Erin Overbey
@erinoverbey
Followers
46,489
Following
11,949
Media
509
Statuses
24,592
Archive Editor, @NewYorker + Classics newsletter editor. NYer archivist since 1994. IG & Threads: erin.overbey
Manhattan
Joined March 2009
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
スタンプ
• 150173 Tweets
GPT-4o
• 120887 Tweets
#WWERaw
• 92549 Tweets
Luka
• 75027 Tweets
Dallas
• 47910 Tweets
Mavs
• 33284 Tweets
Shai
• 27879 Tweets
#บุ้งทะลุวัง
• 25375 Tweets
Gunther
• 19494 Tweets
#GmmTreatFourthBetter
• 18953 Tweets
Ilja
• 18283 Tweets
Change Fourth Manager
• 16931 Tweets
書類送検
• 16373 Tweets
スナック
• 15619 Tweets
スクエニ
• 15345 Tweets
Jey Uso
• 13999 Tweets
Jリーグカレー
• 13026 Tweets
Mavericks
• 11900 Tweets
Chet
• 11759 Tweets
ITAM
• 11412 Tweets
로즈데이
• 10079 Tweets
Giddey
• 10058 Tweets
違法ケシ発見
• 10053 Tweets
Pinned Tweet
Let’s talk about racism! Most white people at prestigious magazines don’t ever want to talk about race or diversity at all. Why? It's primarily because they’ve been allowed to exist in a world where their mastheads resemble member registries at Southern country clubs circa 1950..
478
3K
12K
Tina Fey had Jimmy Fallon dead to rights more than a decade ago in her memoir Bossypants. Will never forget this account about his exchange w/Amy Poehler in an SNL writers’ room…
357
4K
75K
our
@time
people of the year: the journalists & humanitarian workers of gaza
Taylor Swift has been named TIME’s Person of the Year.
424
3K
26K
101
23K
64K
So the
@New
Yorker has fired me, effective immediately. I’m speaking with the union about potentially filing a grievance on the termination. But here are some things that I will say….
2K
9K
56K
haaretz & al jazeera out here making all of western media look like substitute junior varsity coaches at a suburban connecticut middle school
176
4K
17K
The
@NewYorker
has never contested the facts as I have stated them: 1) that I was put under a performance review shortly after sending an email raising concerns about gender inequality & inclusion at the magazine;
74
1K
16K
Whenever you raise concerns, criticisms, or alarms about one of the most powerful institutions in media, they will use every tool at their disposal to oppose you. That is their prerogative.
31
933
14K
Legacy media in 2022 has proven that it’s incapable of accurately reflecting the world that it covers when its own industry is comprised primarily of white employees from privileged backgrounds. Period.
154
2K
14K
2) that several errors that were cited in an email reprimanding me while I was under the performance review were not mine; and 3) that these were errors that David Remnick added to the copy.
16
672
13K
Additionally, the
@NewYorker
has never disputed that my two weekly archive newsletters have consistently been the top-performing newsletters at the magazine, with unique open rates of ~72% and ~54%, respectively. Nor that the subscriber base is avid & comes in at around ~270K.
28
546
12K
The
@NewYorker
is, in many ways, a wonderful institution. But it’s also ground zero for a kind of regressive literary gatekeeping, class exclusivity & old-school cultural thinking that simply no longer have any relation to, or frankly relevance in, the modern world as we know it.
63
1K
12K
The
@NewYorker
has also never disputed the magazine’s diversity data that I presented in a thread last year nor has it disputed the accuracy of my salary information which I highlighted in a thread on pay transparency & gender inequality back in March.
23
644
12K
The magazine has also not disputed the fact that, after raising my concerns, I was subjected to a performance review that entailed absurdly subjective interpretations of “factual inaccuracies,” bizarre charges of “disrespect,” and so on & so forth.
21
547
12K
Several yrs ago, when my
@NewYorker
newsletter hit a 70%+ unique open rate (as I've mentioned previously here), I noted this accomplishment to a male icon of journalism. I was pleased by this feat & thought he would be, too. Instead, he turned to me & said, “Now don’t get cocky!”
304
1K
12K
At the time, I was growing increasingly concerned that 1) no Black editors for feature pieces existed then at the
@NewYorker
; and 2) this meant that almost none of the longform feature pieces—those sent up for Pulitzers, etc.—had been edited by a Black editor in nearly 15 years.
28
928
11K
The email I sent reiterating my concerns about gender inequality in the workplace was sent on June 14th. I was put under a performance review on Friday, June 17th.
