Read on Twitter
It is pretty telling to me who was liking Prof Green's tweets. A few of my white mutuals, and a few people whom I, Dr MRO, and others have tangled with as they have repeatedly gaslit and attacked folks for speaking out against racism in the academy. https://twitter.com/erik_kaars/status/1272886332122071057
Seeing however a few folks who have otherwise been, to my knowledge, vocally committed to being anti-racist and amenable to changing terminology as well as being well familiar with the medium of...Medium, that is also telling in my eyes.
The critiques of historiography that Prof Green has leveled at Dr MRO seem as Erik said to be based in Plague studies but the piece in question was not about plague studies nor was it a scholarly article meant to engage with the field at large. It was about racism.
And accusations of language policing does not seem to be an engagement with Dr MRO's piece but rather seems to have been elevated to some kind of personal attack which does not accord with the content of the article at all.
Furthermore, white people who revel in intracommunity disagreements or dust ups or fights between Black people or generally speaking BIPOC as some way to justify their own racist attitudes towards one or more people involved is messed up. It happens a lot.
But frankly I wonder how many of you people who are getting some glee out of the response to Dr MRO’s piece actually read and cite Black women anyway.
Evidence of this in action, from a man who called two ECRs (one an Indigenous man) twats for speaking against racism in the field on top of numerous other actions such as questioning the race of Dr MRO and accusing her of digital blackface
Who has lied and gaslit people about his behaviour and attitudes, who was so outraged at the idea that we move past racist and incorrect terminology that he harasses and complains about anyone who dares disagree
Oh and is currently objecting to a fellow medieval historian discussing Marc Bloch as if Halsall has some sort of special purview over talking about a foundational figure in our field.
And instead of honouring Bloch today, he decides to just snipe at someone who is, on top of casting aspersions on a young Black woman in academia.
Oh also, some other bad actors have apparently been calling Dr MRO an internet influencer as if her willingness to engage with the wider public again and again on racism and medieval history is more akin to insta stories and product sponsorship than scholarship.
Now, nothing wrong with internet influencers, gotta get paid and all that, but when this is also coming from the man who had some general call to engage with people and then refuses to call out white supremacists who directly cite his blogs and articles? Well.
You don’t get to say that we gotta teach people more about A*glo-S*xon and then when people do get mad that someone is doing that, when you are also not in fact doing anything to stop the misuse of the term.
