Thread by @AyadeLeon

THREAD:
The way to win an argument by cheating is to willfully misrepresent an opponent's view to something objectionable. #DignidadLiteraria challenges systemic racism in the publishing industry but racism apologists insist we are mad at a white woman writing Mexican characters.

First of all, you are late. POC settled THAT argument years ago. Anyone can write anyone, but you need to:
DO YOUR HOMEWORK
CHECK YOUR PRIVILEGE
CHECK YOUR WORK W/ THE PEOPLE YOU WROTE ABOUT
which Jeanine Cummins didn't do+this is why we are in this mess.
buzzfeed.com/danieljoseolde…

#DignidadLiteraria

@djolder (previous tweet) wrote about it in 2104.

I weighed in in 2017.
ayadeleon.wordpress.com/2017/12/28/sen…

@alexanderchee added this in 2019
vulture.com/2019/10/author…

Once more for the racism apologists: no one is saying white people can't write POC characters.

@djolder @alexanderchee As John Warner @biblioracle of the Chicago Trib put it succinctly: "Cummins is not being criticized because she is a non-Mexican person writing about the Mexican experience. She is being criticized because she is a non-Mexican person writing about the Mexican experience poorly."

@djolder @alexanderchee @biblioracle #DignidadLiteraria is objecting to the fact that a non-Mexican's hack job on our community got seven figures when our books that authentically represent us can barely get an agent. We object to the industry's appetite for our stories as trauma porn with stereotypical characters.

@djolder @alexanderchee @biblioracle As @lesbrains explained in an LA town hall meeting, people at Flatiron Books raised red flags about #AmericanDirt but the publisher ignored them in a shark feeding frenzy to make money off our community's tragedy in the border crisis.
latimes.com/entertainment-…

#DignidadLiteraria

@djolder @alexanderchee @biblioracle @lesbrains The publisher thought so little of our communities that they invested millions in a non-Mexican writing #AmericanDirt but wouldn't even spend hundreds or thousands to make sure the Spanish was properly translated or the Mexican cultural content was accurate.

#DignidadLiteraria

@djolder @alexanderchee @biblioracle @lesbrains We object to the literary industry's appetite for books ABOUT us that cater to white audiences desire for entertainment, as opposed to #OwnVoices books BY us that challenge #WhiteRacism.
We object to the book being marketed as THE novel about the border crisis.
#DignidadLiteraria

@djolder @alexanderchee @biblioracle @lesbrains We object to the weapon (barbed wire) that has literally sliced up our people being used as a decoration+shared on social media as a cute manicure. Imagine a school shooting book having cute guns on the party favors at the publisher's dinner. The author tweeting a gun manicure.

@djolder @alexanderchee @biblioracle @lesbrains We object to all the ways the author+the publisher *could not see our humanity.*
the inaccurate+stereotypical content
the barbed wire images as decor
the plagiarism of @LuisAlbertoUrr3's work
the exploitation of this crisis to make $
decades of dismissing of our #OwnVoices books

@djolder @alexanderchee @biblioracle @lesbrains @LuisAlbertoUrr3 We object to the ways both the author+publisher willfully misled audiences+Mexican immigrant authors asked to support the book that Jeanine Cummins was married to an undocumented Latino immigrant when she is NOT.
(see her author's note+@ReynaGrande's NYT OpEd)

#DignidadLiteraria

@djolder @alexanderchee @biblioracle @lesbrains @LuisAlbertoUrr3 @reynagrande And for all the white people who think one of your own is being attacked, Jeanine Cummins isn't even white. She's Latinx w/ a Puerto Rican grandmother, but having been disconnected from her community, she views Mexico w/ the US white gaze+wrote from that POV.

#DignidadLiteraria

@djolder @alexanderchee @biblioracle @lesbrains @LuisAlbertoUrr3 @reynagrande She wrote from a patronizing white liberal perspective, not in cross-Latinx solidarity, so her book betrayed the racism lurking beneath liberalism. & that still doesn't make her white. Thinking intersectionally, all writers risk getting it wrong when we don't stand in solidarity.

@djolder @alexanderchee @biblioracle @lesbrains @LuisAlbertoUrr3 @reynagrande &finally, even after #DignidadLiteraria began, we object to the publisher willfully misleading the public that they were canceling the tour b/c Jeanine Cummins' life was in danger. TY @lesbrains @Robvato @DavidOBowles for getting Flatiron to admit that there were no death threats

@djolder @alexanderchee @biblioracle @lesbrains @LuisAlbertoUrr3 @reynagrande @robvato @DavidOBowles Which we already knew. But they blamed the disruption on the people who were actually the victims. They said "safety fears"+could count on the demonization of Latinx folks to conjure images of crazed Mexicans endangering Jeanine Cummins. Instead of admitting they had screwed up.

@djolder @alexanderchee @biblioracle @lesbrains @LuisAlbertoUrr3 @reynagrande @robvato @DavidOBowles This was the #WhiteFragility final straw. Flipping the harm done to our community+insisting the author was in danger from us. When in reality it's @lesbrains getting death threats. Women of color authors getting systematically attacked online+WOC activists getting assassinated.

@djolder @alexanderchee @biblioracle @lesbrains @LuisAlbertoUrr3 @reynagrande @robvato @DavidOBowles For all the racism apologists who feel some kind of way about POC/Latinx authors standing up+speaking out about white supremacy in the lit industry, it's no surprise you're scared to to refute the arguments we are actually making because racism is indefensible.
#DignidadLiteraria