22
624
11K
jfc. it’s becoming harder & harder to escape the harsh reality that western editors & mainstream media outlets &newsrooms simply do not view arab & palestinian journalists as colleagues worthy of the same human rights & protections of international law as their white counterparts
32
4K
10K
This seemed to me to be a major issue of concern. If less than 10 longform feature pieces (ie, excluding Fiction, Talk, Poetry) are edited by a senior Black editor within a 14-year span (w/~ 230 feature pieces pub’d a yr) at a magazine w/such a huge influence, something is wrong.
15
516
9K
The email I sent on June 14th was by no means the first email I’d sent about my concerns about diversity & inclusion at the
@NewYorker
. I’d been speaking out in-house (& subsequently publicly) for some time now.
10
347
8K
In fact, he possessed no prior background in archival work before he was hired to run the Archive Dept at the
@NewYorker
. We both applied for the job at the same time & I had ~ 17 yrs worth of archive experience. (I detailed a part of this in my salary thread this past March.)
13
449
8K
That summer, I also sent a note to management pointing out that I’d discovered the male Archive Editor who held the position before me (& was paid 20% more than I was making in the job) hadn’t possessed the minimum archive qualifications required in the job listing when posted.
25
613
8K
The magazine didn't inform me about his lack of archive qualifications when he was hired & I only found out about it later. This seemed to me to be highly problematic vis a vis gender equality & the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and I spoke up about this.
10
342
8K
Here are the facts. I first started tracking
@NewYorker
diversity data in 2019, as I’ve previously stated in several interviews. Here’s a screen shot with the exact dates showing that this is the case.
10
406
7K
The editor I asked to have removed—and who was then informed of my request—is the same editor who has included all of the so-called “factual inaccuracies,” allegations of “disrespect,” etc., in my recent performance review. A review then used, in part, to justify my termination.
15
366
7K
In May of 2021, I grew even more concerned. I learned that, during a union bargaining session w/the company, “diverse hires” were referred to by an outside proxy as “taking longer” & that it was asserted that “a diverse hire” is separate from “the right hire.”
53
485
7K
I also wrote myself a note about this incident (intending to send it to management), but since the
@NewYorker
had taken to referring to my concerns about equality & inclusivity as “baseless accusations,” I sent it to myself instead (time-stamped).
7
313
7K
w.t.f.
this is absolutely appalling
gabriella karefa-johnson is one of the best editors-if not THE best-& creative visionaries that
@voguemagazine
has
she was the 1st black woman to style a cover for american vogue(!)
i really hope they rethink this decision..
gabriella karefa-johnson (vogue editor and the mastermind behind all of these issues and more for those who don’t know her) no longer works at vogue magazine following her vocal support for palestine. this just can’t keep happening
59
20K
99K
53
2K
6K
This appeared to anger them intensely; but I kept pressing the issue. Subsequently, in August of last year, I sent an email to management asking to work with a different editor due to editorial style & the sense that another editor who understood Classics would be a better fit.
6
253
6K
I may be an imperfect messenger, but I know enough to comprehend that there is never a “suitable” time for change. Change comes about because people refuse to wait for the suitable time. The now is always right now.
23
650
6K
dear reader, the audible gasp i gave when reading the emails a certain nepo baby journalist sent to a respected Stanford professor
these go beyond a sense of entitlement…this is something uglier. this level of disrespect toward a distinguished Black professor is just appalling
344
2K
13K
What can’t be disputed, however, are the facts as I have presented them—since I have the documentation, screen shots & emails to back everything up.
13
210
6K
this
@nytimes
column by thomas friedman comparing countries in the middle east to animals, pests & insects is so virulently racist it could have run in der sturmer or on radio rwanda pre-‘94 genocide
it’s appallingly offensive & friedman should be fired
368
2K
5K
A few days after I requested a new editor, the magazine then hit me with an allegation of an instance of self-plagiarism. Again, it’s their prerogative to do so.
18
230
5K
“Now don’t get cocky..” Those words still echo in my ears. I don’t think I’ve ever, in all my years in journalism, heard a male journalist warned not to be “cocky” or told to be quiet about his professional achievements. But it’s something many women know & deeply understand. 2/
60
292
5K
So throw the gates wide open. The only bubbles that you’ll be bursting are your own—and they’re insular, privileged & white af. You’re not protecting a long-standing prestigious “journalistic legacy” You’re teaching a new generation exactly how to become dinosaurs.
20
346
5K
In 2020, I wrote a Classics archive newsletter about Burkhard Bilger’s terrific piece “Egg Men,” on Las Vegas short-order cooks. This piece, while fantastic, really has, in my opinion, one perfect quote & I used it in this newsletter.
