Making demands

[clevermanka]

Apparently Denise (DW  founder and vocal BNF) has doubled down on the bullshit from a couple days ago.

amara1783 has a great round-up post in addition to the ones naye and no_detective posted before the latest justification fuckery occurred. In case you missed them, here's naye's and here's no_detective's.

I don't have the internal resources to craft my own rebuttal, so I'm asking my fellow white people to read those posts and consider how you want to respond. And remember, silence is a choice that supports oppressors (racists).

A few years ago I said I'd be unfollowing and revoking access from white fans I  didn't see voicing support for active anti-racist action in fandom. I was disappointed but not surprised by how many people found it necessary to comment back then with stuff like "I don't get involved in this stuff because I always say the wrong thing" or "But I have anxiety"  and even one "I  don't have time to read all that"  (although that one was in email because the person didn't have the courage to expose her racism in public I  guess).

Gonna ask the same of y'all again and the people who don't have Twitter or Tumblr (where most of this was happening last time) have no excuse this time. And lemme say if you feel moved to comment like the above examples, save us both the time and just unfollow me here and on other platforms.

This is in Dreamwidth's backyard now and there is no excuse I'll accept for not at least signal boosting other people's words. They've put in so much work, the least you can do is post links on a damn Dreamwidth post and voice your support for active anti-racist work that doesn't attack fans of color working for change.

I know we're tired. I  KNOW. I'm tired too and that's why I'm not mincing words or being ~nice. White people need to step the fuck up and if you're not willing to do that I'm not spending any of my limited energy on you.

Thank you thank you thank you to naye, amara, and no_detective who put in the time and energy for those round-up posts.

Comments

[no_detective]

♥

[clevermanka]

😙

[naye]

🫂

[clevermanka]

🫂

[mundungus42]

Thanks for the needed poke, and you are completely right. So much work has already been done, but so many people are working in bad faith to silence and cast doubt on those narratives. OTW needs to get the fucking work done.

[clevermanka]

Thank you for speaking up!

[mundungus42]

I've been minimally active in fandom since the pandemic, so honestly, I wasn't sure how much good my activating for anti-racism in fandom space would do, especially since I'm pretty vocal about it under my real name. But if I can speak out against transphobia with my fandom handle, I can and absolutely should do so in support of anti-racism. To not do both was lazy, and you're right to call folks out on it.

[satsuma]

🫂

Denise posts to synecdochic so rarely that this was just like, a weirdest fucking thing to break her silence for too, I don’t know what to make of it (well besides, y’know, racism)

[clevermanka]

Yeah, there sure was motivation about something going on there...

[mekare]

In the end, it all comes down to: you use the community space, you have to contribute to and take care of the community space. And signal-boosting is the least-effort way to show what kind of community space you want to live in.

So thank you for your clarity! Incidentally I have already signalboosted the Call to Action and naye‘s and doctorskuld‘s posts.

[clevermanka]

Thank you! And yes, silence speaks very loud.