Image 1
[Hi Senn,
I saw your call for pitches from Black and
Asian women. I’m neither, so please pardon
me if my emailing you is impudent, it’s just I’m
looking for a home for a piece I thought
AAUW might find interesting and hadn’t
thought to send it to you until I saw your
tweet.
I’m attaching the 3,200-word semi-reported
essay, the through line of which is a hate
crime I witnessed against three women
wearing hijabs. It also touches on other hate
crimes and assaults to which I’ve had a near
degree of separation or personally
experienced. Other themes include, modesty
(or lack thereof), misogyny, and innocence
lost.
Ideally, I’d love to see this published before
the election and find a home for it that pays–
finances being tight!
Thanks so much for giving it a look.
Kind regards,
Amv Roost]
Image 2
[Hi Amy, this is a project that explores Black
and Asian feminist solidarity. It’s hosted by the
Asian American Writers Workshop, whose
acronym you misspelled.
Not only did I explicitly state in my call for
submissions that I’m seeking work from
BLACK and ASIAN American writers, but if you
had researched me or my organization you
would know that this work is centered around
exploring and advocating for gender justice
outside of white feminism.
It is so offensive to assume you have a right
to take up space in a platform very clearly not
meant for you when women of color continue
to face egregious systemic barriers to success
and visibility in journalism.
Senn]
Image 3
[Senn,
My sincere apologies. My near-sighedness
saw AAUW, an organization with which I have
more familiarity.
However, I must say, you lack professionalism
and if you’d looked at my essay–just for the
heck of it–you’d see that your assumptions
about me are wildly off target.
Be well,]
Image 4
[Based on the fact that you sent me an essay
about violence perpetrated against people of
color in which you centered your own
experiences (to a call for submissions that
again explicitly called for work from Black and
Asian writers), and then insulted my
”professionalism” for rightly and directly
calling out your racism instead of reflecting on
it, my assumptions about you seem exactly
right.
Have a good night! I do not need to hear from
you again.]
Image 5
[Amy Roost to Personal Essayists
I received the rudest rejection letter of my life today for having misread a Tweet by the director of AAWW (Asian American Writers Workshop). My nearsightedness saw AAUW (American Association of University Women–of which I’m a member), and I pitched, accordingly, a piece about a hate crime I
witnessed against three Muslim women. She
responded with seething clap back about how
offensive it was of me to assume I had a right to take up space in a platform very clearly not meant for me when women of color continue to face egregious systemic barriers to success and visibility in journalism. I mean, yeah. That’s all true, if it were true. Sheesh! ]
OP https://twitter.com/senti_narwhal/status/1316379426892984320?s=19