jezebel and the phenomenon of using tumblr users' words, largely those of woc, without asking

so today, we got a message here on AAGU about a jezebel article where the user had seen our name. the jezebel article is about the mindy project and how all of mindy’s love interests on the show are white. the article then goes on to say:

A poster on the tumblr Angry Asian Girls United wrote a post defending Kaling when a reader called the show whitewashed:

she’s a darkskinned woman of color with her own show. she’s the first south asian-american woman who has done this. her entire existence and success are against white supremacy. the fact that she is where she is as far as success on TV is not something white people like or something that white people in charge of TV are actively working towards ensuring (some of them are actively making sure it doesn’t happen actually). she could do better with the show, but i also don’t think it’s fair to expect her to shoulder that burden by herself, considering the exceptional position she’s in right now.

i’m sure some of you remember this post from a few days ago when i responded to someone saying the mindy project was whitewashed and in particular, the statement that, “Mindy Kaling’s show is just her way to have white people like her.”

before this article was published, we did not receive any messages from anyone on jezebel asking our permission to use the quote. no one sent us the article to approve the section. no one from jezebel even told us about it. a third party had to send it to us (in a rather ignorant message about our “no white people submitting” policy, i might add).

while it is not per se illegal to use my words without asking me, it is unethical and moreover, journalistically irresponsible. i am also the only one in the article who was not named before being quoted. rather, i am “A poster on the tumblr Angry Asian Girls United.” this is in spite of me having put my name on the original post on the AAGU tumblr.

here’s the thing: i don’t agree with the majority of jezebel’s content. i don’t find articles on there i’m particularly interested in reading. i have read through stuff on there, including comments, and plain and simple do not trust many of the readers of jezebel. i find jezebel as a website to be largely geared towards upholding a very white western version of feminism that i absolutely do not subscribe to.

i also have no interest in engaging with jezebel’s writers or readers on the topic of the mindy project (or any topic, for that matter). yet my words were unwillingly pulled into this topic. our tumblr was unwillingly linked in the article without so much as a “hey, i wrote about you” message.

this is not a new phenomenon for women of color, especially Black women, on tumblr. there are users who have had their words and ideas stolen straight from their tumblrs and incorporated into other articles and not just articles on other informal users’ pages, but articles written by actual journalists or researchers working for established organizations. those words or ideas are never credited. at least this article linked our tumblr, but even then, the idea that you can jump in and use whatever content you want just because it is on tumblr and the person’s name does not seem famous to you? this is a violation of journalistic ethics, and as an organization, you really should know better than that.

it’s as if our words are not even respected. like our consent on whether we want our words being used like this has no meaning. let me say again: i did not want to engage in any of this discourse with jezebel. and yet the message that we got about the article was not from a regular reader of AAGU, but rather someone who saw our page linked on the article. this user came to target and criticize our policies.

that’s honestly just the tip of the iceberg for what can go wrong in a situation like this. people have gotten much worse hate and harassment for being in these situations.

i wrote what i wrote primarily for a website where i engage with other asian women. i did NOT write it for it to be used on any website by anyone. i especially did not write it to engage with largely white readers. and now we have to deal with the consequences of this article being written without our consent being asked for.

it matters who i wanted to engage with because in the article, the writer used my quote in a way i don’t feel fair. she wrote her article and then stuck my quote at the bottom as someone “defending” mindy kaling, when i think that my response was a lot more complex than that. i admitted the show had problems we should discuss, but i took issue with the phrasing of the message and especially of placing the burden singularly on mindy kaling. none of this was reflected in the article. rather, i am simply “A poster on the tumblr Angry Asian Girls United.”

they did not even bother to NAME me in the article. which is to say they felt comfortable enough to use my words to make a point, but not comfortable enough to actually treat me like a person.

this is also why we are currently looking into finding ways to put a creative commons license on this tumblr so that our content can be more protected and this won’t happen again.

quote THIS, jezebel.

-jannat