I had a knee-jerk reaction about whether I should RT/talk about recent events re: police brutality, thinking that I wanted to keep my bookish account simply for books.

That thought died real fast because you can't separate the two. Books and what is going on in the world+

1/5

+are inseparable.

And also: how many times have I talked about queer issues on this account? How many times have I talked about US politics? I have "still hate joe biden" in my profile name, for god's sake.

It was my privilege -- my white privilege, to be+

2/5

+specific -- poking through. It is a privilege to think, "should I RT this? What if I lose followers? It doesn't match the bookish/nerdy aesthetic."

The aesthetic of your account shouldn't matter when it comes to speaking up against oppression, and it's privileged to think+

3/5

+otherwise.

So, book bloggers -- especially fellow white book bloggers -- if the only reason you don't want to speak up against oppression/certain kinds of

oppression is because you're worried about how it'll make your account ~look~ I ask for you to reflect long and hard+

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+as to why the aesthetic of your account is more important than supporting oppressed and marginalized people.

Remember that nothing exists in a vacuum.

5/5 fin/

*special thanks to Jia for RTing something that got me thinking about this and made me realize I had to say something.