Deadric T. Williams
@doc_thoughts
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Associate Professor of Sociology | Tweets == my own. Retweet != endorsement. https://t.co/e3kApXMZyw
Joined July 2010
Saying "It's not race; it's class" is the academic version of all lives matter.
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People love advocating for "diversity" until "diversity" starts to critique and make recommendations for change.
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When are we gonna start talking about them "overserved" communities?.
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Predominately White institutions are STRUCTURED to be predominately White institutions. Your diversity efforts don't work because they are not supposed to.
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Not having to understand how whiteness works is how whiteness works.
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Today I was notified that I earned early promotion to Associate Professor with tenure.
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Research on Black families is considered "race research" but your dataset with 50-leven white respondents is just "research". This is how whiteness gets rendered invisible.
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In 2022, can yall start supporting your POC colleagues during the meeting and not waiting until after the meeting? Make your support public!.
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Americans' ahistorical understanding of the US' racist history runs so deep that being historically accurate will have people believing you're a conspiracy theorist.
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All the grad students I ever went to grad school with and said I talked about race too much owe me a damn apology.
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Racism is not about skin color. Racism is about having the POWER to make skin color salient for the purpose of unequally distributing resources and opportunities.
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People racialized as White live, work, and play in predominately White spaces almost their entire life. Then get into leadership positions tasked to make work spaces less White. 1/2.
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My biggest fear is sociology paying more attention to identity (race, gender, class) and not the structures (white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism) that make identities salient in the first place.
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Y'all realize that the term "diversity" inherently reinforces the logic of "White" as normal. Y'all really don't know how to problematize whiteness.
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People racialized as Black been talking about structural racism for 50-leven years. Scholars racialized as White discovered it last year and the funding flood gates opened up.
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Too many racial inequality scholars begin with the erroneous assumption that race leads to racism. Instead, I urge scholars to assume racism leads to race. These different assumptions affect how we approach research questions and policies.
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I don't study racism to call out racist people. That's counterproductive. Rather, I study racism as a way to pull back the metaphorical covers to expose an oppressive system we ALL are indicted in. Exposing a system for the purpose of dismantling it.
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I'm no longer saying "I study Black families". Instead, I study anti-Black racism and how it impacts families. The former reproduces racial essentialism; the latter centers the social construction of race. Words, like Black lives, matter!.
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Faculty should have jerseys and they should be sold at the campus bookstore. Then students can support their favorite professors. 😆.
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What happened to all the racism committees from Summer 2020? . Where's the measurables? What "progress" been made?!.
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Y'all not making it about race is actually how whiteness works.
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Watch how antiBlack racism gets treated as episodic instead of as an ongoing system of ideologies and structures.
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I critique DEI efforts for three reasons: (1) reproduce racial essentialism; (2) create white savior narratives; (3) mask whiteness. The problem is the people already in the places; not the people y'all trying to bring in.
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But the efforts almost always fail because y'all are asking people to do something that they can't fully comprehend nor want to comprehend. I'm tired of the phony diversity language, and I will no longer engage with it. 2/2.
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Please, for the love of humanity, stop using the word "caucasian.".
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Academia is weird. I had 2 different conversations with people who described my work to me better than I can describe it. Is that normal?.
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Asking scholars of Color to write a diversity statement is insulting.
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Dear Scholars racialized as white:. When scholars of color don't attend predominately white events, it's not about collegiality; it's about self preservation. Ain't nobody time for all that stress.
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My "Intro to Critical Race and Ethnic Studies" course has a wait-list. 😊.
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One of my biggest mistakes in academia is assuming scholars who are racialized as White and study racial inequality understand the role of race in their interpersonal lives.
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Many White liberals are so concerned with not being a White conservative that they don't see how they are also contributing to the stability of White supremacy as a system.
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I love being a professor. I love being a sociologist. I don't love Eurocentric epistemologies getting framed as universal truth.
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Narratives about mask mandates are morphing into narratives about state rights. We've seen this movie before.
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Because DEI is a proverbial pacifier for the purpose of making people racialized as White comfortable with working in a historically White serving institution.
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Please stop saying: "I know I got White privilege." Rather, you live in a system (ideologies & structures) that disproportionately benefits people who are racialized as White.
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It is official. Starting in January 2020, I will be an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Tennessee. I am looking forward to working with new colleagues and contributing to the department's area of "Critical Race and Ethnic Studies".
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Some of y'all are only advocates for diversity as long as the people are in subordinate positions.
