Thread by @WritersofColour

“The columnist class, egos and accountability” @honestlyAbroad medium.com/@samanthaasuma…

'You have to have ego if you are a comment writer. You have to have ego and access to be a member of the columnist class, though. A small circle of very privileged people, some from working-class backgrounds but most from middle-class, public-schooled, redbrick educated silos.'

..These (ubiquitously) spotted beings get to impart their wisdom and insights to the public at large, knowing whether they promote their work or not it will get read by virtue of the legacy titles they’ve managed to ensconce themselves in.

That’s what unites the columnist class as against those of us at the edges of it. It seems like the pay cheques that they take home should subject them to some accountability, but instead, it’s only us living and writing in precarity that experience this —

'Who are these columnists? Just last week as everyone on UK media twitter turned to their incognito browser to flick through Time’s columnist @GilesCoren’s profile as he blithely issued threats to Michael White, a veteran of The Guardian, challenging him to a duel I think.

..Only to be frustrated when it turned out Coren’s quick-thinking but no doubt long-suffering wife had wiped all evidence of his night’s binge...

'Egos amongst white men writers have a different timbre to us mere woman writers I tell you. Imagine me challenging @caitlinmoran to a duel? My twitter mentions would burst into flames & stay that way until 2019 trolled by white feminist after white feminist after white feminist'

'Let’s use long time columnist @MarinaHyde as an example of the columnist class. She was recently shortlisted for pretty much every @CommentAwards including sports commentator of the year.'

“The columnist class, egos and accountability” medium.com/@samanthaasuma…

"So COMMENT IS AN EGO but in all likeliness if a black working class woman despite all the odds has got an ego, it’s because she has the CV to match it."