WELP. ~EVERYTHING~ abt this hire was wrong. Teen Vogue had become a space for deep work critical of capitalism, race & gender. McCammond:
—Was WAY too close to the WH/DNC
—Had never been an editor?!
—Had a poor racial *analysis* + anti-Asian writing
—Staff didn’t want her
—Was WAY too close to the WH/DNC
—Had never been an editor?!
—Had a poor racial *analysis* + anti-Asian writing
—Staff didn’t want her
https://twitter.com/alexi/status/1372603793825751040
In hiring her, Condé Nast seemed to be going for representational politics/optics over substance. There is NO shortage of Black women, ppl of color, QTPoC etc who could have helmed this very important space & its recent, unique and wildly popular history of sharp analysis.
Instead, Condé seemed to be trying to reign in the Marxism, anal sex tips & labor coverage with someone who’d ~never been an editor~. The timing of the anti-Asian tweets couldn’t be more worse than this week, but zoom out please... nytimes.com/2021/03/18/bus…
This wasn’t just some tweets. McCanmond and Condé put of something just not true abt her having spent her years since then amplifying marginalized. This just wasn’t true! McCammond may be many good things, but championing marginalized voices ain’t one of them, no sir.
TV staff and readers are smart. They can read! They could see what they were being sold and that it didn’t add up. McCammond’s Native dress & writing about “Blacks” showed a terrible, uninformed racial analysis. That, her ties to establishment politics & & lack of editing...
...sank her.
And capitalism sank her! TV was hemorrhaging ad sales.
Trust me: One must build up a body of work and good values over a career to take on the awesome responsibility of the privilege to head a pub & wield its concentration of social capital.
And capitalism sank her! TV was hemorrhaging ad sales.
Trust me: One must build up a body of work and good values over a career to take on the awesome responsibility of the privilege to head a pub & wield its concentration of social capital.
It is not “cancel culture” to need the trust of your publisher, advertisers, staff and readers if you want to be an Editor in Chief—especially if you’ve never edited before and have a bad racial analysis in this structurally racist country & industry.
Also, returning to my thread on *racial analysis*...this "editor" didn't *ONLY* have anti-Asian tweets, Native headdress & writing on the racism of "Blacks," she had done NOTHING in her career towards racial justice
https://twitter.com/thrasherxy/status/1371846417325686786
This is incorrect, and there is a kind of race making happening when someone who has never been an editor is called "extremely well qualified."
& as much as I love worker power, she didn't quit over the staff uprising, but after advertisers pulled out.
& as much as I love worker power, she didn't quit over the staff uprising, but after advertisers pulled out.
https://twitter.com/ryangrim/status/1372607471605452806
Here's my read of what happened:
1. TV has had two successful Black women editors. Over time, it weirdly and wonderfully also became a site for critiques of gender, capitalism, nationalism & all the isms smart teens hate abt the shitty world we're handing them.
1. TV has had two successful Black women editors. Over time, it weirdly and wonderfully also became a site for critiques of gender, capitalism, nationalism & all the isms smart teens hate abt the shitty world we're handing them.
2. Lindsay People Wagner announced she was leaving for The Cut, just a few months after The Cut said Anna Wintour "Tokenized and Sidelined" Black women at Condé thecut.com/2020/10/nyt-an…
3. Wintour seems to have thought she could be cute and that she'd hire a Black woman next—but not any of the excellent Black women editors whose politics & experience TV's readers and staff deserved. A side conjecture...
4. a) I speculate either Wintour took her eye off the wheel and didn't notice that her small, digital only pub had turned into a fucking circus of Marxist critique and Stuart Hall cultural studies (LOL) or
b) she tolerated it ONLY when it was opposed to the TRUMP administration
b) she tolerated it ONLY when it was opposed to the TRUMP administration
5. In any case, Wintour thought could be cute hiring a Black woman who
a) hadn't been an editor
b) had been a WH reporter who quit her job to be w a WH spox
c) that WH spox was fired for threatening reporters a week later
d) was as close to Dems as TV was critical of it
a) hadn't been an editor
b) had been a WH reporter who quit her job to be w a WH spox
c) that WH spox was fired for threatening reporters a week later
d) was as close to Dems as TV was critical of it
6. (cont'd)
e) had anti-Asian tweets in her past at a time of high anti-Asian violence
f) wrote of racism of "Blacks"
g) wore a Native headress
h) never dealt with e to g IN HER PUBLISHED WORK in any way that showed critical self reflection
e) had anti-Asian tweets in her past at a time of high anti-Asian violence
f) wrote of racism of "Blacks"
g) wore a Native headress
h) never dealt with e to g IN HER PUBLISHED WORK in any way that showed critical self reflection
7. (cont'd)
i) didn't seem to have worked w teens
j) brought a DC background to NYC, w/o having edited tough NY writers (or any writers)
k) thought a staff who writes about intersectional race issues fearlessly would be quiet
l) thought Asian advertisers wouldn't care
i) didn't seem to have worked w teens
j) brought a DC background to NYC, w/o having edited tough NY writers (or any writers)
k) thought a staff who writes about intersectional race issues fearlessly would be quiet
l) thought Asian advertisers wouldn't care
8. There were more bad stories than any hire usually justifies. As I on abt racial analysis, when McCammond aid she'd "dedicated my career to giving voice to the voiceless," it's just not true. In fact, a TV should know that phrase is problematic (lol) documentcloud.org/documents/2050…
9. In fact, she had NOT dedicated her career to community journalism or advocacy journalism or addressing the ills of capitalism; she'd had a respectable career that landed her in the WH, but that's NOT the kind of unique, critical space TV writers & readers created.
10. And so, when bad things come up from your past and there is no *body of work* in which to contextualize a change in one's views, writers are judged by...well, by our own words.
So she lost fair of readers & staff, but they did not cancel her. THAT axe was swung by...
So she lost fair of readers & staff, but they did not cancel her. THAT axe was swung by...
12. So this isn't a mystery. It's not "cancel culture" by the staff, but I'm proud of them, freelancers and readers voicing their thoughts on the terms of their work & direction of their publication. It shouldn't only come from Condé (or any corporation)—we make pubs together!
13. So, Wintour has a history of sidelining and tokenizing women of color.
She made a poor hire, putting the hire (who, having never edited, should never have been there) and the staff in a terrible place.
We are made by our histories & present.
She made a poor hire, putting the hire (who, having never edited, should never have been there) and the staff in a terrible place.
We are made by our histories & present.
14. At the end of it all, TV’s history, the EIC’s and Wintour’s weren’t the right combo for this moment.
I still think the Marxist critique will be on the ropes at Condé, and I hope TV’s staff & writers will give as much critique in their workplace as they do in their prose.
I still think the Marxist critique will be on the ropes at Condé, and I hope TV’s staff & writers will give as much critique in their workplace as they do in their prose.
15. But for now, maybe the Marxism isn’t gone at Teen Vogue quite yet...
🎤
teenvogue.com/story/who-is-k…
🎤
teenvogue.com/story/who-is-k…
Welcome, new followers! I enjoy writing media analysis & abt the narratives we tell ourselves. But it’s a lot writing about HIV & COVID & infectious disease & stigma around here. Also, I write a column for @sciam & just wrote a book for @CeladonBooks @MacmillanUSA!
https://twitter.com/thrasherxy/status/1262848245212086277
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