Some more ad-hoc history links for anyone playing catchup:
coffeeandink wrote a parody article skewering fandoms's attempts to avoid taking accountability for racism back in 2006. Point number 1? "Control what your audience sees." So, when the OTW refuses to take any public stances on race & racism, it's playing into tactics that have been called out since before the archive was even founded
https://web.archive.org/web/20060719223818/http://coffeeandink.livejournal.com/607897.html
Originally posted for Festivids 2022, eruthros celebrates the 1995-1996 Women's USA Basketball Team, who's campaign for recognition helped spur the creation of the WNBA in 1996. They stuck with it through misogyny, racism, and homophobia, working fulltime as both athletes and activists. As the WNBA's profile continues to rise, it seems fitting to take a few minutes to remember the women who worked so hard to make it happen:
End Racism in the OTW | Vid: Tightrope (384 words) by eruthros
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 1995 - 1996 Women's USA Basketball Team,
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jennifer Azzi, Ruthie Bolton, Teresa Edwards, Lisa Leslie, Rebecca Lobo, Katrina McClain, Nikki McCray, Carla McGhee, Dawn Staley, Katy Steding, Sheryl Swoopes, Venus Lacey, Tara VanDerveer
Subtitles: yes!
Summary:
you gotta tip on the tightrope (tip, tip on it)
Curious about the title of this fanwork? Read more here!
Three years ago, the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) - the parent organization for AO3 - committed to acting on harassment and racist abuse that can currently happen through the site, including things like including using racial slurs against commenters, posting racist “spitefic” deliberately written to hurt and silence fans of color, naming critics of their fanworks in the tags of their fic to incite others to harass them, and more.
Join us in holding the OTW to their commitment and demanding change that will help keep all of us safer! Read more in our Call to Action, where you can find detailed information on the problem, what we’re demanding from the OTW, and how you can signal boost and get involved.
Has anyone made a #EndOTWRacism recs thread? What are y'all reading/watching/posting
Oh hey, this is relevant to federated friends taking part in #EndOTWRacism!
From @/endotwracism:
If any of you have posted a new work for #EndOTWRacism that you want us to promote here, but you have a locked twitter or no account at all, feel free to email us exactly what you'd like us to tweet and we can share it on your behalf!
email: endotwracism [at] gmail [dot] com
Samuel R. Delany was writing eloquently on the subject of racism in fandom and the need to actively combat it in 1998 ( https://www.nyrsf.com/racism-and-science-fiction-.html ), nearly a decade before the OTW was even conceived of.
Racefail happened in 2009, when Ao3 was still a baby archive.
The OTW admitted they were failing fans of color and committed to making changes in 2020
Why are they still afraid of talking about anti-racism publicly now, in 2023 when we've been talking about the relationship between racism and fandom for, at absolute minimum, a quarter of a century? These are not brand new ideas
I've already boosted some far more eloquent posts by others, but I finally managed to put some thoughts down on #EndOTWRacism and how the OTW seems to have made a habit of dodging accountability by refusing to make any sort of public comment on controversial issues: https://satsuma.dreamwidth.org/25796.html
The short version is I'm in favor of the campaign and encourage anyone who uses the OTW's services (namely, fanlore and Ao3) to take part.
Or, skip my perspective and go straight to the campaign's own call to action: https://end-otw-racism.tumblr.com/post/716978822501875712/fandom-against-racism-a-manifesto
btw if you're going "wait that other URL doesn't seem to be available for my blog????" go to settings/blog/yourblogname and turn the "use custom theme" toggle to ON. No I don't know why subdomains are only available with a custom theme, sorry tumblr's just Like That these days
Quick PSA: If you share me a tumblr link that looks like username.tumblr.com, I can read it! however if instead its formatted tumblr.com/username then instead of actually being able to read your post, I get this highly annoying screen and can't actually read the post you actually sent
If you were just passing along a silly meme or something, maybe it's not worth the effort of double checking that everyone can actually see the post and that's fine whatever. But if you're sending it because you think that the contents are important enough that people off tumblr should be reading them? Maybe double check
Tomorrow is the last day for #3Weeks4Dreamwidth’s annual points donation drive! If you’re interested in Dreamwidth’s paid features, comment on the thread below to get sent some of the donated points!
food, questions
Long story but I now I have two entire jars of Soom’s chocolate tahini and zero plans for them
Has anyone personally made cookies out of a similar flavored/sweetened nut & seed spread (eg. Nutella) that they can recommend a recipe for? otherwise I’ll just DIY a recipe myself based on my peanut butter cookies
#Ao3TagOfTheDay There Was Only One… Office Couch?
#Ao3TagOfTheDay Bilbo Baggins made me trans so I’m making him trans
#Ao3TagOfTheDay Canon is A Multiple Choice Quiz and I've Doodled on the Answer Sheet
#Ao3TagOfTheDay DC stands for Disregard Canon
#Ao3TagOfTheDay Dearly Beloved We Are Gathered Here Today In Celebration Of Coconut Body Wash
sleepy af
also https://satsuma.dreamwidth.org/
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