6
204
5K
But it did give them a weapon to use against me, and I think, for a time, they thought that would shut me up. And I understand that thinking.
6
184
5K
A year later, in 2021, I wrote ~5 lines in a Sunday reading post about a collection of magazine food pieces that referenced this piece, used the same quote, and also used similar lines that had appeared in the Classics newsletter a year prior.
8
199
5K
Classics newsletters are never published on the site; they are sent in newsletter format only. But fair enough; the point is taken, and it has never been repeated in any of my archive newsletters ever again.
8
189
5K
I’m sure the accusations from the magazine and its allies will come & will be swift. As I’ve said, it’s their prerogative. I’ll try to respond to any & all that come.
8
175
5K
I also understand if, after hearing this, you decide that you’d prefer to no longer follow me. That’s your choice & I completely respect it.
76
167
5K
I’ve been following the pay discourse on this site for a while & think it’s important for the movement toward salary transparency (particularly vis a vis gender & race) to continue to grow, so here’s my account..
#internationalwomensday
1/
61
1K
4K
Why is this important? Because otherwise friendly, decent white people are really the bedrock upon which passive racism maintains its grip on media mastheads & editorial departments. And when ppl look up to you as an example for an entire industry, this shit is just embarrassing
28
611
4K
Hi everyone, I’m overwhelmed at the level of response to this & support I’ve received. Thank you..more later. But right now (urgently),
@NewYorker
has refused an extension to August & my healthcare coverage is ending in 3 days. So thoughts,pls, which is better—COBRA or Obamacare?
483
226
4K
You see, one of the greatest tricks white liberalism ever pulled is convincing white ppl that it’s far worse to be called certain names—unlikable, hypocritical, etc.—than it is to remain passive & apathetic for literally decades in the face of a multitude of systemic injustices.
11
980
4K
In the last 15 years at the
@NewYorker
, during the tenure of editor-in-chief David Remnick (author of a bio on Obama), less than 0.01% of print feature & critics pieces have ever been edited by a Black editor.
29
781
4K
As we watch what’s unfolding in Gaza, I keep returning to this Feb tweet by a journalist I respect who saw a Palestinian man assaulted by an Israeli soldier right in front of him & focused on how dehumanizing it was for the SOLDIER
Western media observes but lacks eyes that see
I never had a source assaulted in front of me until today when an Israeli soldier who stopped my interview did this with a Palestinian peace activist Issa Amro in Hebron. I can't stop thinking how dehumanizing the occupation is on the young soldiers charged with enforcing it.
5K
10K
27K
28
1K
4K
Hey
@nytdavidbrooks
, remember when Carol Moseley Braun got on an elevator with Jesse Helms in 1993 & he started singing “Dixie,” then later said that he wanted to make her cry?
Because I sure do. And you should, too, since you were WSJ’s op-ed editor at the time. Have a nice day
The most important story about why Americans have become sad and alienated and rude, I believe, is also the simplest: We inhabit a society in which people are no longer trained in how to treat others with kindness and consideration.
1K
711
3K
39
750
4K
White people are rarely actively racist at these publications. They simply never bother to challenge the status quo—typically out of concern that they will be inconvenienced or made to feel uncomfortable. And so the status quo often remains entrenched for literally decades.
38
476
4K
I believe we’re witnessing a sea change in the way thousands of women (& some men) in the media view their industry & in the way they feel able to speak out about industry injustices. And I believe that this sea change is frightening to those in power. 3/
14
235
4K
this
@newyorker
piece by adam rasgon was one of the first-and worst-pieces of journalism to legitimize the baseless lie that palestinian journalists in gaza were promoting hamas propaganda—putting more journalists’ lives at risk.
@nytimes
hiring its author is shameful & a scandal
As
@nytimes
continues to come under fire for anti-Palestinian bias, Adam Rasgon is joining their Jerusalem bureau. Only days after Israel killed Al Jazeera’s Wael Al Dahdouh’s wife and children, Rasgon co-wrote a
@NewYorker
piece smearing Wael’s journalism as “Hamas propaganda.”
127
2K
6K
43
1K
4K
israel has now outlawed expressions of palestinian joy. read that again..
joy is not a crime;it’s an expression of hope & dignity in the face of adversity
so this weekend let’s highlight & uplift displays/expressions of palestinian joy
feel free to add to this🧵
#palestinianjoy
92
2K
4K
That’s all for now. I’m happy to answer any questions. And thanks for listening.
