Thread by @JamilahLemieux

I was trying not to say anything because I rock with everyone involved (well, not that man with the suit vest, lol), but this has been one of the most uncomfortable things I have ever witnessed on this app. It’s worth thinking about what can/must be learned from it.

Firstly, @DjChubbESwagg didn’t deserve this. Period. But I’ll get back to that.

I adore Timothy, I admire her work and I’ve seen her make space for Black folk, de-center herself, etc. I worked w her on coverage when I was an editor and she was a great help to us. And not on the “she got my name on a list” way folks are suggesting abt “Blue Checks.”

HOWEVER

1) Ain’t no way in hell I can sit here and say I wouldn’t have had a identical reaction to Chubb’s if I didn’t know Tim, and if I didn’t feel comfortable saying it publicly (I usually do!), I def would have been in a group chat going off.

2) My respect and fondness for Tim doesn’t negate the reality that hip-hop has been welcoming to white women way that makes my skin crawl, and even if I love some of these women, it comes knowing that they get access and opportunities that young Black kids (esp girls+ LGBT) don’t

3) And that special access occurs in most any other space. White women can get in any and all doors. We have but a few. Of course it’s gonna feel like a robbery when someone else gets the rare role that seems designed for us.

4) And while “its the Smithsonian, not some Black indie shit” is a legit argument”...white women get a whole lot of space in Black indie space too. And especially hip-hop ones, as they are controlled by the sort of Black men who confuse that with progress.

5) That said, I hate seeing Timothy being made fun of because she’s a dope person who loves and respects our culture. She’s someone who does look out for young Black folks who want to do what she does and treats our spaces as sacred.

Again...HOWEVER:

6) To love and serve Black people, as a leader, an ally or whomever else, requires you to learn to recognize our tenderest points and our deepest wounds, to work to avoid doing additional harm to them and to react accordingly when those sore places have been touched.

7) White women are quite literally a sore spot for Black people. You can tell the majority of our history of abuse in this country via narratives about our horrid experiences with white women.

One thing remains consistent: white women rarely go undefended.

Part of that is because we, as Westerners, are trained to recognize them as perpetually frail and innocent. That doesn’t mean every example of caping for one comes from that place of internalized white supremacy, but to folks outside, the visual is often gonna be nothing but.

We see white women fiercely defended by literally people of all walks of life. Oftentimes, when there is absolutely no reason to defend them. And that’s the feeling most folks got from yesterday’s tweets.

When Black folks love, we love hard as hell. Most of the ones who went up for Timothy go just as hard, if not harder, for Black people. But the optics of defending someone from a reasonable line of question are...not good. Even if it came from a loving place.

Caping for a white woman may be one of the most triggering things you can do to a group of Black people who are perpetually impacted by the lack of care that most white women have for our lives.

So what do you do when your friend is being dissed and you want to help? Well...

Weigh the situation. Is your friend’s reputation, career or safety on the line? If not, it may be wise to say nothing, or to engage the person directly. Bridges aren’t built on the timeline, that typically takes a DM.

As hurt as Timothy may have been, I’d imagine she’d understand why that question was raised and hopefully, why there’s no reason to do anything but hear those concerns and respect them.

I love my white friends. I’ll ride for them if they need it. But that’s not typically gonna happen when Black people’s pain over a lack of inclusion leads to questions about the space that they have the privilege to enter.

And I didn’t need Chubb’s question to be perfectly articulated/rooted in a grand knowledge of museum hierarchy to understand exactly how and why he feels as he does.

Reminding Black folks that the world goes harder for white women than literally any other demographic of people is never a good thing. The only group of people that consistently let white women down are white men.

And operating in the spirit of Black uplift while in the public space means thinking about the bigger picture—you can run afoul of your own heart and your own work by not thinking about the optics. We gotta talk more offline, seriously.

“Should I ride for someone” and “CAN I ride for someone” are two different questions and I think we often go for the wrong one. Sometimes, you literally cannot do anything but additional harm by riding. Be supportive in other ways.

Finally, fwiw, I think @DjChubbESwagg and @timothyanne are great people, and I hope the TL gets smudged and saged soon.

I thought about approaching people offline myself, and I still might. But I’m in LA for the weekend and I am not gonna be reasonable for cleaning up any mess that I didn’t make. I love y’all but I’m burnt out and had no summer vacation, I’m trying to be around some cute boys tbh

Adding this

-When someone’s job has been tagged in...good luck demanding they respond on the TL. If the NMAAHC people consult the right sources, they’ll advise that she makes a statement but orgs are risk adverse and often wrong in these situations. Ask Ebony. 🙃

-Twitter is a bad game of Telephone. Calvin doesn’t own a McDonalds, and Timothy does not run the NMAAHC. Some of y’all seem to think she’s way more senior than she is. Just an addendum. Okay, bye!