I’m not trying to call anyone out, but if you earnestly engage in the discussion of whether non-English words should be italicized when they’re native to the speaker but don’t mention how it makes a person foreign and other in their own head, I you’re not engaging with the issue. https://twitter.com/courtneymilan/status/1298354180277510145

All your talk about what it means and whether people will figure it out comes down to this: you think we need to mark someone’s native mode of thought out as different and other for the convenience of white readers.

You’re automatically signaling to the reader that this person is foreign and different.

And this discussion about “well actually I think you should...” underscores my original point: that people will characterize deliberate authorial choices, made with the intent of humanizing and centering their point of view character, as mistakes.

People encounter words they haven’t seen a lot, and that’s okay. There are a few in my upcoming book! There is a glossary so people can learn new things, which is great!

The rule about italicizing foreign words is not neutral.