93
97
4K
So apparently, just as I predicted, several hit pieces incoming. I’m not going to mention the outlets because I happen to like media reporters & I’m such a sucker that I want to give even those filing negative stories their chance! These guys do hard work, too..
41
261
4K
The male colleague at the magazine who added these errors to my copy while I was under performance review is David Remnick, the
@NewYorker
’s Editor-in-Chief. I don’t pretend to understand why he did this. I do know that he has intimate knowledge of Malcolm’s work & when she died.
43
491
3K
So I was waiting for another hit piece to drop before responding to the
@Gawker
piece, but feel like it’s important to respond to this now. But first, does the
@NewYorker
still have a fact-checking dept?? Does
@Gawker
? So buckle up, kids—this will be a long one…
48
533
3K
After several weeks of dealing w/this circus, I have something I’d like to say about the
@NewYorker
, the legacy media world & the tactics of white hegemony.
37
564
3K
In its 96 years of existence, the
@NewYorker
print mag has published only 4 book reviews by African-American women. (That’s less than 0.01%.) In the last 30 years (1990-2020), 3.6% of the book reviews
@NewYorker
mag has published were by Black critics or writers.
30
689
3K
Whenever you attempt to target and/or set a trap for an employee—especially an institutional critic—there’s always the risk of overreaching. It’s best to understand that, in going to such lengths to accuse someone, there’s always a chance of finding oneself caught instead. 40/
87
158
3K
“dropping bombs on children, on refugee camps.. i worry for the souls of people who can do this & can sleep at night.”
ta-nehisi coates just put the whole silent literary/media community on notice🔥
62
1K
3K
Being a female whistleblower—or any whistleblower, really—on diversity & gender inequality in the media industry is not easy. It’s actually quite difficult. I haven’t talked about this before but I will now (a bit)… 4/
14
169
3K
The minutiae and the almost granular detail—the never knowing if you’re going to be called disrespectful or be told that you’re In error—is actually the point. It’s meant to keep you so preoccupied and distracted that you become too exhausted or overwhelmed to keep speaking out.
11
283
3K
Everything in the legacy media world, an establishment industry after all (no matter how progressive the publication), is geared toward keeping the status quo. And there’s tremendous pressure put on anyone who questions or seeks to change it. 5/
7
215
3K
Fun fact about the
@nytimes
“working-class” champion & explainer Bret Stephens. He attended the private boarding school Middlesex, in Concord. The same school that became embroiled in controversy after it rescinded a speaking invitation to 1619 Project creator Nikole Hannah-Jones
In Opinion
Joe Biden’s decision to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in student loans “just seems to me like yet another case of Democrats getting on the wrong side of working-class America,” Bret Stephens tells Gail Collins.
907
74
605
23
545
2K
Imagine someone pouring a bag of rice out on the floor and asking you to pick up every grain. Then imagine if, every time you spoke up about an injustice, another bag of rice was poured out & you were asked to stop and pick each grain up again. There’s a method to the madness.26/
9
271
2K
For example, does anyone know how many of the 40,000+ feature & critics pieces that the
@NewYorker
(the print mag) has published in its 96-year existence have ever been edited by a Black editor? I’ll make this an easy one—multiple choice:
a) 6%
b) <2%
c) <0.5%
35
363
2K
Twenty-seven years ago this month, Adam Gopnik wrote these words in a 1991
@NewYorker
comment on the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings: "A man's career is assumed—by the man, and by other men—to be the equivalent of a woman's life." 1/
26
1K
2K
We should be very clear. When powerful institutions seek to make women feel intimidated or silenced, it’s because they're afraid of the power of one voice—and its potential to influence others. 27/
4
295
2K
So, let’s go through these, shall we. Being “disrespectful.” I have, it is true, consistently & persistently SUWF—a.k.a. Spoken Up While Female. For people or institutions unaccustomed to this, it can sometimes be perceived (incorrectly) as a sign of disrespect. 13/
9
149
2K
My friend
@MollyJongFast
is now an editor-at-large at
@thedailybeast
. Huge congrats, Molly, and so well deserved!💫
47
232
2K
I’ll be looking into pursuing a complaint on this matter—but, in the meantime, I would hope that the
@NewYorker
would have the decency to offer me an apology for seeking to penalize a longtime female employee w/a successful record for errors made by the magazine’s EIC. 38/
11
138
2K
These publications tend to claim that all they want is for people to voice these concerns in-house—away from social media & the eyes of the public. But we all know that’s not really true. Many employees who try to voice concerns in-house are often labeled problematic or penalized
7
153
2K
Publications or legacy magazines that happily publish feature pieces on the lack of diversity in other fields may often use tactics ranging from icing you out professionally to workplace penalties to keep people from speaking up about inequality in their workplace. 6/
3
173
2K
And there were actually more Profiles written by women in the first decade of
@NewYorker
’s existence (1925-1935) than there were published by women from 1990-2000. From 1925-1935, 26 women wrote 64 Profiles; from 1990-2000, 18 women wrote 29 Profiles.
