I've been refining my take after reading some interpretation and explanations and this is final take:

Not every book will or should be for a white audience. It should cater to whoever they want. But the tweet also also seems to assume that every non white person has sufficient knowledge of their own culture to understand everything being written. Of course maybe that kind of person is not the intended audience which is also fine, but it's a bit alienating to be told that you're not entitled to learn about your own culture just because some random :lmayo: might benefit from a free translation

And no, this is not written by some mad white guy who doesn't understand what shawarma means. It's coming from an Asian immigrant who's far removed from his culture with little resources in English to learn about it.

  • thekid [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    the content of the tweet makes sense, it's just written in a silly way.

    the first line implying that some people are more worthy of footnotes than others is dumb. also, who is this even for? like your example, this is something that's always been done in writing but couched in "it's not my job to educate you" language

    • pooh [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      the first line implying that some people are more worthy of footnotes than others is dumb.

      I took it to mean there is more pressure on POC writers to explain these things to white readers who might otherwise not be familiar with a particular language/culture being portrayed, not that anyone is more deserving than anyone else. As others have said, I think it's likely this is an angry response to an editor who told her to explain or delete something in order to avoid confusing readers and sell more books to a larger (and more white) audience.