Thread by @RukminiPande

I had a whole thread planned out with links about #AO3's historical framing and how it's deeply dishonest to posit that it wasn't an always explicitly political project...

But I'm too tired today. So you're getting the salty version.

I see so much handwringing about how we have to be SO careful about what racism REALLY is..

And like....yes. Obviously. Luckily, we have literal decades of work/resources around these issues 🙄

So I'll just say it. This handwringing is deflection. This is whiteness in action.

While there are many things to debate/discuss, what's indisputable is that whiteness is baked into the AO3.

It's in its history. It's in the values it prioritised at the start. And therefore, it's in its coding.

Far too many ppl who should know better are dancing around this.

This is not a radical statement. If it makes you uncomfortable, reflect on that.

Please remember that it is well documented that the act of naming whiteness triggers an instant defensive reaction.

Be better. Otherwise we'll just talk ourselves into doing nothing. Again.

While on the topic of the power of naming whiteness, I'm linking to my most recently published article.

In it, I argue that Fan Studies needs to do exactly that in a consistent way, from its "must-reads" to its research methods.

journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/…

Whiteness is a racialized identity with specific effects.

This isn't a new observation, but one that FS must acknowledge explicitly and work towards centering.

On a personal note, this was really hard to write, because I was struggling with events that illustrated the hostility of the discipline to critique. Ironically, it's a similar situation today.

I would like to thank all the editors and @elmyra in particular for their patience.

I'm pulling out 3 quotes to contextualise my journey to acknowledging that the fan spaces I valued were deeply racist.

I share this because I see other non-western and non-Black POC struggling to come terms with their own experiences and their defensiveness about these spaces.

On what fandom has meant to me.

But, my location and experiences don't somehow exclude me from the global circulations of anti-Blackness.

And finally, on how discomfort can be productive, especially as one continues to navigate through media texts.

It certainly helped me find characters and texts I now love, that I never would have if Black fans hadn't pointed out how my "neutral" choices weren't neutral at all.