I've been refining my take after reading some interpretation and explanations and this is final take:

Not every book will or should be for a white audience. It should cater to whoever they want. But the tweet also also seems to assume that every non white person has sufficient knowledge of their own culture to understand everything being written. Of course maybe that kind of person is not the intended audience which is also fine, but it's a bit alienating to be told that you're not entitled to learn about your own culture just because some random :lmayo: might benefit from a free translation

And no, this is not written by some mad white guy who doesn't understand what shawarma means. It's coming from an Asian immigrant who's far removed from his culture with little resources in English to learn about it.

      • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        The fundamental purpose of language is to communicate, not to obfuscate. If someone is writing in English then they should give thought to whether any non-English words will be understood by English speakers. Anything else is just poor communication.

        I say this as a diaspora Asian and it cuts all ways, including English language authors randomly sprinkling french and latin into their writing.