White people - when you ask POC questions, I wish you'd ask less "Is it okay if I do [certain thing]?" and more "What are your thoughts on [certain thing]?"

The first makes me uncomfortable bc you're demanding a clear Yes/No that no single POC has the right to give - 1/?
- it puts the burden on ME to repeat for the countless time that we are not a monolith and others may feel differently before giving my opinion, and even then, I worry that you might take my answer and run bc I'm not sure if you're conceptualizing our internal diversity 2/?
But if you ask "what are YOUR thoughts?" instead, it shows me you're aware that you're getting the opinion of a single person and that you're not expecting me to speak for a whole group of people. Only then do I feel safe giving my thoughts 3/?
Ultimately, you need to focus on listening respectfully and seeking out perspectives from a variety of POC instead of trying to get a magic Permission Pass on whether you can do [certain thing]. I mean, the final judgement on whether to act is YOURS to make. 4/?
ALSO it is very transparent when you're more concerned about Not Getting Canceled than listening to POC out of respect....Like seriously, stop acting like we're coercing you or making your life very difficult just because we have opinions 😩 5/5

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More from @XiranJayZhao

9 Feb
so a few other POC authors and I have made threads on this recently and I've seen us get accused of promoting "nazi-level racial purity" in books and being ABLEIST for not telling white authors EXACTLY what to do besides this

those are examples of failing the challenge.
White writers, you really wanna know what to do?

- Preorder and promote POC-authored books
- Don't act like white authors are the only ones who exist and thus it will be some sort of devastating blow to diversity in books if they take a step back from writing POC stories

1/?
- Understand the difference between writing from a POC perspective and having POC characters in your story
- Understand the frustration of white-authored POC stories getting more favored than #ownvoices ones bc they will inherently appeal more to the white gatekeepers

2/?
Read 11 tweets
17 Jan
what if I wrote one of those culturally-inspired YA fantasies except the culture was Canadian culture
- Syrup-based potions
- Royal guards riding moose
- Queen suspiciously absent
- Protag is daughter of a baker of "timbits" (in italics), gets whisked to the palace when it's found out she wields great magic
- Oppressed Indigenous population
- Magical fur cloaks
- Enchanted hockey sticks as weapons
- The apothecary "shoppersdrugmart" (also in italics)
- The rebellion in the Quebecois province
Read 10 tweets
16 Jan
Wish I could use these Chinese emojis from QQ and WeChat everywhere else cause damn this is another dimension of emotions that can be expressed Chinese emojis from QQ and WeChat
More of them:
My personally top used is the nose picking one

Relative: when are you getting married?

Me: never Nose picking emoji
Read 6 tweets
19 Dec 20
Okay who's ready for THREAD: CULTURAL INSPIRATIONS AND OTHER TRIVIA & LORE IN AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER, BOOK 1

Disclaimer: Unless cited from official sources, all musings about possible inspirations are my personal opinions, and will also skew Chinese bc that's what I am 1/? Avatar title card
So right away in the background writing in the opening sequence, each element is accompanied by a characteristic that generalizes their nation

Water is Kindness, Earth is Strength, Fire is Passion, and Air is Harmony (approximate translations) 2/?
The banner up top says something like "The Many Mighty Powers Divided in Four," while the bottom is "All Under Heaven Are Pacified by One" (probably refers to the Avatar)

The production team hired a master Chinese calligrapher Dr. Siu-Leung Lee, so all the writing is legit 3/?
Read 154 tweets
18 Dec 20
I have somehow managed to see probably over a hundred hot takes criticizing Cyberpunk but not a single screenshot of the game,, what is going on
Also I'm guessing this game was...Bad? That is my impression from Twitter osmosis,,,
My top 2 Twitter osmosis thoughts of December 2020:

1. Guess Cyberpunk bad??

2. WHO THE HELL IS ZHONGLI
Read 4 tweets
18 Dec 20
Hold on, am I missing something or did America really only give some people a one-time stimulus check of 1200 and expected everyone to be able to quit their jobs and stay home
Okay so we talk a lot of shit about Americans not following quarantine guidelines and wanting to keep their businesses open, but honestly, how were they supposed to shut down or stop working with 0 support from the government?!
Like of course I don't condone protesting against quarantine guidelines, but it seems that much of it has spawned more from being asked to do the impossible than plain selfishness over not being able to party or whatever
Read 5 tweets

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