Resource recommendation

[dolorosa_12]

I assume no one reading this needs a summary of recent conversations around racism and fandom, with a focus on the Organisation for Transformative Works (OTW), the nonprofit organisation responsible for, among other things, Archive of Our Own. I've seen various people I follow here on Dreamwidth posting about and contributing to these conversations; there is enough overlap between the people who follow me and the people discussing these issues that I'm operating under the assumption that anyone who wants to engage with them has done so.

Edited to add One of my least favourite things about the contemporary internet is people putting pressure on others along the lines of 'if you're not posting about this/aware of this terrible thing, you are part of the problem.' I believe people are under no obligation to engage with or post publicly about anything, and that public online statements are not the be all and end all of people's involvement with an issue. My statements above were intended to make this clear. Unfortunately, it's had the opposite effect, which is a failure of communication on my part, and left some people feeling out of the loop and judged. So, if my post was the first you were hearing of any ongoing conversations around racism and OTW, a couple of good starting points that summarise these conversations chronologically are loislane221 and synonymous.

I'm in the process of doing various things in the wake of revelations sparked by these conversations — the main one being to, in the first instance, import copies of all my fanfic posted on AO3 over to Dreamwidth, and to engage with fanworks by others on Dreamwidth if at all possible rather than on AO3 (i.e. if a work has been crossposted here, I will comment on it here and share a link to the Dreamwidth version when reccing it). I did not renew my OTW membership this year because I felt I couldn't in good conscience pay any money to the organisation, and so can't vote in the upcoming board elections, and feel it would be hypocritical to recommend actions in this regard. I know others have taken a different approach to this situation, and would encourage those still in a position to vote in the upcoming elections to seek out posts and discussion by others who are doing the same if they feel they need more information in order to inform their own position and actions.

However, that's not really what I wanted to talk about in this post. Rather, over the course of various discussions, I found out about a new initiative: fandomantiracism, which is (at least so far) taking what I feel is a constructive, productive, and above all coalition-building and focused approach to antiracist activities in fandom. Their introductory post lays out their goals in a clear way. Their recent post, A pattern of dismissal and retaliation: the experiences of Zixin Z. and the Chinese volunteers is a thorough and comprehensive overview of a troubling pattern of treatment experienced by Chinese volunteers within OTW — what I appreciate most is the way these events are put into their broader (geo)political context so the full extent of the damage done to these volunteers by their fellow OTW volunteers is clear. I'm optimistic that the people behind fandomantiracism will continue in this vein in their future activities. I've found them to be a useful resource so far, and hope others feel the same.

Comments

[nerakrose]

Thank you!