Hello! I’ve been asked by lots of people to talk about the Megan Amram tweets which, in addition to being ableist and anti-Semitic, were explicitly anti-Asian; thematically, even.

They were shocking to read, but not surprising to the extent that Asians have always been one of many cheap curios in the gilt cabinet of Western humor (uh oh I should apply to grad school and go OFF).

Some people think joking about a subordinate race is the edgiest, riskiest move there is, but I stupidly think it’s the least transgressive comedic exercise that amounts to doing a boring, warmed-over kickflip while affirming the racial hierarchy laid out by a Swedish botanist

from the 1700s. It’s skateboarding for a man in a powdered wig! Pathetic. Since this is not the first time I’ve been contextualized against someone else’s racist jokes, I’ve had time to develop thoughts around this.

It’s objectively bad, painful, and traumatizing when someone’s racist behavior is publicly on display, and in doing the important antiracist work of holding them to account, I hope we can be wary of letting this neoliberal idea slip through

that the individual is the fundamental unit of society, whose responsibility it is to fight unjust systems by their own gumption. To me it’s similar to the fucked up mentality around bootstrap theory that seeks to undermine solidarity at a time we need it most.

I hope Megan has committed herself to fighting racist power. We all know people who have doubled down instead of self-examining. In either case, while someone else’s individual accountability is important, it’s not enough for me to dwell on very long unless they are

in a position of power. Meanwhile Trump called it the kung-flu again last night in Tulsa and the ONLY non-Asian person I’ve seen give a shit is Chris Evans. Get on our level.

Take all this with a grain of salt though because I’m a socialist who loves buying nice clothes.

I also want to end this by saying Twitter is generally a terrible platform for context and I am actively planning my suspension from it at this very moment!