Thread by @RukminiPande

While everyone is paying attention, this is important.

My work and @stichomancery's work is not based only on individual experience, though that is ofc is an imp part of it.

The work is based on painstaking research and analyses meta-trends in fandom over time and platform.

https://twitter.com/stichomancery/status/1271611474079776768

In my case, too many ppl try to pretend that 6+ years of peer reviewed research can be boiled down to "my feelings."

As a Black independent scholar, @stichomancery gets it much worse than I do.

POC fans are not a monolith and have vastly differing experiences/expectations from fannish spaces.

Equally however, that does not invalidate research on historical and contemporary trends in fandom and how whiteness structures them.

You'd be hard pressed to find absolute consensus about the operations of systemic racism in any field, let alone one as varied as fandom.

So, don't look for consensus.

Look for rigour. Look for research on structural issues. Look for engagement with other scholarship.

As an example, statements like:
"Non-white chars have been consistently marginalized by fandoms across time" are twisted into:
"Oh so you are now DEMANDING everyone ships only one thing"

No, I don't care what anyone ships. I care that fandom acknowledges patterns in shipping.

So please, read widely, read critically.

Engage with the tons of empirical research that's been done. I promise there's a lot out there.

Let's not lose this moment.