Thread by @keikoinboston

1. I attended a panel a few years ago that I found out when I arrived was “closed to media”. I was there in my capacity as a blogger and as a community member. I had actually declined a spot on the panel in part so I could cover it.
japaneseamericaninboston.blogspot.com/2015/10/part-1…
#KimonoWednesdays

https://twitter.com/seungminkim/status/1030474904565678080

2. I made a bootleg recording and wrote about it anyway. If I hadn’t, there would have been no coverage and no recording for the public to listen to. The organizers took ~4 months to release audio & transcript.
#KimonoWednesdays

3. The organizers didn’t seem to mind. I’m unclear if they considered me not media since I’m not part of the mainstream media or if they felt it was okay because I’d been covering the #KimonoWednesdays protests all along and am also a member of the Asian American community.

4. The event was held at MassArt, a public state college, and in theory was open to the public, but when I inquired with the communications office, I was told that classrooms are considered private, not public space. I’m still not sure if it was legal to ban the press.

5. The reasoning from organizers was to create a “safe space” for attendees to feel free to speak, even though they recorded it and were planning to release a transcript. I’m unclear if media had shown up and identified themselves as such if they would have been asked to leave.

6. Organizers also tried to make the event POC only but that was illegal. Several people contacted MassArt about it and the student who booked the room was told that was not okay.

japaneseamericaninboston.blogspot.com/2015/10/part-1…

7. I was told the reason for this was again to create a safe space for Asian Americans to speak. Other POC were said to be welcome. So this means that the organizers felt that if white people were present, Asian American audience members would not feel comfortable speaking.

8. There was an Asian American police officer assigned to work the event. He tried to stand in the back of the room but was asked by organizers to stand in the hallway, again, for comfort of the audience members. I didn’t speak to him but my friend did and said he was very nice.

9. Organizers also provided two "wellness support" people should anyone need to "check in with folks who need support during the event". I didn’t see anyone avail themselves of this.

10. Even though I went to a very far left college I’ve never in my life been to a panel where 2 professors were speaking, where so many measures were taken or attempted to provide a “safe space” for the audience.

11. I’ve since learned that in certain leftist circles this is standard procedure now:
- make event POC/queer/women/etc. only
- ask police officers to stand somewhere else; come out of uniform (see Evergreen St Coll)
- provide some sort of therapeutic support
- ban media/photos

12. Whoever planned the event for Ocasio-Cortez must be someone who moves in these circles on the left. Safety of marginalized members of audience may be prioritized above:
- the law
- historical best practices
- safety of “non-marginalized” audience members

13. We saw this at Evergreen State College in spring 2017 where comfort of POC protesters was put above safety of @BretWeinstein, his students (white & POC) and other white students in audience at a meeting between President George Bridges & community members.

@BretWeinstein 14. President Bridges asked Police Chief Stacy Brown to attend meeting out of uniform & unarmed. He asked her to come unarmed but she said she could not. Video embedded in this article:
chronicle.com/article/How-a-…

@BretWeinstein 15. Thurston County Sheriff Dave Pearsall testified about the inappropriateness of this before Washington Senate Law & Justice Comm.
Watch @ 1:18:29.

Bridges’ response @ 1:23:27. He said he made a mistake. He made the decision due to student discomfort.

tvw.org/watch/?eventID…

16. Media is going to have to continue to push back if Ocasio-Cortez persists in holding public events where she bans media. You can’t claim an event is public and then ban the press.

17. I should note that when I covered the protests and the panel I opted not to name any protesters/audience members even when I knew their names because I knew that doing so would likely result in more harassment for them and possibly pushback of my coverage.

18. I didn’t even use last names of organizers (only panelists) because they didn’t introduce themselves using full names.

If I had been writing for a MSM outlet I couldn’t have done this. This may be part of why they didn’t have a problem with me covering it.

19. They never asked me to do this. It was an editorial decision I made to balance my desire to write about it w/o being accused of putting them in danger. I wanted ppl farther to my left to read my coverage & this was one of the things I felt I had to do to maintain credibility.