Dr. Whitney Pirtle Profile picture
Nov 8, 2022 12 tweets 6 min read Read on X
🧵Over this year I have been working with @kateetthompson on translating my research on #racialcapitalism & #covid19 into a comic illustration - one that I hope will grasp everyone's attention. Open access: escholarship.org/uc/item/48j236…. Now let me share some important details ⬇️ Image
I wrote the original article after finding stats in spring 2020 about the racialized death gap in Michigan, with a focus on Detriot - showing 40% of deaths among Black folks, though they made up 14% of the population. See:
We just got done talking in person about the process in sessions from our funder @UCMercedCFH and I want to demystify what this type of work is. I am very appreciative of @kateetthompson who treated this project with much care. Image
First, we wanted to make sure there was a coherent story that showed the main point: Racial inequities in covid-19 are not rooted in pre-existing conditions, but racial capitalism is a pre-existing condition for inequities that were amplified in the pandemic. Image
But beyond the argument, I think the finer details are most illuminative. Like how each cough is captured in orange... Image
.@kateetthompson used real images of Detriot as the backdrop for the story throughout the comic. And we wove in real stories about environmental harms facing the area (see mlive.com/public-interes… ) ImageImageImage
A key focal point was that story that we witness over and over. Essential laborers, predominantly people of color, were being exploited for their labor. Image
We told this story through honoring an older Black woman caretaker, who caught covid-19 but was forced to continue to work & whose sickness was diminished. Image
Another powerful illustrative idea from .@kateetthompson was to memoralize the workers placed throughout the comic into a visible memorial in this panel. Image
Given the way whiteness permeates privilege in this story about people of color, we decided to have white individuals become a part of background - not to render them invisible, but to minimize that focus. Image
The woman we showcase was being looked after by her daughter. You can feel her love and then anger as the story goes on & ends with her at a protest. In the last scene, the daughter is wearing the bracelet the mother had worn. Our legacies continue and so does our fight! Image
*dismissed (& diminished I suppose)

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More from @thePhDandMe

Jan 15, 2022
The semester system is about to start and as promised, I am sharing student rated favorite readings for an Advanced Topics in Race, Ethnicity, and Racism course.
I'm not being self-serving here, but my article with @CaitlinPatler was a big hit. This is because, at my HSI, students were eager to talk about the many harms of deportation and relief that DACA provides:pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28318760/
Likewise, students loved @V_Terriquez's paper on intersectional mobilization for the way it cross cut sexual, racial, and immigrant identity: academic.oup.com/socpro/article…
Read 11 tweets
Apr 12, 2021
My fam had a beautiful spring break wkd in LA. Full bellies, sun tans, and lots of bball. It was joyous seeing Black boys live fully. I was ready to ride this high - but it ended so abruptly after hearing that another BM was killed by the police.

#thread on spillover effects:
Losing one life to the police is more than enough, because #DanteWright mattered to many. It sets off a ripple effect in his community. & it becomes overbearing because we know that it is never just one. It is a pervasive systematic horror that ravages communities far and near.
Losing Black live to the police represents #StolenBreaths of those who are killed as @RRHDr , Medina, and @RheaBoydMD told us. But it also represents #StolenLivelihoods from those who are left behind

nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…
Read 10 tweets
Sep 4, 2020
A lot of #Krug convos are bringing up issues related to racial identity, racial ambiguity, & colorism and I just want to say that all of these concepts are related but also very *different*

I want to share some relevant (mainly sociological) works in this #Thread
First, Nikki Kanna's work has explored passing and reflected appraisals for mixed race folks. Here w/ Cathryn Johnson on Black mixture "Passing as Black: Racial Identity Work among Biracial Americans" journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01… and also Asian Ams too journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.117…
I love Jenn Sims' (@RavenclawSoc23) @SREJournal article on how questioning race impacts ID choice: "Reevaluation of the Influence of Appearance and Reflected Appraisals for Mixed-Race Identity: The Role of Consistent Inconsistent Racial Perception" journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…
Read 15 tweets

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