White man writes about race

Spoiler: white man is me

Still reading all the Shakespeare. Got a bit mired a while back and didn’t publish much; however, urged by Austin Kleon, I’m trying to show my work more. So here’s a screenshot of what I’m working on: an essay about Othello’s erasure by Iago as one of self-fashioned ‘whiteness’ needing to paradoxically construct and destroy ‘blackness’.

If I’m honest, I think I’ve been putting off a) working on this and b) sharing it because of my ignorance; I’m desperate to get things ‘right’, trying to be aware of my biases and privileges. But I think allowing that (in itself privilged, I think) self-doubt to stop me sharing anything also limits any discussion, any discourse. Far better, I think, to be wrong in public and learn.

And if I’m really honest, this might be one of the reasons I’ve kept away from. Twitter. There are so many people who (I think) know better that me, who might ridicule me, might call me out, might make me feel I shouldn’t write anything, but I know this is a narrative I have wrought for myself. The best place for this kind of discussion is Twitter. So I am also going to post this in thread format there, too, if only to playact some bravery.

Pauses to share to Twitter.

Okay: done.

Back to writing.