13
382
2K
By the way, all of this information is public & anyone who wishes to can do their own research into the data. I encourage everyone to explore the
@NewYorker
’s diversity ratios, as well as those of other influential publications.
91
189
2K
Four days after I sent an email again raising concerns about gender parity in the workplace, I was informed that I was being put under a “performance review” by the
@NewYorker
. 10/
8
210
2K
But frankly, I think a great deal of it has to do w/men (particularly white men) not pulling their weight on this issue. Men know that their female colleagues are consistently underpaid. They’d have to be deaf, dumb & blind not to. 11/
8
238
2K
It’s time for men in media & other industries to step up & start being more open publicly about their own salaries & their own privilege. And it’s time for more white women speak up about what they’re currently being paid, as well. 12/
11
323
2K
Hi guys, just a note to say that there’s a lot going on, so I’m not as active today, but I’m still here, am not going away & I’m not going to stop speaking up. Also, attacks don’t intimidate me. Thanks.
37
51
2K
“So the
@NewYorker
has fired me.” A [sic] of my own..
So the
@New
Yorker has fired me, effective immediately. I’m speaking with the union about potentially filing a grievance on the termination. But here are some things that I will say….
2K
9K
56K
59
217
2K
It’s meant to make you never want to speak out again. And it’s meant to make you understand the cost of raising your voice—to your career & to you professionally. 26/
6
158
2K
It was nearly a year ago that I spoke out publicly on the lack of diversity in legacy media. And, coincidentally, I was now being told that “for nearly a year” there had been concerns about my job performance. This is helpful to know. 12/
4
148
2K
I would like to think that the
@NewYorker
fully understands how professionally serious & deeply offensive it is to be accused, reprimanded & penalized for errors that are not one’s own. I have a copy of the email that Remnick sent me should they like to see it. 37/
3
128
2K
From 1990-2020,
@NewYorker
mag published only 7 Book reviews by Latino writers and 12 book reviews by Asian-Americans. Less than 1% of the book reviews
@NewYorker
has published are by Indian-Americans. Only 28% of all print book reviews are by women.
11
396
2K
As I said, these errors were not my errors. They were added to my copy by a male colleague who knew that I was under a performance review & could be penalized or reprimanded severely for them. 33/
6
169
2K
One of them is relying on multiple anonymous
@NewYorker
sources who claim I’m “hostile” & “opportunistic.” I guess women are “opportunistic” when they query pay?? But also, I’d have to be the dumbest opportunistic person on the planet to keep putting myself on the line like this
20
99
2K
From 1990-2020, the
@NewYorker
print mag published 0 cinema reviews by writers or critics of color. In the last 30 years, only 2.5% of the magazine’s cinema reviews have been written by women—including 10 reviews by Pauline Kael in ‘90 & ‘91.
5
377
2K
What I don’t understand is how white editorial staffers at a magazine like
@NewYorker
could not have noticed that there was no senior Black editor on staff for nearly 15 years. And that this meant that almost no feature pieces during all of that time were edited by a Black editor
6
314
2K
All of which is to say that I’ve been under a tremendous amount of pressure lately due to my persistence & consistency in speaking up and refusing to stay quiet about workplace inequality. 8/
7
79
2K
I also hope that speaking out on this will make other publications think twice about going after or seeking to punish whistleblowers & institutional critics. (Especially ones who have previously been given awards for “outstanding achievement” by….their own companies.) 39/
6
89
2K
The performance review was being instituted, I was told, on the grounds that I was, in part, being “disrespectful,” potentially “insubordinate,” had factual inaccuracies in my writing & was “violating policy” by resurfacing similar themes & content & speaking about Hiroshima. 11/
8
84
2K
this is grave & heartbreaking
gaza’s main library has been destroyed. libraries, as philip pullman said, are the “open democratic spaces” of our lives & being
as archivists, librarians & human beings, we must speak out. this destruction of palestinian culture & memory must end
5
981
2K
Most recently, I've raised concerns about an archive project where I was told that it was a requirement of my job to “assist” the male colleague appointed to lead the project. I had concerns about this dynamic & our disparate qualifications & raised them several times. 9/
3
71
2K