As an inaugural post for the Discuss White Privilege section, the post below transcribed a June 2019 interaction mostly about anthropology blogs and white anthropology, thus white anthropology blogs. All Twitter embeds and links are from Discuss White Privilege. For a 2020 update on white anthropology blogs, see the follow-up US White Supremacy and Anthropology. And as of June 2020, you can follow Discuss White Privilege on Twitter.
Discuss White Privilege: What even is the point of Anthrodendum anymore? Asking for a friend
Me: Very good question. I’m finally working on my anthro blogs update. About 40 are inactive. As independent blogs, anthro blogosphere is shrinking
Discuss White Privilege: Interesting. Do you think this is mostly due to Twitter (rise in use)? I think for Anthrodendum, the change in the moderation policy was the beginning of the end. And coincided with greater awareness of issues of elitism, racism, misogyny in and out of academia/anthropology that made the silencing a bad look. Unquestioned authority of moderators and bad optics further solidified by certain people’s connection to the Hau debacle and confirming dynamics that prioritized using positions of power to abuse and silence. Not really helpful for keeping people invested in the blog, along with increasingly infrequent posting. They really shot themselves in the foot by shutting down spirited debate. But blogs in general also are not what they used to be in the 2000s to early 2010s
Me: Yeah, blogging has been supplanted by posting on other platforms–Twitter, Sapiens, etc. Too hard to run an independent blog
Discuss White Privilege: And people are more free to speak on Twitter, far less regulation of speech, no heavy-handed moderation policy (for better or worse), no waiting hours or days for a comment to clear moderation and post. But twitter isn’t ideal for longer sustained arguments, long threads notwithstanding. Also not great for long, sustained, complex responses. Something is definitely lost with the decline of (worthwhile) blogs. Also think a lot of the longer form more complex argumentation, analysis, and exegesis has migrated to podcasts.
Me: Yeah, podcasts too (a world I’m totally out of!)
Discuss White Privilege: Have been listening to quite a few of late. Some are really good.
Feels like a lot of people are demoralized and exhausted, and the decline in blogging feels reflective of this exhaustion and disillusionment
Me:Agree. Retweets are about the limit of effort
Discuss White Privilege: An antidote to futility: Why academics (and students) should take blogging / social media seriously
Related Tweets & Threads
And this, folks, is all you need to know {weary sigh}:
A 2016 study found that of the ~48K review articles on race & health since 2000 only ~ 4% contained any mention of “racism.” [The] paper is a warning that scientists too often turn to biology to answer questions that could so clearly be better explained by social inequality. https://t.co/IxAiVrPWfk
— Kenneth Gibbs (@KennyGibbsPhD) June 1, 2019
Could not resonate more:
What’s the purpose of offering explanation for people who don’t, won’t, can’t listen or hear you?
— inorganic african feminist (@ztsamudzi) June 3, 2019
Including derailing women/PoC who are actually capable of outperforming white men if given the real and equal support that would actually make the academy meritocratic:
“It’s time to recognize how men’s careers benefit from sexually harassing women in academia” https://t.co/GVx78BQMao
— 500womenscientists (@500womensci) June 4, 2019
Just 'harassing' period, it doesn't even need to be sexual
— Dr. Nicole Paulk (@Nicole_Paulk) June 4, 2019
Like I said, direct relationship to current politics, and yet White Anthro not engaging the topic. I already know why:
Had no idea how influential the CP5 case was on U.S. legislation. The brilliant @elizabhinton wrote for us about "When They See Us": "Amid the 'super-predator' frenzy, nearly every state passed laws that made it easier to punish children as adults." https://t.co/tBm3OSnpcV
— Lauren N. Williams (@laurnwilliams) June 2, 2019