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How sad is the state of affairs in #PuertoRicanStudies that we can't even muster a dialogue through our association #PRSA, nor even issue a statement condemning Krug pretending to be afroboricua & the many harmful, deleterious effects of her anti-black farce of a life? A Thread.
On August 10th, my colleagues @marisollebron @santiaaurora @SarahMolinari, Joanna Camacho, and Lisa Jahn resigned from the executive board due to a hostile work climate created by #sexist comments & lack of transparency from other (male, senior) EC members, among other issues.
Here's their statement: https://medium.com/@marisollebrn/why-we-are-resigning-from-the-puerto-rican-studies-association-executive-board-9111bf836966
As you can see, Anti-Blackness and anti-trans rhetoric was explicitly named by them as an issue preventing the development of equity and inclusion in the organization.
Then it all crashed down. The whole EC resigned, except for the person holding the secretariat who has legal responsibility for the org and his buddy who is maintaining control over the Facebook group even though he also supposedly resigned.
Another group of scholars published this open letter https://sites.google.com/view/prsaletterand and organized a 'town hall' event that took place last week.
Although the town hall was a good start and gave us a chance to gather nominations for the election of a new EC, there was no time for substantive discussion and no next steps or plan agreed upon for the future of the organization.
So as things stand, the membership cannot dialogue because the email listserv is moderated and 'not meant to be used that way' as I was told. At the same time, these same people control the Facebook group and approve posts as they determine appropriate and always with delays.
So we're between a mass resignation and an election, with no elected representatives that hold the membership's trust and no access to the website, the email list, and limited access to the Facebook group & no twitter that I'm aware of.
Enter stage left--Jessica La Embustera and her self-cancellation where she still equivocates about the fact that she was pretending to be BORICUA. https://medium.com/@jessakrug/the-truth-and-the-anti-black-violence-of-my-lies-9a9621401f85
But only a week previous she published this piece of trash https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ZRcdUmT6hXcJ:https://www.essence.com/feature/race-identity-black-women-puerto-rico/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
So now we're just going to sit here and take it, I guess. No statement, no public condemnation from our organization that's supposed to represent us, no united front... Just a bunch of #onvres atrincherados hiding behind lawyers holding hostage the organizations resources.
When what we need is lucid, democratic, transparent leadership willing to take a public stand on this extremely visible issue, which is a great opportunity to address anti-blackness, colorism, and formations of #whiteness and white privilege around Latinidad in the academy.
We can't even discuss this shit freely on our own listserv or Facebook group, fam! Why are we reproducing colonial anti democratic, exclusionary shit, peeps?!?! We need to dialogue about this, mi gente. We need charge at #PRSA and we need it now.
Since the resignations of my courageous colleagues, the org membership went from a few dozen mostly graduate students to over 300 members, most r ppl like me who had basically discarded #PRSA as a sophisticated space for academic work, queer, Black boricuas but now want change.
I feel like we're all trying to hold on to each other as we're being pulled apart, gaslit, impersonated, silenced. But I'm holding on tight bec I know we can do better. The time for this bs is over. Thanks for coming to my TED talk. Oh & fuck J. Krug & the horse she rode in on.
BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE, FOLKS: The people worst affected by all this Krug nonsense are our Afro/Black Latinx and Black Puerto Rican siblings. The following series of tweets centers the work of ACTUAL AFRO BORICUA SCHOLARS! ---->
Hilda Llorens is a badass Black Puerto Rican anthropologist writing about race, ecology and disaster. She is brilliant. Check out "The Race of Disaster: Black Communities and the Crisis in Puerto Rico" https://www.aaihs.org/the-race-of-disaster-black-communities-and-the-crisis-in-puerto-rico/
@zairedinzey Zaire Dinzey-Flores is a Black Puerto Rican sociologist writing about housing policy, urban planning, and racism. Check out her landmark book: "Locked In, Locked Out
Gated Communities in a Puerto Rican City" https://upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15073.html
Gated Communities in a Puerto Rican City" https://upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15073.html
Yomaira Figueroa @DrYoFiggy is a Black Puerto Rican literary and cultural critic whose new book "Decolonizing Diasporas: Radical Mappings of Afro-Atlantic Literature" is just about to drop through Northwestern University Press. Go pre-order a copy now! https://nupress.northwestern.edu/content/decolonizing-diasporas
Isar Godreau is a Black Puerto Rican anthropologist who writes about education, childhood, and race/racism in Puerto Rico. Check out her book "Scripts of Blackness
Race, Cultural Nationalism, and U.S. Colonialism in Puerto Rico" https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/94dfb9zk9780252038907.html
Race, Cultural Nationalism, and U.S. Colonialism in Puerto Rico" https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/94dfb9zk9780252038907.html
Katherine Cepeda is a working class Black Puerto Rican independent scholar who recently published this very original and unique critique of hegemonic race politics in Puerto Rico: https://www.80grados.net/ontologia-barrial-negra-y-criolla-de-puerto-rico/
Mariolga Reyes Cruz is a Black Puerto Rican community psychologist and committed activist. Check out her essay "(De)colonizing culture in Community Psychology: Reflections from Critical Social Science" https://www.academia.edu/35722771/Reyes_Cruz_M_and_Sonn_C_C_2015_De_colonizing_culture_in_Community_Psychology_Reflections_from_Critical_Social_Science_In_R_D_Goodman_and_P_C_Gorski_Decolonizing_Multicultural_Counseling_through_Social_Justice_Springer
Mariluz Franco is a Black Puerto Rican community psychologist who studies racism and affirmations of blackness among women in Puerto Rico. Read her in conversation with others here: https://www.80grados.net/conversacion-justa-sobre-racismo-y-privilegios-de-raza-y-genero-en-puerto-rico/
@BarbyAbadia Barbara Abadia-Rexach is a Black Puerto Rican anthropologist and journalist writing about race, gender, music, and Puerto Rican culture. Read her essay about the summer 2019 protests here: " https://www.academia.edu/42077229/The_Great_Racialized_Puerto_Rican_Family_at_Society_and_Space_" and check out her cool podcast "Negras" on Spotify.
These r just SOME of the amazing, powerful, brilliant & REAL Afro Boricua scholars doing rigorous, thoughtful, incisive, critical work. I am limited to my knowledge of social scientists, so please shout others out & drop links to their work and socials below. #solidarityforever
Thanks to @santiaaurora for helping me get this list together.
& How could I forget!?! @JFernandez693 Johanna Fernández is a Black Puerto Rican historian and radio host with a brand new, authoritative tome on The Young Lords https://uncpress.org/book/9781469653440/the-young-lords/
& massive shout out to Dominican sister Sandy Placido @DrSandyPlacido. Get all the way into Sandy's work: https://www.aaihs.org/a-global-vision-ana-livia-cordero-and-the-puerto-rican-liberation-struggle/
Y claro the one and only @marissel_maruca Dr. Marissel Hernández Romero is a Black Puerto Rican Brazilianist literary critic who also writes about race and culture in Puerto Rico. Check out her latest piece on Afrofuturism in Puerto Rico. https://www.claridadpuertorico.com/afrofuturismo-o-cambiar-el-presente-para-imaginar-un-futuro/
@yarroyopizarro Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro is a Black Puerto Rican novelist, professor and leader in the movement to decolonize Puerto Rico and build an anti-racist Puerto Rican movement and culture. She's the author of many works! See her blog here: http://narrativadeyolanda.blogspot.com/p/obra-publicada.html
@shanteerosado Dr. Shantee Rosado is a Black Puerto Rican and Dominican sociologist who writes about the "Emotional Politics of Race and Blackness in the U.S" and teaches at Rutgers University (my alma mater!). Listen to her on this podcast w/ Agustin Lao: https://www.pbs.org/video/episode-7-diversity-within-the-latino-community-ajblmn/
