Accounts of bad behavior, anti-Blackness, and exploitation from the EIC of InQluded (Medina) were emailed to Parsons University, as Medina was operating under a fellowship from PU. No response was ever received, but it's important to hold Medina accountable for their behavior.
@LambdaLiterary medina has still not exhibited accountability for their exploitative and anti-Black behavior when they ran inQluded under a Parsons Fellowship. This is extremely disconcerting given that they never apologized to the Black writers they abused, lied about, and exploited.
@dmoniquewrites Thank you for this. If you have additional information in the future please feel free to DM/@ me. I am so sorry for what you went through and I am disgusted (but unsurprised) that medina is attempting to make their way back into publishing w/o acknowledging past behavior.
Medina may want a "face to face" discussion with people about this issue, but they've not even issued direct apologies to those they hurt, abused, exploited, and lied to/about. They should not be allowed to pretend they didn't do all this.
Accounts of bad behavior, anti-Blackness, and exploitation from the EIC of InQluded (Medina) were emailed to Parsons University, as Medina was operating under a fellowship from PU. No response was ever received, but it's important to hold Medina accountable for their behavior.
The fact remains that Medina's behavior was abusive, exploitative, anti-Black, and dishonest, and that's the behavior that's been spoken about publicly. They exploited young artists and Black volunteers, and lied on/smeared those who left. Then they ran when confronted.
A note regarding our affiliation and partnership with @inQluded (see more below), in solidarity with those that have been harmed, gaslighted, and/or exploited by the founder of this organization. To those who have come forth, thank you for sharing your truth. We stand with you.
Our sincerest apologies to the former inQluded staff who've had to deal with so much abuse from the org's EIC, medina.
In light of their actions, we have cancelled our June 17th open mic and have ceased all collaboration and promotion with inQluded. Our full statement here:
When I tried to stick up for Chantel, I was basically told to sit down & shut up... In the voice chat they told me to step back(4)
(note: "i ONLY ask for communication, check ins, check your phone" Medina asked for a heck of a lot more than that but that's neither here nor there)
I was hesitant to speak publicly on my experience with inQluded, but I really feel like what Medina has done and how they treated people is not okay, and I need to say something. (1)
I held off on this yesterday to make space for voices that are more important than mine, but I wanted to let you all know I will no longer be working with or supporting @inQluded, and here's why:
Today, I share the painful truth about @inQluded and how I've decided to resign from my ambassador position.
I'm grateful to @bittersweetflo and @two46oh1 and all the former members for speaking out against Medina's abuse and manipulation.
This is a thread. 1/6
I have resigned from the inQluded virtual panel that was scheduled for July 24, and I will not be working further with inQluded in any capacity. A full statement from @writersyndrome, @samanthashnh, and myself:
After my experiences at @inQluded, namely my experience with its EIC, I was eager to leave it behind me. But I will not prioritize silence when so many are bravely naming their experiences. I am indebted to @two46oh1 & other team members who’ve demanded accountability.
I am so sorry to all of the Black women who have been silenced, manipulated, and abused by the EIC at inQluded while putting in unpaid work for the organization. For this reason, I will no longer be participating in the Qmmunity in Publishing panel. More here:
I'm so late to the game, mostly because I've been avoiding it, but I didn't know InQluded has been cancelled by the general LGBT indiemag public.
Anyway, I only worked for them as a commissioned artist but a lot of the experiences staff had with the EIC I can fully understand
I have quit @inQluded and am dedicated to working with Chantel @two46oh1 to make this right in any and every way I can. The first step is being transparent about @medinawrites and @inQluded itself.