Read on Twitter
Lately I've been having difficulty marshalling how angry I am at different registers of thing. Within a given half hour I find myself incapacitated with fury at about 4-5 different bads, unable to address them productively, just wanting to scream but uncertain of the net benefit.
One of the further, compounding difficulties of Twitter is that I don't want to raise a serious issue without having some action to offer, some solve. With so much to be angry about it feels important to bring some direction & rigour to my rage, so it doesn't just swallow me.
There's this tragic aspect to social media, especially during the pandemic. Usually when we're hurting we can vent to someone who's hurting less, share burdens, take turns carrying things. But on Twitter, nothing's alleviated--only compounded, by the nature of the medium.
Talking about this dispassionately is, for me, a sort of solve. I want to name & own how furious I am. I want to be in solidarity with the people on whose behalf I feel this. & out of the 3-5 things about which I'm hot-in-the-face angry, I'll single out 1 I feel able to address.
I've loved & recommended Fireside Fiction for years, suggesting my students submit stories to it, singing the praises of its editorial team (when it still had one) & values (when it abided by them), admiring its innovations with design. & I can't do that anymore.
Pablo Defendini hired a white man to narrate the audio for an issue which--in addition to being guest-edited by Maurice Broaddus, whose oeuvre is full of intervocality, belonging, & the complexities of identity--contained an essay by Dr. Regina Bradley. https://twitter.com/redclayscholar/status/1331242578763722752?s=20
He apologizes for this frankly inconceivable failure here: https://firesidefiction.com/regarding-our-audio-recordings
He acknowledges, "I chose a white man to narrate this issue — edited by a Black man and featuring multiple works by non-white authors. That was negligent of me."
This is wildly insufficient.
He acknowledges, "I chose a white man to narrate this issue — edited by a Black man and featuring multiple works by non-white authors. That was negligent of me."
This is wildly insufficient.
There is negligence, & then there is reckless fucking endangerment. There is negligence, & then there is such a catastrophic failure of responsibility -- to your authors, your editors, your audience, your STATED VALUES, your magazine's whole purported reason for being.
I can't fix Fireside Fiction. I don't know what fixing it looks like. I don't think a breach of trust of this magnitude can be healed, at the same time that I don't want the work already acquired--work by PoC, edited by another guest editor of colour--to be orphaned.
I've been too angry to talk about this, so today I found a minute to sit & read Dr. Bradley's article.
It's fucking excellent, & fascinating, you should read it if you haven't yet. https://firesidefiction.com/da-art-of-speculatin
It's fucking excellent, & fascinating, you should read it if you haven't yet. https://firesidefiction.com/da-art-of-speculatin
