Statement on End OTW Racism

[extrapenguin]

To begin with: I think racism is bad and that fandom and the OTW should be less racist.

However, the End OTW Racism campaign, given the pro-harassment stance of the people most involved in it, is incapable of being a force for ending racist harassment. I very intentionally did not participate in the first round and will not be participating in the second round. (If 4+ candidates gunning for radical internal reform step up to run for the Board, I might buy an OTW membership. Otherwise, I'm not going to contribute financially to such a sick system.)

The End OTW Racism campaign, instead of citing examples of OTW racism (e.g. the way the OTW jerked around the Chinese volunteers in charge of the OTW Weibo account), chose to heavily cite the works of StitchMediaMix. Stitch has written blog posts accusing POC who like the "wrong" ships or characters of racism, stands in support of her friends using slurs against mixed-race people, is buddies with Winterfox/Benjanun Sriduangkaew (billionaire oligarch infamous for viciously harassing mostly brown and Asian people out of SF fandom), and perpetuates harassment campaigns against POC to the point where they fear to comment on her in public (denise has stated this better than I could).

Why would this nominally anti-harassment campaign then so heavily foreground a harasser, especially one whose presence has made multiple POC decline to participate? (Even I, terminally disconnected from absolutely everything, know several such people.)

Simple. The harassment is a feature, not a bug.

The people behind End OTW Racism have chosen to remain anonymous, but when I look at the loudest voices, I see a number of familiar pseuds. Naye. Skuld. No_detective.

Back in 2019, I made a post that was misinterpreted as a critique of a month(s?)-old fic of BNF bonibaru. She began a weeks-long harassment campaign to essentially drive me out of fandom, including a false accusation of plagiarism from frith_in_thorns and, when the fandom went Bzuh?, the campaign switched to accusing me of being rude on Discord. (To the best of my knowledge, none of the people making the accusation had shared a Discord server with me.) The people I named in the paragraph above were more than happy to join in on the pile-on and harass me out of fandom for the sheer crime of being autistic not bowing to the BNFs in an approved fashion. Harassment is something they enjoy. They have chosen their anti-racist guru with care: here, a Black person who thinks harassment is fine and dandy! Not only that, but a Black person who likes starting harassment campaigns, so they can join in and get their harassing jollies with a bonus zing of self-righteousness, since they are participating in a (racist) harassment campaign in the name of anti-racism.

While they performatively shake and cry on Twitter about the fact that someone told them that their goal is good but their methods could be more effective, I am shaking as I type this post, because now, four years later, I can finally see their names in text and only shake a bit and have my afternoon ruined, rather than having a panic attack and my entire day ruined. For months after the harassment, every e-mail notification would make me panic. These fuckers gave me PTSD. I think they enjoyed it.

And, as other people in fandom also have eyes, they did not join in on an anti-harassment campaign led by harassers. I do not blame the people who joined in to try and get the OTW to do something, but I do not think the organizers are sincere about any anti-harassment rhetoric they might spout.

(These people already hate me and I've blocked most of them already. If things heat up excessively, I will close comments entirely. If you do not wish to speak in public, you can DM me.)

Comments

[pauraque]

I'm sorry that happened to you, and I believe you. I've seen the same thing happen to others, perpetrated by some of the same people. And it is indeed why I have not endorsed that particular protest.

[extrapenguin]

Thank you.

I've spoken about this a few times under lock, but when these people started getting frequently mentioned again, making me feel all icky, I realized I should probably speak up in public. If not for other people - our circles thankfully don't overlap much anymore - then for myself. This is not the wrathful wank relitigation post I imagined myself writing in 2019, freshly hurt and bleeding with pain and betrayal (I thought some of these people were, if not friends, then friendly acquaintances), but it is the post I realized I needed to write after I saw someone complain about how Stitch's harassing reputation makes End OTW Racism an uphill battle to recruit for. I considered expanding this post to cover alternative forms of anti-racist activism, but decided that that would just seem like an effort to be seen as more virtuous than the campaigners. And my virtue is not the point of this post - the point is that these people gave me PTSD and are happy to continue their harassing ways.

[flowersforgraves]

<#

[extrapenguin]

♥

[fiachairecht]

<3 from someone else who is refraining from this specific campaign because of Stitch, both what I saw directly and what I heard from other people (esp POC) she harassed/supported the harassment of.

I knew some of those other names vaguely as having Wanky Energy but I'd not realised the extent. I'm so sorry they put you through that.

[extrapenguin]

These people are practically Wank Perpetual Motion Machines. If you don't agree with them 100%, you are an infidel and must be destroyed. It's culty. And the gall of them to lead a campaign against racist harassment...

[cyberbrain]

I'm really sorry that happened to you.

Although I agreed with the campaign's goals, I couldn't get myself to back it. I decided not to make my own statement because one, "who would care about my opinion?" and two, because immediately when it started it became visible that anyone putting the campaign under any kind of scrutiny got called an abuser and a racist and... My main problem with it is that there seem to be many backers—internet randos, no one you mentioned—who are literally pushing for censorship on ao3 and I can't back that. Censorship isn't the way to fix any kind of -ism or -phobia. Yes, the campaign wasn't trying to push censorship but it looks like many people hadn't understood that.

Truth be told, I don't care enough about Stitch. I've read very little of their writing and I've never interacted with them. So I literally *can't* say anything, I don't know enough. But it seems to me, based on what I've seen of people reacting to them online, that their work is so highly divisive that linking it (especially as much as that campaign did) would just cause discord among people, which would be detrimental to the campaign's success.

