#MedievalTwitter @KristenCarella So I am going to do this thread to directly address issues that have come up in the last several days. So bear w/ me folks, it is going to be long. 1/
#MedievalTwitter It has been announced that ISXX has appointed a new director. However, a number of us who have asked for the org to address its racism, its toxic masculinity, its sexual predator problem, are not seeing this appointment as anything but tokenism. 2/
#MedievalTwitter @KristenCarella was involved in a set of exchanges on Twitter in relation to several medievalists, a few who were non-binary and BIWOC, asking about why the issue of antiracism will not be addressed in relation to ISXX. A screenshot has been shared & you can 3/
#MedievalTwitter still read the entire thread. @kirstenCarella did apologize, but only after I asked her if she was planning to apologize. So this is what is deeply confusing and makes it very difficult for me and other members of the MOC the organization to feel in any way 4/
that this appointment is somehow a sign of anything but tokenism by the org. #MedievalTwitter She has asked for people of good will & good faith to work with her. Yet, when she says these things, & we in good faith discuss w/ her & think we have left it in a good spot to 5/
then a little while afterward, we get passive-aggressive subtweeting. Not direct confrontation, either publicly or privately, but subtweeting. I am not interested in using various transgender colleagues I have worked w/ as my shield. So I am not interested in involving them 6/
in this #MedievalTwitter Rather I am interested in thinking about the praxis of justice work. If @KristenCarella felt that calling ISXX a transphobic org that continues to uphold transphobia is calling her a tranphobe, then it's something we should take into account. 7/
#MedievalTwitter Method & labor is what we have to do the work for communities that are vulnerable. I attempted to do that & also point out that then white ppl also need to address & self-reflect on the continual upholding of white supremacy b/c their whiteness=white benefit 8/
#MedievalTwitter So I thought we had come to a space where we were on the same page. But apparently not. I accepted her apology, though I did have to ask her if she planned to apologize for that comment that was "far right medieval fake-news" rhetoric about me. She did. 9/
#MedievalTwitter however, I am really not sure if I believe she apologized in good faith. It's hard to trust when someone basically tells you both privately and also in tweets that they want to work w/ you & apologize, but then they turn around and subtweet this: 
#MedievalTwitter I don't expect trans folks to accept apologies or absolve me if they have valid critiques about my labor. That is fine & up to you. All I can do is apologize & correct/do better. But why not just be clear rather than subtweeting? 11/
#MedievalTwitter I can say apologies to @KristenCarella for misrepresenting the state of transgender scholars in medieval. At the time myself & Gabby turned in the finalized intro. in May 2018 of the Medieval Trans Feminism issue, I could not think of anyone, nor had found 12/
any of your presentations or work on medieval transgender topics in either the MLA CFP we did in 2015, the multiple Kalamazoo programs (Gabby & I systematically went through those for years), etc. #MedievalTwitter I will ask the journal to correct that line in the issue 13/
#MedievalTwitter So I did not know about you @kristencarella at the time I turned that in. But my intentions do not matter, it's the effect & if you feel erased, my apologies. However, again, is that a reason to say you want to be clear, open, & discuss things but not 14/
#MedievalTwitter actually then address this publicly or privately? You say you want to support & work on issues identified by MOC, LGBTQIA, & scholars who have called out sexual predators in ISXX, a number of these have done years of work w/ nothing changing b/c obstruction 15/
#MedievalTwitter yet, you continue to undermine us by saying 1 thing, professing that you want to work w/us, but then pretty much saying the opposite in public tweets. How exactly can any of us who have asked for these changes & have seen nothing imagine that we can trust you 16/
#MedievalTwitter some of us who have interacted on these issues w/ you are not tenured, ECRs, independent scholars. However, this does not seem to stop you from punching down, rather than addressing the critiques. This also does not seem to be a good sign for your ISXX work 17/
#MedievalTwitter so far as ED, you have reached out to make white folks, particularly those who said racist terrible, comfortable. Yet, no work, rather instead subtweets & the use of one oppression to deflect from issues related to other oppressions, to MOCs, LGBTQIA, etc. 18/
#MedievalTwitter You say you want to work w/ folks asking for equity & justice (MOCs, LGBTQIA, sexual harassment activists) yet you seem unwilling to own that U did actually say that fake-news tweet to me. But you like people telling Erik (an ECR) that's not what it meant 19/
#MedievalTwitter so let's be clear, you meant that tweet, I thought you apologized, but if you can't own that you said that, then I feel your apology was not in good faith. So why should we trust you b/c so far, you have demonstrated in multiple instances why we should not 20/
#MedievalTwitter finally, I don't know what you want to do but if you believe in intersectionality, then how is it that ISXX as a white org is going to be inclusive now? So it's fine now b/c they are maybe LGBTQIA inclusive because they appointed you, when at the moment, 21/
#MedievalTwitter there may be 1-2 LGBTQIA+MOC person working on early England? They are gone. How exactly is making an org more white somehow solidarity in relation to all the issues, especially racism, that was discussed in relation to ISXX? 22/
#MedievalTwitter also, please stop saying MRO etc. does not speak for all MOCs. MRO has done the most work in relation to ISXX, it's disrespectful of all the labor not to mention the abuse she had to deal with (the racial slurs, the constant "are you the help", antiblackness, 23/
#MedievalTwitter violent threats etc.) The Medievalists of Color is an organization, it's an activist & political org., they have already written their letter in support of leaving. Scholars of color are not the same as MOC. Stop tokening scholars of color as well as shields 24/
#MedievalTwitter Here is what a number of us expect, the ISXX org will just use this Exec. Dir. as a shield to continue white supremacist back-to-status quo procedure & do nothing. I expect a bunch of white women will run for the board & diversity will be about white women 25/
#MedievalTwitter and finally, I expect ISXX will try to use any minority scholars as shield, particularly ones they feel are the "good" & "acceptable" ones. This is respectability politics par excellence. MOC is not interested in violent respectability politics. END.
