You do not need to be part of any particular social media clique to be a successful author/publishing professional.

You don't need an agent from a particular friend group to get a good book deal. You don't need the approval of every author in your genre to write.

Author branding limited to publishing/querying/subbing doesn't attract a wide audience. Your branding should be rooted in you, your interest, and your work, or your profile will never grow.

This goes especially for marginalized authors. You do not need the approval of any one Diverse Author Clique to write. Acting like people do just puts more obstacles in their path.

I get it--this stuff can be really painful, especially when you're new and haven't seen how things work behind the scenes. But you can always say "wow, that popular author is a jerk, I'm disengaging!"

Step back. Do the work. Be ethical.