#MedievalTwitter #ShakeRace #RaceB4Race This is a long thread that addresses Safety & Secret FB Groups: There are two separate things happening that Abby Ang has conflated as one thing. The secret FB group is separate from the scholarly activist org. Medievalists of Color.
2/ This is made clear in the Constitution. The secret FB group is there for different BIPOC scholars in medieval studies as a safe space to share safety information, safety resources, address potential violence or other harms targeting various group members;
3/it includes sensitive personal information in the group. In fact, the group often has multiple messages about potential fascist security issues at medieval studies conferences to warn other potential vulnerable group members.Moderators sponsor members; It is not open to anyone.
4/ The group’s first rule is that no one publicly discusses the group because it is a space in which a lot of sensitive safety information is shared. This sensitive information, if there is a safety leak, could put multiple group members in the crosshairs of white supremacists.
5/ As several members have received violent (death & rape usually) threats from white supremacists, the group moderators take safety as a top priority. Since Abby Ang has posted publicly @ this secret facebook group, she has broken the group's 1st rule: never to publicly discuss.
6/ Publicly divulging this secret FB group has created a trove for white supremacists to use in various hall of mirrors way for their own ends. We know that already her public post is being circulated and discussed amongst the medieval studies equivalent of Stormfront.
7/ This means that it already has gotten to multiple members of the medieval studies white supremacy cluster; they regularly incite violence to different vulnerable members of the secret FB group.
8/ Thus, it has put members of the secret FB group into more potential violent danger from the white supremacists. This may not have been the intent of the public post, but it is the effect.
9/ Several members of the secret FB group contacted a moderator with a safety worry because of what the members saw in public social media posts. A moderator was provided with a screenshot and both moderators agreed that this may be a safety issue to the group.
10/ The moderators went ahead & agreed to contact Abby to discuss what was going on w/ what was brought to us & to do a Call-In (bgdblog.org/2013/12/callin…) a regularly-used antiracist & intersectional feminist tool in organizing. Adam Miyashiro went ahead & messaged her to ask,
11/ w/ the materials,what was going on & can we discuss. Abby immediately locked her accounts & disappeared.She has, in fact, never talked to us since then, even though we have told various other mediators & thru other conduits that we are happy to discuss w/ her & w/ mediators.
12/ This happened in November. We were approached later in November by another member of the secret FB group to see if she could be a mediator in this since she was contacted by Abby’s advisor about this. We said we would be happy to discuss things w/ her & also have a mediator.
13/ So we waited for a discussion to be set up. The moderators have not discussed her publicly or even semi-publicly (i.e. on our FB accounts) in any way. I am sure the white supremacists have already tried to scour my social media to see if I have, but have come up w/ nothing.
14/ We waited to see if we could work thru issues to bring her back into the group. However, we made the decision in Nov. that w/ her particular reaction, we would prioritize group safety & temporarily remove her w/ the possibility of her reintegration w/ further discussion.
15/ This is something that is a regular practice in social activist circles as you can see in this thread from Tressie McCottom: .
16/ To contextualize further, other medieval FB groups that are private, rather than secret, have even more rigorous moderation models. Ex. the SMFS FB group has, b/c of multiple leaks that have led members to being a target of the white supremacists,
17/ adopted a rigorous safety model that means mods. will remove members immediately w/out discussion.The Early Medieval English group, b/c of leaks that went to white supremacists, closed the group entirely & started from scratch to add members in order to control group safety.
18/ All scholarly medieval FB groups have had to deal w/ (since 2016) their discussion & posts being used & weaponized by white supremacists. This has put group members at risk to being white supremacist targets.
19/ Since our position is even more vulnerable, it is absolutely necessary that group safety measures be upheld. The secret FB group moderators have kept this quiet & not discussed it publicly in order to leave open the possibility of working through these issues w/ Abby
20/ & bringing her back to the group. Unfortunately, we do not think that will happen now. Open, honest, &evidence-based discussion is important to academic intellectual life & antiracist activism. o is evidence-based, thoughtful, and honest critique.
21/ But this cannot happen if various parties remove themselves from such discussions entirely (either b/c of a refusal to work honestly or b/c they have refused to discuss). The caveat here obviously being that I am not interested in having “discourse” with fascists.
22/ But I would like to ask people to please consider the safety of members as the white supremacist fringe of our field & also in general are using this information to mount further violent attacks.We continue to keep the members' safety in the secret FB group our top priority.
23/ This issue was brought to the scholarly activist org. Medievalists of Color when Abby or her advisor (I am not sure which) contacted a senior member of the Steering Committee and it was then brought to the rest of the committee in December.
24/ Currently, the Steering Committee is made up of 2 tenured & 2 untenured members, I am the only woman & also untenured & Jared Rodriguez is a graduate student. The scholarly activist org. has a constitution that outlines their expectations for membership in the organization.
25/ It is a volunteer org. w/ no membership dues. Thus, the group asks members to act in good faith (i.e. with good intentions, be honest, do not harm or harass people, etc.) & to work through things if there is conflict w/in the group.
26/ If people have been temporarily removed, they have also been given the option to work thru issues to return back to the org. w/ members of the governing group. If you are an activist group, one of the issues is about fostering trust &working through issues,
27/ something that is discussed in Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s piece “Five Years Later, Do Black Lives Matter” in regards to the #BlackLivesMatter organizers and activists and what she sees as in the end the failures of this social justice movement jacobinmag.com/2019/09/black-…
28/ Taylor writes: “But without the opportunity to collectively assess, discuss, or ponder what the movement is or should be, those political disagreements [within organizations] can sometimes devolve into bitter personal attacks.
29/ Among movement activists, acrimonious personal disputes were expressed throughout the social media landscape, creating an archival trove of material for state agents. It also fueled animosity and discord between people who had every interest in collaboration and solidarity.
30/ Callout culture summoned attention to every transgression, armed with the belief that the act was committed with the worst of intentions. The goodwill that many imagined and wanted to rest at the heart of the movement could only be built upon trust and genuine relationships.”
31/ I believe that this is what the members of Medievalists of Color, the scholarly and activist organization, voted into the constitution. [End]
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