Thinking about that time some queer white people told me a Black coworker of theirs who does a great deal of EDI work "does not think being LGBT or disabled should be considered diversity" and that they would not consider that person an ally or safe person for queer people

On asking for clarification, they explained that when they'd served on a search comm for a diversity resident, that person along with some others had expressed those sentiments about trans and disabled candidates.

*White* candidates.

I tried to explain that residencies were created to address the whiteness problem in acalibs. That I couldn't speak for everyone there and their hearts, but that this person has fought for years to make space for BIPOC, and were they sure the objection wasn't based on that?

White ppl saw a Black person saying "this role for BIPOC should be filled by a BIPOC person, not white ppl who are otherwise marginalized" and their takeaway was "wow this person hates queer and disabled people." And then they went on to warn their whisper networks about them.

I did make a small effort to point this out to them but they were not persuaded. And I don't know, maybe they had other stories, had heard more direct queermisic or ableist statements from that person. But this story alone presented as a gotcha was just wild to me.

I wonder how many other BIPOC people who object to white people shouldering their way into spaces and roles meant for BIPOC get tarred with this brush. Warned about to other people. ~They say they care about diversity but they only care about race.~

And to be clear, there are indeed plenty of queermisic and ableist BIPOC; there are plenty of BIPOC who fail to be in solidarity with other BIPOC. I'm not saying that there aren't BIPOC who are indeed not safe for other marginalized people.

But the jump straight to "this is bigotry" was... something. I mean. It might have also been that. But it was definitely reluctance to give up a residency meant for a BIPOC to a white person. I know this matters to that person bc we've had many convos about residencies.

And the white queer ppls' refusal to acknowledge that bc they were *so sure* it was just the former, or that even if it was about trying to keep the position for a BIPOC, the perception of bigotry (against white people) somehow canceled it out as a valid reason... idk, man.

Tempted to snark that some white ppl just wanna be oppressed soooo badly, but idk if that's entirely fair. (...mostly fair. but not entirely.) I know too many loudly queermisic, conservative POC to not acknowledge it as a legitimate concern.

Anyway. People wanting to preserve BIPOC positions/spaces/etc for BIPOC and not open them up to queer white people isn't homophobic or transphobic. Not wanting to open them up to disabled white people isn't ableist.

Should there be more acalib support for queer ppl and disabled ppl? Absolutely. Some residencies do define diversity more broadly. Oddly, instead of adding extra positions in addition to ones for BIPOC, somehow this usually means there's no longer specifically BIPOC ones

BIPOC residencies aren't taking anything away from queer and disabled white people. BIPOC are trying to keep white people from taking them back away from us.