzap @BarnardZineClub @BarnardCollege @zinecat are just some examples. If your goal is to support BIPOC zine search ability taxonomy, support @zinelib & @zinecat.

Don’t be a yt person in academia contacting @POCZineProject requesting access to our data to use for yr research projects w/out being transparent in the 1st sentence re: budget for compensation & w/out providing BIPOC references w/your inquiry. Respect BIPOC labor & our time.💯

And what the fuck is up with the elitist and yt supremacist gatekeeping of knowledge about yt academics doing research projects on BIPOC zinesters? Why are we the last to find out until you want us as a data point to validate your “findings”? Same ole shit, different day.

I promise you that @POCZineProject doesn’t exist to help yt academics feel validated that their research on BIPOC zinesters matters. Most (not all) of it DOES NOT matter—cuz most of it still centers whiteness in its praxis & positions yt ppl as authorities on BIPOC lives. Yr not

When U as a yt person approach @POCZineProject 2 help U w/yr research project on BIPOC zines/zinesters, withholding key info is gatekeeping+wastes everyone’s time.
+it’s infantilizing. If U value our insights then be transparent about yr in progress work & stakeholders from jump.

Cuz I will be crystal clear: yt folks in academia doing research on BIPOC zines/zinesters aren’t doing BIPOC any favors. Rarely is the outcome tangibly beneficial 2 any BIPOC & really only benefits the yt person & their academic career. There are some exceptions but they’re rare

White allies who genuinely want to support BIPOC zinesters make sure there are seats at the table for us from jump & do not treat us like an afterthought in their research. We are not data to mine. We are not commodities or free labor for you. We don’t punch up yr resume for you.

BIPOC zines aren’t hard to find anymore. Anyone with the ability to access the Internet can find tons. Librarians (especially BIPOC ones) have been a huge part of this effort. Searching BIPOC zine categories gets easier every year. The problem is the persistence of yt supremacy.

So as long as yt supremacy exists in academia and in spaces where BIPOC zinesters move in and out of across industries and artistic modalities, @POCZineProject will continue to exist to speak truth to power & support solutions. Not to comfort or center yt fragility. Come correct.

The quickest way for a yt academic to get some strong feedback from @POCZineProject founder @dcap is to frame your inquiry as if POCZP is the last step on your checklist of sourcing free/underpaid BIPOC labor to punch up yr vanity project under the guise of allyship. GTFO 💯

No one is expecting perfection. Everyone fucks up. But yt folks in academia who keep doing the patronizing “U should feel grateful it occurred to me to contact @POCZineProject last in my research on BIPOC zines, so give me free/devalued labor” in ‘23 are giving colonizer energy.

Many yt academics need to practice more self-awareness. If yr 1st reaction is to feel offended & threatened when the BIPOC YOU contacted for free/devalued labor for YOUR research on BIPOC lives gives u feedback on problematic aspects of yr praxis, u aren’t an ally. Yr a liability

Easy ally litmus test for yt academics asking BIPOC 4 access 2 our data on BIPOC cultural production: do they first offer to freely share the data they already compiled about BIPOC w/BIPOC they contacted to give them labor to compile even more data? Or do they gatekeep from jump?

You can also be like @qzap & @zinecat leaders & use yr white privilege to support BIPOC in all sorts of ways incl. advocating for funding access for BIPOC in & out of academia. If yr white & not in contact w/these entities I frankly don’t trust U. It means yr not intersectional.

We don’t actually need more yt folks in academia getting funding & resources to research & write about BIPOC zines or BIPOC lives. BIPOC are doing that & can do it better. Be a real ally & document the yt supremacist mess of your own people in indie publishing: white people.

You know what data viz research & project the world actually needs from a yt person in academia? Compiling all the anti-Black and anti-trans zines/indie materiality targeting white cis youth to enroll them into an adulthood of oppressing BIPOC & QTPOC w/laws & societal barriers.

Last tweet for now: I’m well aware of the rep I have with some yt folks in academia: they think I’m “combative” “aggressive” “manipulative”: bitches I do not care. The good yt folks in academia who aren’t actively harming Black & brown folks don’t relate to me that way. - @dcap

I lied, this is last tweet: as a non-Black Latinx person, unfortunately due to anti-Blackness being systemic in academia, I can speak truth to power in ways that if I was Black, I wd be shunned & more yt people wd try to discredit me. I’m not a hero, I’m simply privileged.- @dcap

P.S. if you’re claiming to be an ally & claim that #Blacklivesmatter and #Blacktranslivesmatter, support @translashmedia and TransLash Zine: translash.org/translash-zine… Order physical copies of Vol. 1-6 for your schools/libraries/resource groups/etc. Make yr actions match yr words💯