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Scholars of Color having to convince people that racial inequality is not an individual level flaw before centering racism in their research is akin to physicists having to prove gravity exists.
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If your diversity plan doesn't address whiteness, then y'all don't have a plan. Y'all have a smokescreen.
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Intellectually tired. Race and racism isn't just an academic interest area. Race and racism structure life and death! I love what I do. But challenging academics to rethink their understanding of racism is daunting.
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You're NOT statistically controlling for race; you're adjusting for experiences with racism. The former assumes racial essentialism.
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Diversity statements are "look what I did for the minorities" statements.
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Honest question: .do people racialized as White ever ask why the spaces they occupy are almost always consistently made up of people racialized as White?.
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"Interlocking systems of oppression" and "intersectional identities" are not the same thing.
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For my race and racisms course, I'm spending a month and a half on settler colonialism. It's not just about "race is a social construction" but adressing "why" and "how" was race socially constructed.
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Plantation sociology: when studies continuously rediscover "racial gaps" but never address how white supremacy makes those gaps possible.
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Most of us were told "race is a social construction" and not taught what social construction means nor why, and for what purpose, race was socially constructed. This is not a small issue as most research is rooted in racial essentialism.
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We should move away from the statement "race is socially constructed" towards framing it as a question: "race was socially constructed for whom, and for what purpose?" Because racial essentialism remains a huge global problem.
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If there are labels like "marginalized communities," then there should be a label "marginalizing communities.".
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Telling POC "it's not always about race" is a form of gaslighting.
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Presenting marriage as an inequality reducing mechanism is historical negligence and an oversimplification of inequality. If y'all did your homework, then you'll see that Black woman (mostly) been writing about this. See readings below👇🏾.
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My Tweets are NOT about White people as this would assume they are ontologically real. Instead, I focus on White supremacy as a system (ideologies and structures) that disproportionately benefits people racialized as White.
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Misspelling my name after I email you is so wild to me. 🤔.
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Admittedly, I don't know what to write when I'm asked how I contribute to diversity. I think the question is absurd.
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Saying a scholar of color isn't a "good fit" in your all White department isn't the race neutral statement you think it is.
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I've attended several academic presentations where the presenter says: "my sample is mostly White so I can't talk about race." . So people racialized as White be in predominantly white spaces and think that space is not about race and racism? 🤷🏾♂️.
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When I have a complete manuscript, I still print it out to edit. I catch errors better this way Another one else does this? Is there a better way?.
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"If I'm bettin' on myself then I completely double down." @JColeNC. From 15-year old father to tenured professor: A Whole Damn Memoir.
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"Race" was created to standardize an unequal relationship. Thus, you're never just nominally racialized as White; you're hierarchically racialized as White.
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Many predominantly White spaces are cesspools of anti-Black racism. So much so that antiBlackness is normal. I was in better physical and mental health when I primarily worked from home.
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My Tweets are for scholars of color (undergrads, grad, and faculty) who are frustrated in predominately White departments with Eurocentric epistemologies. I wish I had my Tweets in grad school just so I didn't feel alone in these spaces.
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Please stop using "structural racism" to refer to Black disadvantage only. Structural racism is also about White advantage.
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Diversity advocacy is designed to make white liberals feel good about their "efforts." Not measurable outcomes; just effort.
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Somehow we celebrate the "first Black person" as a "trailblazer" but render invisible white supremacy restricting Black participation in the 1st place. These celebrations serve as an illusion of racial equality.
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Some folx use the term "diversity" as a stand-in for "colored people." As such, diversity has become institutionalized "othering.".
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Increasingly, I'm starting to think that people saying "I support diversity" has become academia's version of "thoughts and prayers.".
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Y'all. I made a mistake with one of my Tweets. I said these institutions don't value diversity. That's not true. They value within-White diversity: first-gen, working class, rural, Subaru drivers, kale eaters, mountain climbers, etc. I sincerely apologize.
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Y'all. I got in front of the students today and got all the energy. It was standing room only in my "Introduction to Critical Race and Ethnic Studies" course. Everybody had masks on. Fifty students. I may need a bigger classroom. 😉.
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Many social science disciplines over-invested in quantitative methods at the expense of accurately and adequately historicizing, conceptualizing, and theorizing racism. This is why you think that race is a demographic and control variable in quant methods.
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Most social scientists were not taught why, and for what purpose, racial groups were socially constructed. Treating race as an ahistorical demographic characteristic of the population hurts all of us.
