Thread by @kzhill

Hey, @joobilly. My comments were not a personal attack. I was trying to critique your essay, and I think I did that. But feelings of being attacked are always legit, so I apologize.

Maybe I can clarify why - to me- my twitter thread was not “punching down at a post-doc” 1/n

https://twitter.com/joobilly/status/1122150468619264001

Your bio says you’re the Director of the @McHargCenter - that sounds like an important role, doesn’t it? Sorry I didn’t look up your salary or whether you have job protection. But I know the McHarg Center launch is important to @PennDesign and so I assume you know that too. 2/n

But in an important public role, when you write an essay that gets widely shared ppl are going to have thoughts about it.

To me, that should be welcomed. That’s debate and discourse. And if I question it I’m not punching down automatically bec I have tenure. 3/n

I did assume you’re a white guy. Sorry if that’s not correct! I am frustrated -even tho I have tenure - with the pattern of white men getting opportunities to critique “the profession” when women have been critiquing it for - well, since he get go. And rarely get heard. 4/n

If you’re from a working class background, hey- I get that! Me too. Academia is hard for ppl without the prior cultural experience. I get insulted all the time when people assume I’m from the middle class, or had professor parents. I know academia is unwelcoming to us. 5/n

But I have kept fighting - and I say what I think about the substance. Sometimes I also notice how privilege plays out - like whiteness and maleness- or straightness and acting according to gender norms. And I think there’s a lot of white male privilege in landsc arch. No? 6/n

Have you never been confronted about that before? How your privilege works, in spite of your class background?

I get confronted about my white privilege a lot and I acknowledge it. It’s not a personal attack. It’s social change. You probably agree.

7/n

In any case, when you write an essay that goes public in a major online vehicle, people are going to read your words and the bio with the essay. They won’t know your heart, anymore than you know mine from my tweets.

I want to build a constructive dialogue. 7/n

But that dialogue can’t be built with potshots at big firms and calls for action alone. It has to be built on a more nuanced approach. Now that we are talking, let’s do that.

Our profession has a long way to go. it’s tiny, as you said. I hope you’ll keep talking + also listen.