@aliciasanchez I scrolled back to find this so I could tell you how I often I quote this tweet IRL. “Pass the mic” is such a brilliant turn of phrase. Thank you!!!

@kate_depalma Thank you! 🥺🙏🏾

@aliciasanchez Speak 🗣 #facts

@aliciasanchez @ChidinmaIbePhD 💯💯 #PassTheMic

@aliciasanchez Well said.

@aliciasanchez @aisha1908 I think we also may have to create spaces, which is much harder.

@aliciasanchez Our work is not to be other people's voice or perform the charity of passing the mic. Our work is to build the organizations through which people can take action and step into their power and through that build political power.

@aliciasanchez @BAJItweet Until you’ve been in rooms where people smiled instead of tearing down the lies of structural racism with truth & would cringe at even picking up a mic let alone pass it There are times when you must speak until those who you speak for are strong enough to take the mic

@aliciasanchez @xl772 People using “voiceless” to mean people and not animals now, wtf?

@aliciasanchez @literElly I always hated this attitude. Especially since the “voiceless” often aren’t even silent. They’re very vocal. They’re just ignored. Every marginalized community I belong to and all those I support has always been chock full of very vocal voices. We/they just want people to listen!

@aliciasanchez 💯 Same thing with referring to communities as disempowered or assuming a group wants a seat at the table you deem valuable. Language can reinforce the same narrative we are trying to dismantle

@aliciasanchez @UniqueBrownGirl Ok… wow. This is really helpful.

@aliciasanchez This is 'within' disciplines too. I'm Wiradjuri - Aboriginal, First Peoples of Australia but know I can't speak for all First Peoples or on a heap of issues we experience. I detest being asked to also, by white ppl. My little domain, my boundaries- respect them, focus on them.

@aliciasanchez “give voice to the voiceless” on the SPJ ethics always made me feel icky, and you articulated exactly why! i’m not anyone else’s voice: all i can do is offer my platform to amplify other’s voices

@aliciasanchez @ZJAyres True...

@aliciasanchez @SchviftyFive Omg all of this yes

@aliciasanchez @hannawon72 @koriedean This is similar to what you wrote a year ago when I asked “why you write.”

@aliciasanchez Imagine the ones with voices not speaking up because they think it’s not their place to speak for the voiceless. Imagine the ones with the mic not passing it on because they are still trying to understand how they got access to it in the first place?

@aliciasanchez I feel this way about all the ppl who have anointed themselves the voice of black ppl