Axel Folio, PhD,🔻Leftist
Dr. MRO: Literary Historian | WoC: product of Black/brown love | gif lover | racist magnet | abolitionist | yarn dyer| not Eddie Murphy (she/hers)
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Nov 9 18 tweets 5 min read
🧵As a literary historian I sometimes wonder what's going to be said in the next few decades as opposed to how long it may take for the actual truth to be told, despite what's known. Many "big name" historians are cowardly yt men peddling half-truths & Zionist propaganda rn.
1/ One of the reasons why they left this space under the guise of moral superiority & "not supporting Elon" is bc they didn't want to see a genocide livestreamed. Places like FB heavily monitors Pal content, Israeli Intel runs Threads, & BlueSky is the safest space for neolibs
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Nov 8 7 tweets 2 min read
Just re-upping this again bc there has always been a war on women. WW crying *now* when women in the Global South or even Indigenous women in the West have been violated, silenced, murdered & barely a tear has been shed. We saw the same thing in '16 & obnoxious WW are still
1/ telling POC to make space for WW's feelings. No, fuck you, your solidarity is always conditional & those of us who have lived around you know how you operate. It's a derail & recentering of your needs which don't help liberate *all* women.

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Jun 8 15 tweets 4 min read
Had a meeting yesterday w/ a scholar who claimed not to agree w/ their govt position on Isnotreal but also had almost no concept of what is going on in 🇵🇸. Their opposition is politically motivated rather than being opposed to genocide.
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This person is in a leadership position & was torn on whether or not to oppose Zionism. Just imagine how many other folks in the academy who are purposefully ignorant of the genocide in 2024 or the Nakba or apartheid.
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Mar 17 24 tweets 6 min read
🧵Tips on how to protect & support targeted folks (espec. scholars/students of color)

As someone who's been targeted by the alt-right, stalkers, tabloids, racist scholars, yt supremacist militia, I know a thing or two abt online harassment/safety. If you want to help others
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here are some tips that won't jeopardize their safety & mental health more. Undoubtedly there are more tips, & some situations are different but these are general/useful guides.

1. If someone you know is being targeted (by large platforms or tabloids), check in w/ them 1st

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Feb 2 5 tweets 3 min read
Day 2: Noiron.
You ever heard of a medieval Black wizard? No? Well let me introduce you to Noiron. Noiron was a Black wizard in a French medieval legend abt a knight named Renaud de Montauban. Renaud's story spread across northern Europe.
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Not all the legends include Noiron, but he was included in some. He was pretty badass. Look at this gorgeous armor.
In the French legend Noiron, a Saracen wizard battles Renaud's cousin, Maugris. All these folks are figures in legendary tales of King Charlemagne's court. 2/ Image
Jul 16, 2023 7 tweets 3 min read
Have you ever seen an Aztec image of a European knight? I'm researching new yarn colorways & came across this amazing Mesoamerican image depicting what may be the 1st known Afro-Portuguese conquistador Juan Garrido. Born in West Africa, sold into slavery & taken to Lisbon,
1/ Image he converted to Catholicism, & eventually joined the Spanish expedition/invasion across the Atlantic. He was part of the entourage searching for gold & invaded modern day Puerto Rica, Cuba, and even landed in Florida. He was with the forces that invaded present-day Mexico,
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Feb 1, 2023 27 tweets 12 min read
🧵In celebration of #BlackHistoryMonth here’s some of Canada’s Black history. Let's make it a jeopardy like quiz. Canada loves to pretend it’s superior to its southern cousin when it comes to progress but let’s see abt that. Let's have some fun & learn!
1/26 Do you know that slavery was ok in Canada? Mhmm. Canada become a federation in 1867.

Do you know when the first record of slavery in Canada was?
*jeopardy music plays*
#BlackHistoryMonth
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Jan 31, 2023 11 tweets 6 min read
Currently listening in here. I'm so excited and also gonna use that 'delete comment" function for yt nonsense. 😂 Ok, well I promise not to abuse it.
Oct 15, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
My favorite (?) Brexit story is that of the yt left-wing Brexiteer/Lexiteer scholar who fervently argued w/ scholars from the European continent & abroad abt cutting ties w/ European markets. He argued that his support for Brexit was NOT abt racism & solely abt the economy. He now works at a German institution. 🤣
Oct 8, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
I keep seeing GBBO tweets by ppl who should know better. So many ppl on the show itself are racist AF, but ppl continue to put entertainment ahead of thinking how engrained racism is. Ppl in the will point out institutional racism & then turn around & support these British messes And no it is not "just a show." One of the regulars has done Blackface, another is a South African ww w/ appalling views whose son is some conservative douche and so on.

