this was going to be a comment, but it turned into a whole‐ass post instead

[hojarasca]

For those who haven’t yet seen it, endotwracism has posted a new call to action, and I have some concerns. My generous read is that endotwracism (rightly) wants to make racism a focus of the upcoming election, and (naïvely, I·M·O) believes that by recruiting large numbers of antiracists to be voting members and participate in the elections process, they will have more leverage to do so. I disagree that fans need to be voting members of the O·T·W to be able to agitate about racism during the upcoming elections. And I worry that participation in this elections process could be read as endorsement of an organization which frankly deserves no such thing. It absolutely, 100%, unequivocally, is asking people to give money to an organization with a long history of racist abuses—and I realize that even antiractist fans are not necessarily keen to think of the O·T·W that way, but that is what it is. It is a racist platform and this action is asking people to continue giving money to a racist platform in the hopes that maybe by giving them money and doing some other work besides it can be made slightly less racist. Would you ever seriously ask that of anybody, if the organization in question wasn’t the Organization for Transformative Works? They don’t deserve your exceptions.

This isn’t my only issue with the current action, however :—

• As satsuma noted in a comment, it’s unclear at this point whether there are even antiracist candidates to vote for. Even in the optimistic scenario where there are, I am concerned that, given the current state of the organization, this is essentially throwing useful allies to the wolves—as I’m not optimistic about the Board’s ability to actually enact change (regardless of who is elected to it), and any candidates who run on a platform of antiracism will absolutely be used as scapegoats / favourite targets of attack when change inevitably fails to materialize. endotwracism has already stated: « Volunteering at this point seems, to us, the least effective way to actually push for change and the one that will cause us, as individuals, the most harm while doing nothing to actually change anything for anyone. » I would argue this stance extends to running for the Board, and wouldn’t wish it on any comrade in this struggle.

• I am concerned that the focus on the O·T·W voting process will fracture an already small, diverse, and not‐particularly‐co·ordinated base, not all of whom are (or can in good conscience be) O·T·W voting members. I wholly expect participation numbers in this action to be smaller than the first, which might mislead some into thinking that the movement or its interests were fleeting. It just doesn’t seem in‐tune with where a lot of the people disgruntled with the O·T·W currently stand?? which, more on that in a moment…

• On the other hand, the more that endotwracism supports the election of certain candidates (and indeed, what is the point of this action if they will not work to get antiracist candidates elected by the end??), the more people will make the (hopefully false) claim that the initial “End OTW Racism” action was just a prelude for the anonymous organizers to prop up themselves or their friends as Board candidates, and not a genuine attempt at antiracist action. Of course this doesn’t really matter, because none of the dozens of people who participated in the first action did so for those reasons, but people have already been looking for ways to discredit the movement and this could play right into their hands.

• In the worst case, my fear is that the end result will be that participants in the first action will grow jaded and increasingly unlikely to participate in future actions, under the auspices of endotwracism or otherwise.

• But really, my major concern, and the reason why I am bothering remarking on this at all, is that this action was planned and announced without consultation with the existing base of 156 people who signed up for future actions. There was, as far as I’m aware, no temperature check to see whether or how much support this action has, nor any forum for people to propose alternatives. To be clear, I am not saying that endotwracism needs to suddenly and magically transition into a democracy. But you cannot keep planning actions without taking input and without working to ensure that you are addressing the needs of your existing base, and then expect that base to keep showing up for you. endotwracism may be credited with starting this iteration of this movement, but it absolutely does not belong to them. They are powerless without their base, and listening to their base needs to be their first priority. They must never take them for granted.

It really feels to me like the folks at endotwracism got together a while back and came up with some ideas they thought were good, and now are simply executing on those plans without being responsive to the current moment or the actual people they are expecting to show up and do these things with them. To be clear, I think their first idea was a very good one. But this current one less so, and I hope they learn how to communicate properly with the people out on the front lines, listen and make them feel heard, before it is too late.

Comments

[knave_of_swords]

Well said. I was surprised to see this call to action from them considering that it's a reversal of their previous stance about volunteering, in addition to what you say about giving money to the OTW.

They don’t deserve your exceptions.

Yeah... it really sucks, given the behemoth that AO3 is, but at the very least I wish some more people would separate their feelings on AO3 the fanfiction archive from their feelings about OTW the organization that runs that archive. They're inextricably linked, to be fair, but supporting the archive staying up =/= supporting the org as it currently is. And of course donating money counts as support.

[satsuma]

They're inextricably linked, to be fair, but supporting the archive staying up =/= supporting the org as it currently is

Yeah particularly seeing as they currently have a cool 2 mill^ sitting around doing nothing (several times their annual operating budget) I’m p comfortable saying no one should give them any money for any reason right now—they’ve got a long runway to keep the archive up while re-earning peoples trust without donations, and if they choose to run it out then well, they definitely aren’t worth any money i could give them to make said runway longer

^ per their own tax returns (savings is on page eleven): https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/383765024/202223189349307977/full

[hojarasca]

at the very least I wish some more people would separate their feelings on AO3 the fanfiction archive from their feelings about OTW the organization that runs that archive

Part of the problem I think is that, while well‐meaning white allies want the O·T·W to be less racist, there isn’t actually any material consequence they are willing to have the organization face if they fail to live up to that demand. They don’t want the Archive to shut down, despite the fact that it has been used as a vector for harassment by both racists and antis for years. They don’t want tags to stop being wrangled, technical maintenance to cease, or new features to stop being developed. So they have absolutely no means by which to hold the organization accountable, aside from a feeble attempt to somehow take it over from the inside through elections, or loud complaining, I guess.

Obviously A·O·3 is a big part of fannish history and culture and it would be a great loss if it suddenly disappeared (which I think is a real possibility anyway, actually, considering how badly they treat their volunteers). But that’s why I think we need to be agitating more for tools and resources for helping people mirror their stuff in other places. Right now the O·T·W is effectively holding all of our fanworks hostage, and I would like for fans to stop thinking that that is an acceptable arrangement.