This whole, "everyone on ao3/otw is racist" rhetoric is disingenuous and exhausting and extremely inaccurate.

[extrapenguin]

Yeah. I held my peace (because I do agree with antiracism and did not wish to derail, nor to get a bunch of harassers on me), but eventually I realized I had to speak up, if only for my own peace of mind. And I'm pleasantly surprised by the outpouring of support public and private.

I think a lot of the movement's censorship-related issues come from a lack of clarity in their mission statement. They could've said that they don't want work texts censored, say, but they want more tools to deal with harassment and a statement that everything other than the work text (author's notes, comments, tags, etc) should not be given the privileged status of the work text itself, and I think a much greater amount of people would've agreed, and also the censorship people wouldn't have latched on to it.

[ratbones]

+1 to that second paragraph! From the weird coyness in response to people asking about censorship (on Tumblr, that's where I was looking) I got the sense that while the EOR organizers aren't advocating censorship themselves, they intentionally left the door open a crack to avoid alienating the people who are. If you have to alienate one group or the other, whyyy would you pick that group? It created a coalition around EOR which I (and others, clearly) just can't fall in line with, even though we agree with the actual mission statement.

[extrapenguin]

I've seen the censorship statements and I agree, they were at best immense dodges. Given the AO3's mission statement of being a home to all forms of fanfiction, no matter how distasteful or badly written, the fact they did not come out with a strong anti-censorship statement also makes them more likely to be classified as "hostile outsiders trying to take over the archive", which is of course counterproductive to achieving any change.

[china_shop]

I'm so sorry this is bringing all that up again. :-(

*hugs*

[extrapenguin]

Every time I see the usernames. Every time. :( And some of them aren't interested in living a quiet fannish life at all.

[teaotter]

Yeah. I read a post where they were attacking Rahaeli, and suddenly I realized why it had all seemed so familiar.

[extrapenguin]

The strategy and tone really haven't changed, huh. Though I am glad they weren't into anti-racist "activism" enough to accuse me of being an agent of white supremacy.

(Come to think of it, I think ranalore tried to set up an accusation of homophobia, but given that bonibaru is IIRC straight and I am Not, someone must've thought better of it.)

[senmut]

BLESS YOU!

A number of folks DO know you (thank you for all you do in fandom) and maybe hearing this from a known, fannishly active person will help bring some reason. (I can hope, darn it.)

[extrapenguin]

♥ I'm glad I've made your fannish experience a more enriched one!

I'm not sure if this will reach anyone who needs to hear this/is ready to receive the message, especially since I don't have the reach of the wankers. Hopefully this will at least let anyone who disagrees with the harassment cadre know that they are not alone and they are not going insane.

[synecdochic]

This is consistent with the details I have seen from others, and I am sorry that it happened to you.

[extrapenguin]

omg sempai noticed me

Seeing a campaign against racism and racist harassment spearheaded by people who had personally harassed me was incredibly disappointing. Seeing them base their campaign on the works another harasser, who has gone after so many POC in fandom, was just the crap cherry on the shit sundae.

I am also very glad that you've been able to handle the situation so gracefully and clearly on Twitter, so that none of the people who came to you with their accounts has to face revictimization. Hopefully the campaign and the OTW both can get back to the matter at hand rather than continuing to launch personal attacks at you.

[sheron]

I just wanted to say that you have been awesome. I'm so glad someone like you can voice these issues clearly and back it up. (Hope you feel better soon!)

[ilyena_sylph]

I'm so sorry that happened to you, I believe you, and thank you for taking this risk.

You're incredibly brave for putting this out in public.

[extrapenguin]

Thank you. I'm a few years and a platform removed from the circles these people run in, so I judged the risk to be minimal. (Especially given that the principals seem to be melting down over Denise on Twitter...) I've lost two more distant mutual subscribers, but when they went I felt all Zen, if anything. If they wish to go, let them. If they wish to side with the people who gave me PTSD and their friends, let them. All their exit is is a weight off my shoulders.

[sewn]

♥

[extrapenguin]

♥ Perseestähän tää kaikki on, mutta kyllä mä tästäkin läpi rämmin.

[trobadora]

*HUGS*

[extrapenguin]

Thank you, and thank you for you and china_shop's support when it was all going down.

[nnozomi]

<3 <3 <3

[extrapenguin]

♥ I'm better now that I've spoken about this in public.

[ehyde]

*hugs*

[extrapenguin]

Thank you. Talking about this in public has been incredibly freeing.

[independence1776]

<3

[extrapenguin]

I feel much better now that I've spoken up and received such support. ♥

[yhlee]

I'm so sorry this happened to you. You have my support.

[extrapenguin]

Thank you. It deeply saddens me that this sort of thing continues, especially with the additional racialized components.

[ratbones]

You are a very brave penguin and I appreciate this post, and you. <3

[extrapenguin]

Thank you, and thank you for being there in 2019. <3

[sholio]

I'm so, so sorry this happened to you. Thank you for speaking up about it.

[extrapenguin]

Thank you. I hope anyone else bullied by the people mentioned will, if nothing else, feel less alone.

[sheron]

I'm so sorry you've suffered from this harassment. Actually what happened opened my eyes a lot.

[extrapenguin]

Thank you. I'm glad you have gained some clarity from seeing what happened.

[rosefox]

I'm grateful to you for posting about this, because I've been extremely out of the loop for the last several years. I don't know most of those names and wouldn't have known about their history of harming you or others.

I'm glad to see you getting so much caring support.

[extrapenguin]

I am glad you found it useful. I am surprised and heartened to see such a positive response to my post.