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
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
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
The popular meta-podcast on fandom Fansplaining, did a double episode on race featuring a wide variety of fans back in 2016--I haven't re-listened to hear how they held up but I remember thinking they provided a solid overview of the discussion at the time (particularly if you click through the links in the show notes):
https://www.fansplaining.com/episodes/22a-race-and-fandom
https://www.fansplaining.com/episodes/22b-race-and-fandom
They followed it up with two more episodes in 2020:
https://www.fansplaining.com/episodes/135a-race-and-fandom-revisited-part-1
https://www.fansplaining.com/episodes/135b-race-and-fandom-revisited-part-2
Back in June 2020 wistfuljane wrote a fantastic bibliography of the fandom discussions surrounding Black Lives Matter & the OTW Elections which was incredibly helpful at the time but! It turns out she's been keeping it updated: https://wistfuljane.dreamwidth.org/2020/06/15/a-decade-later.html
I won't claim its comprehensive because, well, Fandom has spent a *lot* of time talking about race (and failing to talk about race) in the last decade and a half but hopefully at least it provides some perspective for why so many of the people in #EndOTWRacism talk about it like they've been getting ignored by the OTW (and harassed by the OTW's "supporters") for over a decade and have zero patience left
Also have pinned that tag ^ to my profile so all this stuff remains findable bc, lets be honest, there's a very good chance I'm going to need to dig back up the same set of links six months from now
fiercynn is also the co-vidder of a fantastic pan-fandom appreciation vid set to We Didn't Start The Fire which premiered at Vividcon in 2012 but was apparently in the works in since 2008 (!) It's a really lovely, multi-generational look at fannishness, fandom, and the canons fans have connected to over the years:
End Racism in the OTW | We Didn't Start The Fire [vid] (490 words) by fiercynn & Scribe
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Multi-Fandom
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Subtitles: no, but there's a link to the song's lyrics
Summary:
Fifty years of fandom.
Todays #EndOTWRacism rec: fiercynn is working on porting some of her race in fandom meta over from twitter! The first chapter is a summary of the common objections, whenever fans try to do anything about racism on Ao3:
End Racism in the OTW | Fandom, Racism, and OTW: A Collection of Thoughts (441 words) by fiercynn
Chapters: 1/?
Fandom: No Fandom
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Additional Tags: Meta, Antiracism, Racism in fandom, End OTW Racism, Racism on AO3
Summary: