A thread on the violence of Q & As for those of us who are systemically oppressed. Here I am writing from my perspective and experience as a WOC who speaks about racism, but I know that other systemically oppressed communities experience violence in Q and As too.

Next time, I am going to refuse to do a Q&A when the only people with their hands raised are entitled white people. Next time, only BIPOC folks can ask me questions during a Q&A. It's tiring having to listen to racism masked or blatantly packaged in the form of a question.

It's tiring and infuriating having to listen to racism masked under the statement that "I question the validity of your methodology" when my methodology is the beautiful and rich and absolutely necessary, valid, healing gift of Pilipinx ancestral knowledge.

It's annoying having to listen to white fragility when I make clear that the shitty remarks are shitty. And frankly, I don't have to listen to that shit. As BIPOC feminist scholar activists like @tuckeve emphasize, my refusal is political.

So, like, conferences...be aware that the Q&A is a mechanism that all too often reenacts colonial violence and recentres whiteness.