An email I just sent in response to a speaking invite I received.

"Thank you for this invite. I do want to be transparent that my target audience is rarely people who are new to discussions of race as systemic. 1/

My target audience: critical scholars & educators who understand race & racism, but often need more on gender (Black Girls & Girls of Color), disability (disabled Black Youth & Youth of Color) & how ableism intertwines with racism (all Black Youth & Youth of Color) 2/

My conversation will always be geared towards those that understand racism as systemic & focus on pushing other critical educators & scholars towards a shift understanding how oppressions intersect & centering those at the margins of the margins. 3/

Given your target audience, I suggest XX or XX as alternative speakers with the expertise you are seeking." 4/

I'm sharing this response b/c 1) I want to practice humility as an academic. In the academy & moments like these where everyone is an anti-racist, we are encouraged to imagine our expertise covers everything. 5/

We are pushed to speak on things we have not closely studied or lived. What if we said no, that's not my area of a focus, but here are some critical PoC educators and scholars who can do that work? 6/

and 2) Learning who my target audience is was one of the greatest gifts I could give myself. I am simply not a racism 101 kind of scholar. I appreciate those who are! It's not my skill set. Knowing my target audience has made me a better writer and speaker. 7/

Again grad school and the academy encourages us to write to the widest audience, but many of us know that generality is not attentive to the needs of this moment. All of this is rooted in the scarcity model that academia loves to promote, and we have to work against that daily 8/

We need to be specific, committed, and clear about what our work does and does not do. Reading widely can help with that. Suggesting others who do good work is one of my greatest joys. Let's spread the love and spread the knowledge. 9/9