Read on Twitter
I check into This Place every now and then and think about coming back. I miss many of you and have fond memories. But every time I log in Twitter shows me what’s trending in the Canucks sphere, and it’s depressing as fuck.
Like, I log in and this Milt’s shit always appears to be driving the discourse? https://twitter.com/drtejdhaliwal/status/1339063128529616897?s=21
However this logo thing plays out—and there are many permutations to the conversation—there is no non-Indigenous person with the authority to to prescribe your “respectful” engagement. “Calm down” and “move forward” is the mantra of neocolonialism.
Is it not possible to have good discussion about the violence of appropriation, widely sourced and contextualized by the ongoing histories and power asymmetries of colonialism defining ALL presence in Canada, w/o resorting to samples of convenience & reactionary idiotic takes?
And THIS? I stand with @broadscastpod & fuck anyone still following me who is so insecure with their masculinity that the mere presence of intelligent, women’s voices who are also passionate fans produces this response, imagined or actualized in writing. https://twitter.com/georgiatwiss/status/1339293682504089601?s=21
If the simple presence of women, Indigenous, of colour, and LGBTQ2S+ folks, content, and -centred conversations in your TL appears to you as a threat (requiring your reaction) rather than a reflection of our reality and opportunity (to listen silently, maybe learn) than fuck you.
Nobody’s sports takes are more valid simply because they inhabit these subjectivities. But the sheer vitriol of such responses exemplifies a fan culture that is deeply xenophobic to that which it perceives as threatening to its presumed authority. It’s sick and startling.
An index of privilege is when space for other voices (the veil of equality) appears to you as an imposition & the threat of your own persecution. This shit reflects in part the sad death throes of a particular sports masculinity accustomed to the power to define what’s proper.
CanucksTwitter was always a combat sport, but not on these terms. I am saddened by what I see when I check in, but also optimistic and inspired by the new voices persevering & challenging the status quo of a hitherto highly circumscribed community, illuminating its ugly recesses.
