stardust-rain:

this ao3 fandom dumpster fire of a wank is the last thing i want to get into because other posts have said it better but then i read this post about “the difficulties of maintaining a safe space” and how AO3 is not a classroom so here we go: 

there is no clear line in the sand between Old Fandom Folks who were there for Strikethrough and the people who are critical of Ao3′s abuse policies, and its’ really shitty and a huge misrepresentation that the Discourse has made it seem like there is no overlap at all between those two – that anyone who disagrees with AO3′s abuse policies entered the fandom two hours ago and are still wet behind the ears. 

because there is an overlap and a large amount of the overlap are fans of colour who have spent the best part of a decade in white fandom and have been left out of discussions for the same amount of time. 

the entire debacle has come down to drawing lines in the sand between “old fans” and new fans. Old Fans automatically know better and have lead harder lives and Seen Some Shit and therefore know that free speech is worth it, no matter the content or curation or consequence. New Fans are the ones who the former group think were born yesterday. 

and i have been through Strikethrough and the gigantic cleanup and exodus and drama that came in its wake and I am twitchy as hell about the way young fans approach things – not only because they co-op social justice phrases, but because that really is a slippery slope of deciding who or what works you agree with and how to curate something that fits your moral standards and ethical purity. But the way the Old Fans camp approach things is hardly better – because it basically says that allowing racist works/abuse is necessary for the archive’s function. 

the conclusion that many of these discussions come to (when deigning to talk about racism and racist abuse at all) is that allowing racist works and trolls is simply collateral damage that comes at the cost of ao3′s policy, which is Holy, Pure and Untouchable and the only safeguard against homophobic witch hunts that strikethrough was. people arguing in favour of ao3 come to the conclusion that policing or removing racist abuse is only one step away from falling to Moral Guardian squeamishness and targeting queer fans. 

so it’s not just that white fandom thinks racism is a minor inconvenience for fans of colour – we all know this, every person of colour who has been in fandom for long enough time knows this – they literally think it’s a burden we should have to bear for the greater good, the greater good being ao3′s approximation of free speech, apparently. 

i use the ao3 and i think it is important that it has a strict policy against unnecessary takedown and moral pearl-clutching – but you can be in favour of it and think that it needs to implement huge fucking changes. 

because honestly – if white fan’s discussions around the fears and dangers of censorship means not only throwing poc in fandom under a bus, but saying that our concerns are just opening the door for moral witchunts and therefore “just the price of admission” then it’s really damn telling how they think our presence is only the footnote in their Holy Discourse. 

this shit isn’t new in the history of social discourse, white women have saying for literally decades that poc who criticise their movements are helping the patriarchy or whatever, it’s just really fucking tiring to see cropping up in news forms and taking new shapes in every goddamn discussion.  

i’ve never had doubts about white fandom not giving a shit about fans of colour, but boy fucking howdy have i never been more sure.