Thread by @keikoinboston

1. Just no. 🤨

This white self-flagellation has to stop.
the-american-interest.com/2018/05/24/ato…

We all have gaps in our knowledge and have "much to learn" about everything. 📚

https://twitter.com/AmnaUncensored/status/1402080391658414084

2. This might seem contradictory for someone who has her ethnicities in her Twitter bio but the reason I do that is to be visible as a hāfu (ハーフ) Japanese Okinawan American because I've rarely met other Japanese Okinawans outside of my own family.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C4%81fu

3. I also got tired of erasing my Okinawan heritage.

For many years I rarely told anyone I was Okinawan unless they pressed me about my heritage because ...

4. ... I didn't want to hear any more Mr. Miyagi references, have people show me their best crane kick, or answer questions about the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old girl by US servicemen. 😞

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Miyagi
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_kick
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Okin…

5. For a while these were the only things younger Americans knew about Okinawa, if they'd even heard of it at all.

Older Americans would want to talk to me about WWII. 🙄

6. I used to have my pronouns and "queer" in my bio too but took them out. I can't remember exactly when I did this.

7. I do get misgendered periodically by people who are unaware that Keiko is a common Japanese female name and who think that I look male in my profile pic. 🤷🏻‍♀️ But it doesn't bother me enough to feel that I had to leave my pronouns in my bio.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keiko_(gi…

8. Some folks outside the LGBTQ community are unaware that there are people within the community who are opposed to mandatory disclosure of pronouns for a variety of reasons.

9. While obviously it was my choice to have them in there, I'm troubled by the increasing social and institutional pressure for people to put their pronouns in their bios, email signatures, Zoom screen names, on forms, and more. I decided to opt-out.

10. Here's an op-ed written by a Harvard student making this case. My thread includes some comments from a friend who is a Title IX coordinator about why mandatory gender disclosure is ill-advised.

https://twitter.com/keikoinboston/status/1318341625173676032

11. I had put "queer" in my bio because it felt important for me to be visible as a queer Japanese American but I began to realize that it isn't an important part of my identity at this stage in my life so I took it out.

12. For those who are unaware, the "Race Card" in Susan Goldberg's signature refers to The Race Card Project.

theracecardproject.com/send-your-race…

13. The screenshot in Amna's thread comes from an email National Geographic sent out.

https://twitter.com/roddreher/status/1401806727918542851

14. Not sure what the content of the email was (I haven't see full text) but you can read this letter from Goldberg in which she also writes about her Race Card. Linking archive because of paywall.

web.archive.org/web/2021052611…

15. I think that finding creative, non-hostile ways to get people in the US to have dialogue about race, ethnicity, history, inequity, and diversity is good but to have those conversations productively they need to be had in defined spaces for limited periods of time.

16. People have always used their email signatures for all sorts of things so I suppose if Goldberg wants to use hers to advertise the project & her white privilege/ignorance I can't stop her but I wonder if this is being required of all National Geographic staff?

17. People shouldn't have to engage in their institution's idea of "racial reckoning" in their email signature. In fact I'd argue that trivializes it. I really hope this sort of thing doesn't catch on.

18. Some additional context. The Race Card Project was launched in 2010 but it’s being featured in the June 2021 issue of National Geographic.

natgeo.com/race

nationalgeographicpartners.com/2021/05/nation…