I haven't really said anything about this whole situation, but it's harming people I respect, so here goes.

About a week ago, an anonymous account attacked Sydnee Wagner for talking about having anti-Semitic slurs shouted at her. #AcademicChatter #AcademicTwitter #ShakeRace

This account, which goes by MistressSnowPhD, claims that Sydnee is lying about being of Jewish heritage. When several BIPOC scholars defended Sydnee, the account attacked them as well.

The account then dropped a long thread full of information about Sydnee, including family records, obituaries of grandparents, & immigration records, claiming that these proved Sydnee was lying about being both of Romani & Jewish heritage bc the docs don't mention such heritage.

I will be clear here: as a white person, I do not get to weigh in on Sydnee's identity.

How BIPOC people interpret the evidence is their own business. It should not be policed by white people, myself included.

The BIPOC community of pre-modern race scholars that Sydnee has been a part of has mostly stated that they accept Sydnee's explanation and don't believe she is faking her race.

The problem is that white people are attacking them for that choice.

Some POC scholars have even been named and attacked despite having said literally nothing on the matter. This should tell you that there is more afoot here.

This is part of a larger pattern: white people policing BIPOC scholars' behavior around this matter. Snow has claimed that BIPOC who block her followers are attacking them.

BIPOC scholars, mostly ECRs, are having their accounts reported, being screenshot, & attacked.

White people do not get to decide how BIPOC scholars use their platforms. We do not get to tell them how to think about race.

White people do not get to make that call for the BIPOC scholars of Shakerace & RB4R.

My problem is that any number of white ppl have taken this situation as license to attack BIPOC scholars they think are in the wrong.

Race is complicated and its boundaries are fraught and difficult to define. White people have long insisted that we are the arbitrators of race.

We are not.

Doing harm to BIPOC scholars on race who have chosen to accept Sydnee's story is not antiracism.

It further centers white authority on race and harms already marginalized scholars.