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Do scholars get intellectually overwhelmed? Can't get my thoughts together to write. Difficult to explain.
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Confession:.I'm happier than I've ever been. I'm having fun with life--my family, my career, and closest friends. Life's good. I'm not flexing; I'm celebrating. Because several years ago, I was in a dark place. This is what happiness looks like. ✊🏾.
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I moved away from saying "racial differences" to "racial stratification" because the idea of "race differences" is rooted in eugenics whereas "racial stratification" describes what "race" does.
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Racism is a feature of a White supremacy system. Sexism is a feature of a patriarchal system. Poverty is a feature of a capitalist system. Homophobia is a feature of a heteronormative system. Research is most productive when we focus on systems.
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Many scholars think "race" = the minorities. And "diversity" = helping the minorities. Yall really love rendering White supremacy invisible.
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I've encountered too many liberals racialized as White who have nice one-on-one convos using anti-racism language but turn quintessential White when they are around their White peers. We. See. You.
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1/17 There's this weird tension in sociology that when scholars of Color talk about racism, scholars racialized as White interpret this as a neglect of social class. This interpretation shows a lack of understanding about racism and promotes Anti-Blackness.
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Instead, ask: why are predominantly White spaces so difficult to integrate? This question requires self-evaluation, including policies and procedures, social practices, and White racial attitudes that hinder progress. 2/2.
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Two things: (1) treating race as a simple demographic variable benefits whiteness. (2) historizing race as a social construction problematizes whiteness. And that's why (1) is more prevalent than (2) in research studies.
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If y'all say "faculty of Color," then why y'all don't say "faculty of Whites?".
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Wanna help with diversity? Start nominating POC to more than just "diversity committees".
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Damn. Got the call that my Pops passed this morning. 😭.
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Imagine being a student/faculty of color in a predominately White context. And people are saying the most racist shit. And when you call it out, the people say the student/faculty is the problem. Has anyone had this experience? I'm trying to see something.
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Many scholars of Color have been trying to understand racism their entire life. People racialized as White go to a 30-minute DEI presentation and think they know all things, and thus create more harm.
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If y'all don't know how to adequately recruit and retain faculty racialized as Black, then just say that. Stop with the empty diversity language.
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About four years ago, I started to realize many scholars (myself included) were "told" that race is socially constructed but we weren't "taught" what the social construction of race means. So, I've been on a "campaign" to teach race as socially constructed.
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Racial inequality is racism manifested. Scholars shouldn't be asking "what accounts for racial inequality" as if there's some mystery. Rather, scholars should ask: how does racism maintain racial inequality?.
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To all the people who started racism committees at your institutions last summer: what's good!?!.
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Increasing diversity seems to be only for relative subordinate positions (students, staff, assistant professors). I rarely hear about increasing diversity in full profs or the Dean, Provost, Chancellor office.
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White scholars can have over 80% of their analytic sample be white and no one will refer to them as doing "me-search"; instead, the emphasis will be placed on their outcome of interest. Just say y'all study the White population. Don't be scared.
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The social sciences have become a "big business" in producing and distributing "Black Inequality Porn". And many scholars racialized as White are getting off on it via increased salaries, research centers, etc.
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Wait until they learned that enslavers got reparations for losing their enslaved persons after Emancipation.
A new investigative report reveals that while the federal government did grant land to the formerly enslaved after the Civil War, it also took that land back and returned it to white southerners. @IAmAmnaNawaz speaks to @AlexiaCampbell to learn more.
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Diversity is too abstract. Diversity lacks definition. Diversity lacks measurement. Diversity lacks assessment. This is why people racialized as White benefit from diversity and can write glowing diversity statements. Diversity is everything and nothing!.
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I strongly dislike the idea of "the intergenerational transmission of poverty" as if poverty is a disease. Instead, it's the "consistent passing of laws/policies reducing poverty to an individual's moral/character flaw." Poverty is a policy decision!.
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Official. I am a W.T. Grant Scholar @wtgrantfdn. I am thankful for my mentors, @DaveBrady72 and @tysonbrown. They challenged me in important and exciting ways. I am so damn excited right now! .
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There's an increase in scholars who want to measure structural racism (SR). I've attended panels and sessions and workshops. And I'M reading papers. I have a few thoughts.
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I'm so damn animated when I give talks and when I teach. Because I love what I do. 😊 Thanks, @EarlWrightII for the pic. This is a slide I use to describe scholars looking for variables to account for the "racial gap" in a given outcome.
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