You know the drill by this point. Another big creator has said something silly and we are going to talk about it…but only kind of. lol

Last night, Elyse Meyers—a massive TikToker known for taco dates, silly quipes and just goofy but wholesome vibes—disagreed with another creator on Threads by saying, and I quote:

Ope I’m autistic and I’ve read (not listened to but read) about 100 books this year. I’m not invalidating your post but I’m just saying sometimes this take doesn’t always check out.

As of my typing, her status has over 300 comments. Many of which are gentle reminders that, you guessed it, listening to audiobooks is reading. And obviously, I agree. But that’s not exactly what I want to talk about. Because… what’s the point? If you are reading my work, you are almost certainly the type of reader who believes in accessibility and would never discount audio readers. So it would be a waste of my time to try and convince you of an opinion you’ve probably already burst a bloodvessel typing about.

What I want to talk about instead is how white supremacy is at the root of this regular—and ridiculous—talking point.

Before I dive in, if you are not familiar with the tenets of white supremacy, I would encourage you to familiarize yourself. You can read more HERE , but for now, I want to talk about one specific tenet. That being: worship of the written word.

I want to be clear. There is nothing wrong with the written word. Books are beautiful. I love them and, in fact, you are only here because you and I both love to talk about them in depth. Writing and reading is a beautiful expression of art, history, love and culture. And I wish our society loved reading and writing much more than it does. But it is incredibly important to recognize that one of the ways our oppressors reinforce their fabricated superiority is by denying their victims access to tools that they then insist are the mark of civilized humanity. And books are absolutely one of those tools.

Think about how history is taught in America. Through books. And not just through books. Through books that we all know were written through the lens of white supremacist colonizers. It’s not a secret. We all know it. And yet even school systems that are trying to undo those centuries of white supremacist lies treat history books as an authority on history. Not because we think the people who wrote them prioritized the truth, but because inherently, our entire system of education reinforces the idea that authority doesn’t exist without the written word.

Which—and I want you to pay special attention to this part of my argument—only serves to reinforce our systems of oppression because, while reinforcing the idea that the written word holds inherent authority, we are also actively undermining the education of marginalized people. Once again… our society upholds white supremacy by prioritizing tools that they are best able to deny their victims access to.

Which is also why the war on self-published authors has been fought so valiantly since that door opened. If self-published authors are taken seriously, then demographics that have been denied a voice in educating the world will suddenly be able to combat their oppressors voices with authority. But as long as you, every day readers, can be convinced that the written word not only has the most authority, but that it also only counts when it looks a certain way, white supremacy remains unthreatened.

What does any of this have to do with audiobooks or Elyse Meyers?

Listen… I know we are sick of people coming on the internet and suggesting that audiobook listeners aren’t real readers. I am sick of it too. But if we are going to actually uproot this type of thinking, we need to know where it comes from. And it honestly has nothing to do with people having reading preferences. Instead, the real problem is that we have been brought up in a society that is actively trying to deny marginalized people tools to combat their oppressor’s rhetoric. And historically, the primary way that marginalized people have held onto our memories—even prior to colonization—is through oral tradition.

Legitamizing audio reading is a threat to white supremacy. Not just because it is accessible to more people, but because of who those people are. Illiteracy, disability, and even just a lack of leisure time disproportionately effect the poor, the marginalized, and the melanated. Which means that this conversation has never been about whether reading is the same experience for everyone. It has always been about who might get access to education, and who might get access to educate others, if accessibility becomes a priority.

Now, I want to be abundantly clear. I am not calling Elyse Meyers a white supremacist. I am also not calling the two hundred other people who had this ignorant opinion this year white supremacists. But I am absolutely pointing out that white supremacy is the reason they have been conditioned to give the most value to education and art that has been written down on a page and validated by the gatekeepers of publishing.

I know that your takeaway here is probably going to just be another argument against the audio-reading-isnt-reading people. But I need you to go further… I need you to stop and reflect on whether or not this same thinking has impacted the way that you engage with literature, education and art that doesn’t look the way you’ve been taught to appreciate it.

Do you value the voices of the uneducated? Do you believe that marginalized elders have the right to challenge the history you’ve been taught, even if their only proof is their collective memory? Do you treat indie authors as a legitamite force in this industry? Do you think a spelling error or an “improper accent” rips a piece of work of its authority? Does it matter to you who has validated an author’s voice?

In the same way that I am not calling Elyse Meyers a white supremact, I am also not calling you one. But I am taking this opportunity to clearly and loudly tell you that this fight is not different than the fights that a lot of you have been pretending doesn’t matter.

• Audio readers are readers.
• Indie authors are authors.
• Black voices are an authority.
• Uneducated communicators are still your teachers.
• The written word is not an authority on history. _It’s victims are_.

White supremacy wants you to throw them all away. Don’t do it.

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