It's always interesting that anything outside the American sphere isn't examined closely for racism.
Sep 13, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
Oh we all know mermaids aren't real, right? Ok, did you know that medieval ppl were less racist than ppl today? Ppl have forgotten that mermaids/mermen were sometimes depicted as Black/brown folks in the Middle ages. Cue the crying!

BL: MS 62925. f 110r. #LittleMermaidLiveAction A Black merman with a blue lower half. The figure is part of And @erik_kaars amazing thread on Black mermaids:
Sep 11, 2022 6 tweets 2 min read
Solidarity among yt "allies" shouldn't be contingent on comfort level and/or whether BIPOC are nice to them or not. If they are speaking truth to power those are the voices to amplify -- even if that disrupts your own comfort. I'm really sick of ppl thinking BIPOC need to talk nicely, tone it down, be polite, when we speak to yt folks. If we call you in it's bc we see you as someone we hope we can trust & count on to show up. That's the difference between a call out and a call in.
Sep 11, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
Hi! A wonderful Sunday to all. Feel loved today except for retired prof David Ganz who was mad abt 1 of my public talks, created a fake acct to stalk &has sent obsessive emails for over a yr. The latest is him schooling me abt a dead Windsor. May his name always be assoc w/ creep Creepy David Ganz keeps ema... This all started bc he sent me a 'know your place' email after a talk I gave on a 7th-century abbot named Hadrian saying that yt scholars have, for yrs, downplayed that he was melaninated. I was then called a c*nt by this guy:
Sep 10, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
PLOT TWIST:

Nazis were in the Humanities all this time studying their "heritage" and learning about "western civ" Read abt the racist in this thread with links to a banned yt supremacist org in the UK:
Jul 28, 2022 17 tweets 4 min read
Jul 26, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
What should yt ppl do when BIPOC point out that they've done a racism:

"Hey, I fucked up. I'll sit w/ it & do better."
👆🏾✅ 👇🏾❌
What do yt ppl often do when BIPOC point out they've done a racism:

"mental health issues"
*get defensive*
*whataboutism*
*cry*
*block/unfollow* It always amazes me how antiracist efforts require so little, yet too much for some. It's a process. Even the bare minimum offends ppl who pretend they care about BIPOC.

We see you though, especially offended ww who get called out & immediately rush to RT Black women.
Jul 18, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
Lmao I mean, I wasn't even besmirching boomers but go off, I guess.
Jul 17, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
For all the 'when Boomers die out racism will not exist & things will be better" crowd. Black woman at an airport with a mask on. She is looking off Don't ignore which one is masked and what protection that provides the one who isn't.
Jul 16, 2022 5 tweets 4 min read
🧵📢The #antiracistcrafting Blanket Project has brought together a group of ppl from around the world to work as a community to help 2 charities (Project Okra in the US & The African Rainbow Family in the UK). This is gonna be your updates thread, so hold on to your butts. 1/ We've settled on a beautiful pattern. It's a granny square that suits all skill levels of crocheters. We've got our own color scheme, so you'll have to wait and see what we make! #antiracistcrafting 2/ Image
Jul 16, 2022 7 tweets 3 min read
Some ppl are used to giving, &something in the psyche tells us (espec. BIWOC), we should feel guilty for looking after us. It's necessary tho. We're often at the forefront of racial/social justice battles. Anyway I crocheted my 1st ever #antiracistcrafting gift for me, a sweater. ImageImageImage Audre Lorde was not kidding when she said explained how self care is an act of warfare and resistance. Ww often misinterpret her words to just mean "spoil yourself" & go on vacay or the spa regularly. Lorde understood how Black women are stretched & how racial injustice affects
Jul 6, 2022 5 tweets 3 min read
Hi. Medievalist/philologist here.

1st person singular of "they" can be traced back to a 14thc poem (c. 1350-60) called "William and the Werewolf." 1st composed in France in a 13thc romance named "Guillaume de Palerme."

No, "they" hasn't always been plural.
You're welcome. 1/ RR84 @curbappealreo said:  “They” is plural. It has alwall. 2177-2182 of William and the Werewolf, King’s College Rough translation: "then each man hurried, on horse & foot, hunting w/ hounds [through] all the high woods until THEY drew near to see the truth where William and his worthy dear spouse were lying."

With the singular "man" one would expect the pronoun "he" but "they" is used. 2/ ll. 2177-2182 of William and the Werewolf, King’s College